asda store front

Asda was exclusively cheapest on 11 lines, including chocolate éclairs

Asda has claimed its second consecutive pricing win – making it cheapest for half of the eight weeks so far in the current Grocer 33 year.

The Leeds-based supermarket is battling against the impact of its rivals’ loyalty pricing initiatives, combined with its own struggles around availability and store standards. This was reflected in a 6.4% fall in sales for the 12 weeks to 10 August, according to the latest market share figures from NIQ.

But in this week’s shop, Asda was victorious with a price of £58.72 – making it £1.46 cheaper than Tesco. It offered the lowest price for 18 items and was exclusively cheapest for 11 lines. These included the chocolate éclairs, Fever-Tree tonic water, Linda McCartney’s Vegemince and the galia melon.

Tesco would have been third based on shelf-edge Prices, but a £2.30 discount from Clubcard Prices helped it leapfrog Morrisons. Tesco was cheapest for 13 items and exclusively so for six including the Calippo minis, Cathedral City cheddar and the furniture polish.

Morrisons ended up £1.72 more expensive than Asda and just 26p more expensive than Tesco. None of our items were subject to More Card discounts.

Sainsbury’s shoppers with a Nectar card would have been discounted to the tune of £3.18. However even with this help, it still came in £3.26 more expensive than Asda at £61.98.

Waitrose was miles off the pace this week – coming in almost £20 more expensive than Asda at £78.15. It matched the lowest price for the Lucozade Sport and Jaffa Cakes but was not exclusively cheapest for any items. Prices were particularly high on the croissants, refuse sacks and brown seeded rolls.

There was very little fluctuation in terms of inflation this week. Our basket was on average just 0.3% more expensive than in August 2023.