Supermarkets slash prices on thousands of items

New supermarket price war emerging as Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco announce raft of cuts.

Asda, Sainsbury’s and now Tesco have announced that they are cutting prices on thousands of items.

Three of the UK's big four supermarkets will slash the cost of weekly essentials including fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, dairy, bread, cereals and household products as well as branded products.

The move follows a tough year for big supermarkets in which their market share fell as shoppers moved to discount retailers like Aldi, Lidl and Poundland in search of savings.

Asda’s discounts

Asda is lowering the price of 2,500 items in its biggest ever rollback.

The supermarket says it will invest £300 million in price cuts across weekly essentials and big brands in the first quarter of 2015 to help shoppers save during the New Year squeeze on purse strings.

The move is part of the retailer’s five-year strategy to invest £1 billion in lowering prices and £250 million in increasing quality.

The price cuts will be focused on basket essentials like fruit, vegetables, cereals, nappies, loo roll, milk, eggs, meat and fish - as well as big brands.

Here are some examples of the savings you could make.

Item	Was	Now	Saving	Start date	End date
Cucumber, half	35p	30p	14%	3rd Jan 2015	28th March 2015
Asda Free Range Eggs, six pack	£1.25	89p	29%	1st Jan 2015	Ongoing
Beef mince, 750g	£6.08	£5.16	15%	30th Dec 2014	28th Jan 2015
Russet Apples, 750g	£1.25	£1	20%	3rd Jan 2015	28th March 2015
Granary Farmhouse bread, 400g	80p	50p	38%	3rd Jan 2015	29th March 2015
Douwe Egbert's Coffee	£4.99	£2.47	51%	1st Jan 2015	21st Jan 2015
Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut	£3.14	£1.64	48%	1st Jan 2015	21st Jan 2015
Plenty 6 roll	£6.98	£3.98	43%	1st Jan 2015	31st March 2015
Anchor spreadable	£3.25	£1.94	40%	1st Jan 2015	14th Jan 2015
Napolina chopped tomatoes, four pack	£3.00	£1.87	38%	1st Jan 2015	21st Jan 2014
Birds Eye Fish Fingers	£4.24	£2.77	35%	1st Jan 2015	29th March 2015

Source: Asda

Sainsbury’s discounts

Following Asda’s announcement Sainsbury’s swiftly followed with details of its own price reductions to help shoppers feeling the pinch.

The supermarket said it’s cutting the cost of over 1,000 of its most popular products including the essentials for a Sunday lunch and full English breakfast.

Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said the retailer would be investing £150 million a year for the next three years on cutting the price of the most popular items in shoppers’ baskets.

This includes responsibly sourced products like Scottish salmon and British lamb and bacon.

Shoppers will see over 700 new regular prices in supermarkets this week, in addition to over 200 put in place in November last year.

Here are some examples of the savings Sainsbury’s is offering.

