Supermarket price war heats up for Christmas as Aldi wins again and Asda slips behind rivals

Britain’s supermarket price war is heating up just as families head into the most expensive shopping weeks of the year, with Aldi holding on to its cheapest-supermarket crown and Asda suffering a fresh blow from Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

The latest Which? price check found Aldi was once again the cheapest place to buy a basket of everyday groceries in October, with 87 items costing £154.34.

Lidl was close behind at £157.17 for shoppers using Lidl Plus and £157.21 without it.

But the real battle is now unfolding among Britain’s biggest traditional supermarkets, where aggressive loyalty-card discounts are dramatically reshaping the league table ahead of Christmas.

Tesco leapfrogged Asda when Clubcard prices were included, with its basket costing £181.77.

Sainsbury’s also beat Asda, with Nectar shoppers paying £182.90, compared with £183.47 at Asda.

It means Asda, once one of the biggest weapons in the supermarket price war, has been squeezed behind both of its major rivals when loyalty deals are taken into account.

And with households preparing to spend heavily on Christmas food, drinks and entertaining, even relatively small differences across a weekly shop could quickly mount up.

The power of loyalty pricing was particularly clear at Sainsbury’s.

Its basket cost £191.56 without Nectar, meaning members saved £8.66.

Tesco shoppers without a Clubcard would have paid £187.31, £5.54 more than the loyalty price.

Which? found 18 products in its Tesco basket carried Clubcard discounts, while 21 products were reduced through Nectar at Sainsbury’s.

Morrisons came in at £186.77, placing it ahead of the standard non-loyalty prices at Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

But none of the big four could get close to Aldi.

At the other end of the table, Ocado’s basket cost £202.33 while Waitrose was the most expensive supermarket at £215.87.

That left a huge £61.53 gulf between Aldi and Waitrose on the same basket of groceries.

In percentage terms, shoppers buying the basket at Waitrose were paying almost 40% more than at Aldi.

The figures underline just how fierce the battle for Christmas shoppers is becoming, with Aldi and Lidl continuing to pile pressure on the traditional supermarkets while Tesco and Sainsbury’s increasingly use their loyalty schemes as a weapon.

Asda Rewards works differently because customers earn money back to spend later, rather than receiving an immediate discount at the till, so it was not counted by Which? in the same way as Clubcard and Nectar prices.

Which? bases its official cheapest-supermarket title on prices available to everyone, rather than deals that require membership of a loyalty scheme.

Its October comparison included a mix of branded and own-brand essentials such as milk, cheese and bread, with prices averaged across the month.

With Christmas now approaching, the battle over who can claim to be Britain’s cheapest supermarket is likely to become even more intense as chains fight for a bigger share of festive spending.