Tesco’s £69.79 basket was £2.87 cheaper than nearest rival Asda

Tesco has extended its lead to 19 wins in the Grocer 33 competition as its loyalty price programme once again proved the difference.

Tesco’s £69.79 basket was £2.87 cheaper than nearest rival Asda, thanks to a £7.28 (10.4%) instant saving offered on nine price-only promotions under its Clubcard prices initiative.

Discounts weren’t the only source of value at Tesco though: it was cheapest on 20 items, eight exclusively (see items highlighted in green on table).

Tesco’s basket was 7.4% and 4.6% cheaper versus last month and last year respectively, which helped average inflation across the five grocers fall 2.5% on last month and 0.3% on last year. The biggest annual reduction was on the price of the kitchen roll (–24%). There has also been a marked increase in cucumber prices (+11%) in recent months (see the featured SKU, right).

Had it not been for Clubcard Prices, Tesco would have been well off the pace, with Asda’s shelf-edge total of £72.66 cheaper than Tesco’s by £4.41. Asda still managed to be cheapest on 14 items and exclusively so on four.

After winning the Grocer 33 last week, Sainsbury’s didn’t fare so well: a £4.30 (or 5.8%) saving from Nectar loyalty promotions meant its total fell from £78.64 to £74.34 and it was cheapest on 13 items, three exclusively. But it was still £4.55 more expensive than Tesco.

With no meaningful signs of loyalty price-based savings from its More card, the Morrisons total of £77.81 was £8.02 more expensive than Tesco. Factoring in the unit price of multibuys (there were eight) the ‘all inclusive’ price would have come in at £72.82.

As to Waitrose, it was once again an outlier, its £81.52 total almost £12 more expensive than Tesco’s, despite discounts from promotions saving £4 (4.9%).