Asda undercut its main rivals for the second week running – but it was Tesco that best kept the lid on inflation on this week’s basket, as a trade dispute broke out with Heinz over its punchy price hikes.
At £53.06, Asda was £3.62 cheaper than Morrisons, offering the lowest price for 14 products, eight exclusively, including the cherries, lettuce, San Pellegrino cans and tomato salsa.
Although comfortably cheapest Asda’s prices were up nearly 10% year on year. Only Sainsbury’s prices climbed more steeply, up 12.8%, while Tesco shoppers only had to pay 3.3% more, with overall grocery price inflation tracking at 7% year on year and up 1.8% versus last month. Prices at Waitrose and Morrisons were also below the average, up 4.7% and 4.6%.
Tesco came in £4.12 more expensive than Asda at £57.18. Members of its Clubcard loyalty scheme would have received an instant discount of £1.29, which would have made it 79p cheaper than Morrisons but it was still £2.83 more expensive than Asda.
The UK’s biggest retailer offered the lowest price for 11 lines and was exclusively cheapest for five – including the Cathedral City cheese and Hovis loaf. It was also exclusively cheapest for the Heinz soup – up a whopping 40% overall – as it resisted price hikes introduced by others in a trading dispute.
Morrisons offered the lowest price for 10 items and was exclusively cheapest for the Clover, Iced Gems and courgettes.
Sainsbury’s came in £4.60 more expensive than Asda at £57.66 despite offering the exclusively cheapest price for six lines including the pork loin steaks and the Simple lotion.
Waitrose was cheaper than any of its rivals for the Method bathroom cleaner, but was over a tenner more expensive than Asda at £64.01.
As well as the Heinz soup, double digit price increases were seen on a number of other lines, with dairy prices among the most affected. Clover spread was up 31%, Yazoo chocolate milk up 21%, Cathedral City Mini Cheddars up 19%.
On the bakery side the Hovis loaf (+16%), McVitie’s Iced Gems (14%), profiteroles (13%) were also up significantly. while in terms of fresh produce the cost of sweetcorn (18%) and cherries (16%) are also up significantly, though not as much as Colman’s apple sauce (21%).
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