A large supermarket that was ranked among the cheapest a year ago is now the most expensive.

When eight essentials from Lidl, Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco were compared 12 months ago, Asda came out as the third cheapest after budget retailers Lidl and Aldi.

But now the same product comparison has revealed Asda to be the most expensive.

The Manchester Evenings News began tracking the cost of the same eight essentials across the six major supermarkets as the cost of living crisis began to hit people hard.

They looked at prices in budget stores, as well as Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco to see how they fared.

At that time it was Aldi who was the cheapest overall, with a bill of £9.13 for the basket, which included a two-pint bottle of milk, a loaf of bread, a pack of chicken breasts, a packet of minced meat, tea bags, coffee, beans and butter.

Lidl was just a penny higher at £9.14 and Asda came third at £9.44. Meanwhile, Tesco’s basket stood at £9.52, Morrisons’ at £9.69 and Sainsbury’s at £10.45.

Over the last year we’ve seen prices skyrocket across all stores, so much so that the basket of goods now costs £12 or more across all stores except Lidl – and that’s not isn’t too far behind at £11.88.

All but one’s bill has risen by 25% since our first comparison, but the most drastic rise of all has been at Asda, where the cost has risen by 32.4% to £12.50 – currently the highest in all stores.

Aldi is the second biggest increase, 31.4%, followed by Lidl and Tesco’s 30% and Morrisons’ 25%. It was actually Sainsbury’s that saw the smallest rise of 17.8%, but it started in the unenviable position of the most expensive of the lot.

This week it improved its position as fourth cheapest following a price hike at Tesco, which raised the cost of its cheapest Stockwell coffee to 99p for a 100g pot.

Morrisons, which briefly held up better than Aldi last week, largely due to a price drop on its chicken breasts, is now back in third place after two price increases, both on bread and tea bags.

But that’s a much better position than it was, as it spent more than six months of last year as the most expensive of them all – and faced the wrath of buyers who accused it to “poke fun at customers” with ridiculous price hikes.

The figures showing Asda’s annual rise come just weeks after we reported how it came under fire for raising prices on some of its cheapest items in its Just Essentials range.

Buyers say they’ve cut as much as they can and say it’s unfair to raise prices in the budget range.

An Asda spokesperson: “We launched the Just Essentials By Asda range last year to offer customers the option to get all their weekly essentials from the same range of brands at low prices in all our stores nationwide. .

“We are working hard to keep prices under control for customers despite global inflationary pressures and we remain the cheapest large supermarket – a position recognized by Which? in their regular monthly basket comparison which named Asda the least expensive supermarket. expensive for a large shop every month for three years.

“Last month, we announced that we would freeze the prices of more than 500 popular branded and private label products, more than half of which are fresh meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables until the end. of May.”

Here is the full list

lidl

Loaf of white bread 800g – 36p

2 pints milk – £1.30

Coffee 200g – 1,99€

Bags 160 – €1.19

Salted butter 250g – €1.99

Beans Box 420g – 27p