Supermarket chain Asda has hung onto its crown as the most affordable supermarket for online shopping. The store is currently the cheapest supermarket for the weekly shop and has been now for a year.
Sainsbury’s follows in second place, just £1.79 more expensive than Asda. The data comes from online price-tracking website Alertr.
Alertr has been tracking the prices of 42 everyday items from the shopping basket on the Office for National Statistics' Consumer Price Index since 2019. Included within the list are items such as eggs, milk and bread, as well as non-perishables such as pasta, rice and cereal.
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The prices across six of the largest supermarkets are analysed, with discount retailers Lidl and Aldi not included due to the inability for customers to shop full ranges online and not having the same like-for-like branded products that other supermarkets stock.
The team's latest research revealed that Asda is still the reigning champion – found to be the most affordable supermarket right now, with an average basket cost of £113.72 in March. Sainsbury's comes in second at £115.51, and Morrisons third with a basket price of £116.87.
Tesco is fourth (£118), Ocado fifth (£128) and Waitrose last with a basket price of £130.61.
Interestingly, while Asda retained its title as the overall cheapest supermarket for the month of March, the winning supermarket battled with Morrisons' basket shop totals throughout the month, as Morrisons offered the most affordable basket shop for two out of the four weeks of analysis. However, Morrisons costs surged towards the end of the month, whose basket went up by £5.83 from £113.70 in week two to £119.53 in week four – subsequently increasing their total average basket cost.
In March, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury’s offered the cheapest chocolate, with both Morrisons and Asda lowering the price by 50p for the remaining weeks of the month, while Sainsbury's slashed theirs by a whopping £1.50.
Asda was also revealed as the cheapest supermarket for alcoholic items at the end of March, followed closely by Sainsbury’s with an overall price difference of just £2. Both Asda and Sainsbury’s were selling Gin and Vodka for £13 each during the final week of the month.
Co-founder of www.alertr.co.uk, Andy Barr, said: "For the weekly shop, as it stands currently, there’s still a stark difference between the top and bottom spots on the leader board of almost £17. However, as we’ve seen since the start of 2022, there is much less disparity across the rest of the board, especially between the top three supermarkets – Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. Morrisons had a promising start to March, as the overall cheapest supermarket for the first two weeks of analysis and then slipped behind Sainsbury's and Asda when they both lowered their prices across the board in the remaining weeks of the month.
"As for Tesco, they dropped to fourth place, with a marginal difference of just 23p between runners-up, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – seizing the bronze medal from Tesco, who trailed £2.26 behind them for the basket shop. It was also interesting to see the prices of items like pizza, coffee and chocolate fluctuate throughout the month, as Lent was ongoing and Britons were shopping ahead for Easter. The next few months will certainly be telling in terms of how all six supermarkets react to the battle for the tops spots on the leader board and whether this continues to rotate or stabilise, especially with a summer of consumer spending on the horizon."
