Morrisons offers the cheapest back to school shop

It was back to school week for the Grocer 33 pricing survey and back to the winner’s enclosure for Morrisons.

At £54.13, the Bradford-based retailer, which is currently the subject of a private equity bidding war, came in £1.50 cheaper than runner-up Asda.

Morrisons offered the lowest price for 16 products, 11 of which were exclusively cheapest. These included the beef mince and Jazz apples as well as Fruit Shoots and Cheestrings.

Promotions played a key role in Morrisons’ win. The retailer carried 14 deals, of which 13 were simple price reductions. Waitrose had 11 promos, of which only five were discounted prices. Tesco ran a total of eight deals, Asda seven and Sainsbury’s only four.

Asda offered the lowest price for 15 products, including eight that were exclusively cheapest. These included the sandwich bags, kitchen foil and the Zebra ballpoint pens. It was also exclusively cheapest on the Freixenet prosecco.

Sainsbury’s took third spot this week. At £59.92 it was £5.79 more expensive than Morrisons. The retailer managed to remain somewhat competitive despite not having any exclusively cheapest items and only matching the lowest price on one line – the Warburtons Thins, which were £1 across all five retailers.

Tesco was £6.40 more expensive than Morrisons at £60.53. This was based on shelf-edge pricing. However, factoring in its Clubcard Prices deals would have reduced its total to £57.44 and closed to gap to £3.31. The UK’s largest retailer was exclusively cheapest for the Kellogg’s Frosties and sweet potatoes.

Waitrose came in £11.97 more expensive than Morrisons at £66.10. It offered the lowest price for five products and was exclusively cheapest for three – the Bassetts multivitamins, Cadbury Mini Rolls and Nairn’s Biscuit Breaks.