Morrisons, Tesco, Asda or Sainsbury's: which store has the cheapest value range?

by Robert Powell on 05 March 2012  |  16 comments
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Morrisons has launched a new `M Savers' value range. But how does it stack up against other supermarket basic brands?

Something of a race to the bottom has erupted among Britain’s supermarket chains.

It began last year with Tesco’s ‘Big Price Drop’, an exercise the retailer has just entered the fourth wave of, announcing further cuts to 450 product lines. And now Morrisons has joined the cutting bonanza, unveiling a new ‘M Savers’ value range.

But which supermarket’s basic branded products are the cheapest?

Comparing the ranges

To calculate which retailer offers the best value ‘value range’, I took 25 items from the M Savers product list and compared them to identical products from Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s using prices from MySupermarket.co.uk.

Every product included is from the supermarket’s own brand value range. Exact weights are near-identical across stores in most cases. Those products that vary in size substantially have had their price scaled to match the weight of the Morrisons product.

And the winner is…

Morrisons’ new M Saver range emerges cheapest, with a total price of £12.80 for the 25 items. Tesco is a close second, just 14p behind with a total of £12.94. Asda comes out third at £13.19, followed by Sainsbury’s at £14.04.

The difference between the three ranges certainly isn’t dramatic. In fact, looking down the full table of prices (included at the bottom of this article), the uniform pricing of the major supermarkets becomes obvious. Most product prices, if not identical, are often just a few pennies apart.

A few exceptions to these blanket pricing practices are Tesco’s tomato ketchup, which is 20–30p more expensive than the three competitors, packs of value apples at Morrisons and Sainsbury’s and pork sausages at Asda.

Move to cheaper stores

The figures obviously don’t take into account specialist discount supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi. Most of these stores don’t have their own value range but offer across the board discount products.

And indeed, as the public purse strings have tightened, shops like Aldi and Lidl have seen a surge in business. Figures from market research firm Kantar show that the two cut-price supermarkets, along with frozen food specialist Iceland, saw double-digit percentage rises at the checkouts in the 12 weeks running to February 19.

Aldi underwent the largest uplift posting a 23.5% increase in sales, followed by Iceland at 10.9% and Lidl at 10.5%.

Saving at the supermarket

Here are a few further ways to save money at the supermarket, wherever you shop…

Make a list

Jot down exactly what you need from the supermarket and stick to it! It’s also worth staying aware of sneaky layout tricks. Cheaper products will often be placed at the top and bottom of shelves, while the priciest options remain at eye-level. Likewise, impulse purchase products are usually placed near the tills, encouraging you to pick them up while in the queue.

Coupons and vouchers

Make sure you use any coupons that may be hidden away in your wallet or stashed in drawers at home. Sainsbury’s frequently gives away money-off vouchers with purchases while Tesco’s rewards are now mostly conducted through coupons.

Keeping your supermarket loyalty card on you at all times is another good idea – get hold of a keychain card if you’re prone to leaving it at home. Using a supermarket credit card is a further way to boost your points balance. Tesco’s Clubcard credit card will get you one point for every £4 spent anywhere, or one point for every £1 spent at Tesco petrol stations. That’s in addition to the standard Clubcard points you’ll accrue in the supermarket. Sainsbury’s Nectar credit card will get you one point for every £5 spent anywhere and double points on Sainsbury’s shopping for two years.

Bogus BOGOFs

It’s easy to get roped into multi-buy deals just for the sake of it. Think about whether you really need to double up on a certain product just because it’s on buy one get one free. If you don’t, see if you can sniff out a cheaper single alternative.

Ditch loyalty

Don't always do your shopping at the same supermarket. Instead, move between them depending on which is the cheapest for your shopping that week. You can use MySupermarket to compare the price of your basket across the main supermarkets to ensure you spend the least each week!

Your take

Which supermarket offers the best value range?

Have your say using the comment box below.

The full breakdown

Prices correct on 29 February 2012 according to MySupermarket.co.uk.