Milk, butter and bread prices are coming down, but ahead of Rishi Sunak’s ‘inflation summit’, there was little sign of deflation in this week’s price comparison survey.
Only the pears, down 7% in price, were cheaper than last year, as inflation on this week’s coronation weekend basket came in at 11.8% with inflation of more than 30% on five items, including the Heinz Weight Watchers soup. And while nine items were lower in price month on month, that was thanks to promotions rather than any purposeful reset.
Still, the promotional landscape is more lively than in the past. Asda, cheapest again this week and by a significant margin, managed slight month-on-month deflation in its £63.77 basket – 29p (0.5%) cheaper, though still £6.41 (10%) more expensive than last year – thanks to eight price-only promotions, while a further five multibuys took the number of promotions to 13, or almost 40%. Asda was also exclusively cheapest on 11 products and cheapest on 16 products, almost half the basket.
Morrisons’ £69.68 basket also featured 13 promos, and was good enough for second place though £5.91 more than Asda. It was cheapest on 10 products, exclusively so on five.
Sainsbury’s, third at £71.31, did not have a single Nectar Prices deal in its basket. Indeed promos in general were in short supply: just the two.
Tesco was fourth with a basket costing £71.60. Clubcard Prices would have cut the total by £4.20 to £67.40 – making it second, but still £3.63 more expensive than Asda’s total.
Waitrose had the most expensive basket despite 17 promotions, the most of any retailer, including 11 price-only promos, which resulted in a 6.4% month on month decrease to £75.97. It was exclusively cheapest for the Marigold gloves and Ecover toilet cleaner.
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