Item	Category	Was	Now	Saving
White Sandwich Loaf 800g	Bakery	£1.30	£1.00	23%
Wholemeal Farmhouse 800g	Bakery	£1.30	£1.00	23%
Giraffe Bloomer 800g	Bakery	£1.30	£1.00	23%
Eight Plain Tortilla Wraps	Bakery	£1.20	£1.00	17%
Tomato & Three Bean Soup 400g	Canned & Packaged	65p	55p	15%
Cream of Tomato Soup 400g	Canned & Packaged	65p	55p	15%
Semi Skinned UHT Milk 1L Tetra	Canned & Packaged	90p	70p	22%
Strawberry Jam 454g	Canned & Packaged	75p	65p	13%
English Salted Butter 250g	Dairy	£1.10	95p	14%
English Unsalted Butter 250g	Dairy	£1.10	95p	14%
Scottish Unsalted Butter 250g	Dairy	£1.10	95p	14%
Scottish Salted Butter 250g	Dairy	£1.10	95p	14%
Orange Juice fc Smooth 1L	Dairy	£1.10	£1.00	9%
NFC Orange Smooth 1L	Dairy	£1.60	£1.40	13%
NFC Apple Juice 1.75L	Dairy	£2.40	£2.30	4%
NFC Pineapple Juice 1L	Dairy	£1.60	£1.40	13%
Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup 600g	Meal Solutions	£1.80	£1.40	22%
Petits Pois & Ham Soup 600g	Meal Solutions	£2.40	£2.00	17%
Buttery Mash	Meal Solutions	£1.50	£1.20	20%
Cottage Pie 400g	Meal Solutions	£3.60	£3.30	8%
Chicken Korma & Rice 500g	Meal Solutions	£3.30	£3.00	9%
Chicken Chow Mein 450g	Meal Solutions	£3.30	£3.00	9%
Chicken breast fillets 460g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.50	£3.50	22%
Two Salmon Fillets 240g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.50	£3.30	27%
British Thin Cut Loin Steaks 450g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.50	£3.60	20%
10% Fat Beef Mince 500g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£3.95	£3.35	15%
Eight British Pork Sausages 454g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£1.40	£1.10	21%
10 Ultimate Sausages 690g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.50	£3.50	22%
Whole chicken 1.35kg	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.50	£3.50	22%
Chicken thigh fillets 615g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.50	£3.50	22%
12 Smocked Back Bacon Rashers 2 X 225g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.50	13%
12 Unsmoked Bacon Rashers 2 X 225g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.50	13%
Boneless Lamb Shoulder 400g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.60	10%
Rind On Unsmoked Gammon Steaks 450g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.50	£3.50	22%
Quick Cook Turkey Steaks 428g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.50	£3.50	22%
Unsmoked Gammon Joint 750g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.50	13%
Boneless Cod Fillets 260g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.30	18%
Two Breaded Chunky Cod Fillet 350g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.30	18%
Lean Diced Beef 450g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.25	£3.60	15%
Thin Cut Lamb Chops 275g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.40	15%
British Pork Chops 525g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.30	18%
Breaded Plaice Fillets 320g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£3.00	£2.50	17%
Beef Steaks with Peppercorn 324g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.50	13%
Chicken with Bacon & Mozzarella310g	Meat Fish & Poultry	£4.00	£3.50	13%

Source: Sainsbury’s

The ingredients for a full English breakfast including sausages, bacon, eggs, bread, butter, milk, ketchup and orange juice will now cost £11.15 instead of £12.80, a saving of 13%.

Tesco discounts

Tesco has followed Asda and Sainsbury’s and announced its own set of price cuts.

The retailer says it’s reducing the cost of hundreds of branded products including Hovis, Coca-Cola, Marmite and Tetley.

Shoppers will see an average price fall of 25 % on around 380 different items across all of Tesco’s stores.

Here are some examples of the savings you can find:

Item	Was	Now	Saving
Colgate Triple Action Toothpaste-100ml	£1.39	99p	29%
Farley’s Rusks- 4 months original-300g	£2.30	£1.48	36%
Hovis Best of Both Medium white- 750g	£1.00	78p	22%
Warburtons Crumpets- 6 pack	89p	68p	24%
Hardy’s Stamp Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon-75cl	£7.49	£4.78	36%
Stella Artois 4x440ml	£4.49	£3.54	21%
Branston Pickle-360g	£1.30	93p	28%
Dolmio Original Bolognese Pasta Sauce-750g	£2.60	£1.48	43%
Kellogg’s Cornflakes-750g	£2.48	£1.98	20%
Marmite Yeast Extract- 250g	£2.49	£2.35	6%
Nestle Shredded Wheat- 675g	£2.39	£2.18	9%
Nutella Hazelnut Chocolate Spread-750g	£3.75	£3.49	7%
Tetley soft pack 80 teabags-250g	£2.29	£1.99	13%
Cadbury Chocolate Fingers-114g	£1.39	80p	42%
Tunnock’s Milk Chocolate Caramel Wafer-8pk	£1.59	£1.34	16%

Source: Tesco

You can compare prices across supermarkets by using the mySupermarket website and app.

For other ways to save on your food shop take a look at our guide Cut your food bills.

Earn money back on your shopping with a cashback credit card – compare them now

More on supermarkets:

Aldi lifts ban on credit cards

Latest batch of supermarket fuel price cuts

Sainsbury’s to cut Nectar points for shoppers

Sainsbury’s drops Tesco from Brand Match price promise