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Asda was again unable to hold off the challenge from its rivals’ loyalty-based pricing as Tesco came out cheapest in our latest Grocer 33 price comparison.

At £67.22, Asda came in £5.50 cheaper than Morrisons. It offered the lowest price for 16 items and was exclusively cheapest for 11, including the Erdinger alcohol-free beer, Reggae Reggae sauce and prawn cocktail.

Morrisons was cheapest for a dozen items and exclusively so for 10, including the Jus-Rol pastry sheets, brown onions and Pip & Nut almond butter.

Tesco’s shelf-edge prices were £5.76 higher than Asda’s, despite the smallest annual increase of any basket at just 2%. Factoring in Clubcard Prices did make a significant difference, and the £6.21 discount for Tesco’s loyalty scheme members was enough to undercut Asda. It left Tesco 45p cheaper.

Sainsbury’s came in £7.11 dearer than Asda at £74.33. Last week its Nectar Prices gave its loyalty members a 12.3% saving, whereas this time out Nectar Prices would only have shaved 3.7% or £2.75 off the total so it would still have been £4.36 more expensive than Asda.

Waitrose was £9.41 more expensive than Asda at £76.63, but there were deals to be had at the upmarket retailer. It offered the lowest price on eight products, of which seven were exclusively cheapest, including the cheddar, Domestos toilet gel, Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut breakfast cereal and Starbucks Caramel Macchiato.

The average basket was 0.7% cheaper than a month ago but 4% more expensive than March 2023. Seven items were cheaper year on year and 11 others were up by less than 10%, but carrots were up 32% and the Aunt Bessie’s Golden Yorkshires (right) were up 26%.