A shop at Sainsbury’s has been crowned the cheapest in the weekly battle of the baskets, coming in at £71.48, according to a barometer of supermarket prices. The Grocer’s Grocer 33 said a pricing battle had broken out among some of the UK’s largest stores and its weekly survey of supermarket basics had been the most contested in recent memory. It said a Sainsbury’s shop was just 6p cheaper than a shop at Tesco, largely down to the amount of promotions in the store. But shoppers with a Nectar card enjoyed a hefty discount of £6.70.
Sainsbury’s was cheapest for 11 items and exclusively so for five, including the Beyond Meat vegan burgers, leeks and Pukka pies.
The Grocer said that meant the chain had effectively reversed inflation, as prices were coming in at 3.6% lower than the same time last year.
Shoppers with a Tesco Clubcard would saved 5.3% on non loyalty card purchase this week. The UK’s biggest supermarket chain came in just 0.6% more expensive year on year.
Asda came in third at 40p more expensive than Sainsbury’s at £71.88. It was cheapest for 15 items and exclusively so for seven, but was still 2% more expensive year on year.
Morrisons was £1.18 more expensive that Sainsbury’s – but it was 0.1% cheaper year on year.
Waitrose came in at more expensive than its rivals, at £82.62, which was £11.14 more than Sainsbury’s.
Waitrose did offer the lowest price for four items and was exclusively cheapest for the Nissin soba noodles. It was 0.7% more expensive than February 2024.
Happily, the Grocer said it had seen no evidence of runaway food inflation. “Our basket was on average 0.1% cheaper year on year and 3.8% cheaper than a month ago”, the trade publication said.
