ASDA Emerges As Cheapest UK Supermarket To Purchase Government’s Consumer Price Index ‘Shopping Basket’ For THIRD Month Running; With Waitrose Cheaper Than Both Morrisons And Tesco
An online price tracking website monitoring the price increases and decreases across seven major UK supermarkets can reveal that, for the third month in a row, ASDA retains its title as the least expensive option for British consumers for the month of July.
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 first three weeks of the month of July, the average total of the shopping basket was cheapest at ASDA, with Iceland taking the top spot in week four. Ocado was the most expensive store overall with an average basket cost of £151.95 and Tesco came in at £7.16 more expensive than Waitrose every week with an average basket cost of £145.71 compared to Waitrose average weekly total of £138.55.
Not all 43 items were consecutively tracked over the four-week period as products such as ketchup and pasta were sold out across various supermarkets due to the effects of COVID-19.
When looking for the biggest price variation of an individual product, Morrisons Leg of Lamb saw the biggest price drop from week one to week two, dropping from £23.63 to just £18, before rising back up to £23.63 in week three and back down to £18 in week four. The lamb is currently priced at £23.63 so Alertr’s Retail Analysts can safely predict that it will be back down to £18 by next week and every fortnight thereafter.
Andy Barr, co-founder of www.alertr.co.uk, said:
“It is pretty amazing to see Asda coming out the cheapest once again, despite the fact the COVID-19 pandemic meant that some products were not being tracked across the full four-week period. Whilst we know that not all of these products would necessarily be bought on a weekly basis, it still gives a good idea of where price drops are made across certain stores. Despite Waitrose being known as a higher end brand and having more expensive produce compared to the rest of its supermarket competitors, it is really interesting to see it come in so high at fourth overall for its products out the seven supermarkets tracked.”
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) since 2019. Included within the list are items such 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 not included 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).
The full breakdown of supermarkets average basket costs from lowest to highest over the four-week period in July, are as follows:
- ASDA – £129.83
- Iceland – £133.95
- Sainsburys – £136.10
- Waitrose – £138.55
- Morrisons –£138.93
- Tesco – £145.71
- Ocado – £151.95
When looking into the separate costs of individuals products, in week four, Morrisons Kenco Millicano coffee 100g was £3 compared to Asda’s which was £6.99 and Sainsburys was £7.00. Asda came out as one of the cheapest alongside Iceland for Hartley’s strawberry seedless jam compared to Waitrose who priced the product at £1.78. Tesco topped the list for the most expensive ice cream (2 Litre tub of Cornish Ice Cream) at £3.00, with Asda and Iceland listing theirs at just £1.50 – half the price.
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