An online price tracking website that monitors the price increases and decreases across the seven major UK supermarkets can reveal that, for the second month running, ASDA retains its title as the least expensive option for British consumers for the month of May. The results have been determined by tracking how each retailer prices the 43 items outlined in the government’s consumer price index ‘shopping basket’.
During the last three weeks of the month of May, the average total of the shopping basket was cheapest at ASDA, with Iceland taking the top spot in week 1. However, average basket costs across all supermarkets went up in price from April, surprisingly apart from Waitrose and Ocado. Waitrose total basket spend went down 61p from £145.75 to £145.14 and Ocado’s went down by £2.91 from £154.11 to £151.20.
It seems that prosecco had the biggest drop in price from week one to week two, going from £10 at Asda to £7 and then remained at that price for the rest of the weeks. A pack of 6 salad tomatoes saw an increase from 39p in week one to 75p in week two at Tesco.
Online price tracking website Alertr (www.alertr.co.uk) has been tracking the prices of 43 everyday items from the shopping basket on the Office for National Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI). Included within the list are such fresh items as eggs, milk and bread, as well as non-perishables pasta, rice and cereal. The prices across seven of the largest supermarkets are analysed, with discount retailers like Lidl and Aldi unincluded due to the inability for customers to shop full ranges online.
Own-brand items (or their equivalent) were monitored in the research to give the most unbiased comparison of goods and their prices, with the exception of brands that all seven supermarkets stocked (e.g. Coca-Cola).
Andy Barr, co-founder of www.alertr.co.uk, said:
“As things start to slowly go back to normal, we have started to notice an increase in prices across the board of supermarkets. Despite supermarkets not really taking a hit in terms of sales, it is interesting to see that whist Waitrose and Ocado are well-known for being higher end and having more expensive produce compared to the rest of its supermarket competitors, there are the only two who’s prices have decreased instead of increased over the past month. It will be interesting to see if this changes much over the coming weeks again.”
The full breakdown of supermarkets average basket costs from lowest to highest over the four-week period in May, including how much the totals have increased or decreased since April 2020, are as follows:
- ASDA – £133.99 (up £4.33 from £129.66)
- Iceland – £136.63 (up £2.47 from £134.16)
- Morrisons –£137.40 (up 67p from £136.73)
- Sainsburys – £140.75 (up £3.35 from £138.75)
- Waitrose – £145.14 (down £61p from £145.75)
- Ocado – £151.20 (down £2.91 from £154.11)
- Tesco – £151.21 (up £1.72 from £149.49)
When looking into the separate costs of individuals products, Asda’s butcher’s selection lamb leg bone in joint (typically weighing around 2.2kg) currently costs £17.58, compared to £24.00 in Tesco. ASDA also came out the cheapest for Campo Viejo Tempranillo Rioja red wine at £6.50 for a bottle, compared to £8.00 in Sainsburys. Tesco topped the list for the most expensive ice cream (2 Litre tub of Cornish Ice Cream) at £3.00, with Asda and Iceland pricing theirs at just £1.50 – half the price.
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