I’m a big fan of saving money at the supermarket. This mean’s I’m always eager to know which supermarket is the cheapest and offers the best value for money. After a recent shop at Tesco, I’ve decided to compare two of the UK’s biggest supermarkets – Asda and Tesco.
In this post, I’m going to compare the two supermarket giants in as many ways as possible including Loyalty schemes, Customer Service, online delivery and last but not least Price tests (let’s face it there are loads of these), including my price comparison based on a real shop for a family of 4.
The last time I did this was just over a year ago when I compared king of the discounters, Aldi, with Tesco. So, let’s get into the nitty-gritty and see which is best – Asda or Tesco…
This post may contain affiliate links (marked with a *) where I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more information please read my full disclosure policy. All opinions are my own.
- About Tesco and Asda
- Loyalty Schemes
- Store Opening Hours
- Customer Service
- Online Delivery Cost
- The Price Comparison Test – Is Asda Cheaper Than Tesco?
- The Verdict
About Tesco and Asda
Tesco is one of the largest retailers in the world and has a whopping 27.4% market share of the UK grocery market with 6,800 stores (October 2019).
Asda Stores Ltd is a UK grocery chain owned by Walmart Inc with 633 stores as of October 2019. Asda’s market share is 15.4%, recently overtaking Sainsbury’s to become Britain’s second-largest supermarket.
Loyalty Schemes
Here we have the Tesco Clubcard vs the newly launched George Rewards card.
To me, this is a bit of landslide victory for Tesco as I think the Clubcard scheme is the best supermarket loyalty scheme in the UK, both in terms of the value of the points and the options you’ve got to spend them.
Tesco also offers the recently launched Clubcard Plus scheme that gives you 10% off two big shops a month, for a £7.99 fee.
The George Rewards scheme only gives you points for spending on Clothing and homewares, so I don’t think it really “counts” as a loyalty card for your big shop.
Store Opening Hours
Both ASDA and Tesco operate 24-hour stores, although this does vary depending on location.
Customer Service
Firsly, let’s take a look at Trustpilot scores for the two supermarkets.
Asda:
Unfortunately for Asda, they have a “Bad” Trustpilot score (just 1.6 out of 5 on average). 70% of reviews rate Asda as “Bad”. Not a great showing but nevertheless those are the numbers…
Tesco:
Tesco comes out slightly better with a Trustpilot score of 2 stars out of 5 (or Poor).
One of the difficulties with Trustpilot ratings though for the supermarket is that there’s loads of different Trustpilot listings so these need to be taken with a grain of salt really.
So, let’s take a look at some other independent surveys to shed some more light on this.
Which? Ran a consumer survey where 12,00 shoppers voted for their favourite supermarket based on a variety of factors such as store appearance, value for money and quality of food.
Asda came bottom in both the in-store and online categories. Tesco fared better coming 4th out of 7 for online and 7th out of 9 for instore.
Finally, YouGov tracks the popularity of UK supermarkets. Currently, Tesco sits in 4th place and ASDA in 7th place.
So, overall, looking in 3 different places gives us the same results. Tesco seems to beat ASDA in this round in terms of popularity and service.
Online Delivery Cost
So, which supermarket has the cheapest delivery?
Tesco:
Click and Collect is now free with Tesco, which is a nice little bonus, but you can still opt for home delivery.
Delivery Cost: £2 – £7 – £4 charge if you spend less than £40.
Tesco also offers the Delivery Saver option from £3.49 a month. The plan has 3 options:
The cheapest option is the Midweek plan which is £3.99 a month if you pay monthly or £3.49 a month if you pay for 6 months at once. With this, you get free deliveries from Tuesday to Thursday. It excludes same-day deliveries though (there’s an additional £2 charge for this).
The mid-range plan is the Any Day plan which costs £7.99 a month of you pay monthly or £6.99 if you pay for 6 months in advance. As you’ve probably guessed you can get your groceries delivered any day of the week with this plan. Again, same-day deliveries are excluded and have an additional £2 charge.
The top tier plan is the Same day Plan. This lets you get free delivery any date of the week including same-day deliveries This plan costs £12.99 a month if you pay monthly or £9.99 a month for a 6-month contract.
Asda:
ASDA also offers Free Click and collect for next day onwards. You can opt for same day too for a £1 charge. A minimum basket charge of £25 applies.
Delivery Cost is £1 to £6.50 depending on your slot with a £3 charge on orders below £40.
Asda has a similar scheme to Tesco with their Delivery Pass option too. They have slightly less options though.
The cheapest option is the Midweek option. You can’t buy this on a month to month basis though you can only buy a years pass for £24 which works out at £2 a month.
The second option is the Anytime pass which you can buy as either a 6 month or 12-month pass. 6 months costs £6 per month or £35 if you pay in one go. 12 months costs £5 per month or £55 if you pay in one go. Again, there’s no option to just have a 1-month contract as you can with Tesco.
It’s a pretty close call between the two supermarket giants here. ASDA’s delivery prices are cheaper and their Click and Collect same day service is cheaper. However, Tesco offers more flexibility on the delivery saver pass (although it is more expensive).
If you shop at the same supermarket all the time, then ASDA is likely to be the best option if you want a delivery pass. But if you switch around a fair bit and need flexibility Tesco’s probably the better bet for you.
Don’t forget, if your planning on doing your shop online, it’s always worth checking the cashback sites too to see if there’s any cashback going.
The Price Comparison Test – Is Asda Cheaper Than Tesco?
Now, for the results I’m sure you’ve been waiting for. Which is the Cheapest, Asda or Tesco?
Before we get into my test though, let’s take a look at some other recent price comparisons. (Yes, I’m not the only one to compare the two).
First up, when Love Money compared the UK’s supermarkets, ASDA came out £1.11 cheaper than Tesco on a basket of 12 items.
In the report just released by Which? ASDA came out cheapest on a basket of 62 items beating Tesco by £8.20.
And for the whole of 2019 across 53 common grocery items, Asda came out £4.75 cheaper than Tesco (£107.65 vs £112.40). The Which? test is only based on branded goods though.
The Grocer 33 weekly reports show that the winners change from week to week though so nothing’s clear cut in the supermarket price wars!
So, who was the cheapest based on my actual shop for a family of 4?
This week we did our shop online at Tesco. So, for this test, I then compared my bill with the equivalent shop as Asda based on their online prices. I matched products as closely as possible i.e. the same brand, own brand for own brand and the same pack size wherever possible.
Where I couldn’t match pack sizes, I worked out what it would cost at Asda for the equivalent amount (I know! I’m a nerd!!! What can I Say?)
So onto the results. Who was cheaper in my price comparison test between Tesco and Asda?
| Item | Tesco | ASDA |
| Tesco Beef Lean Steak Mince 500G 5% Fat | £3.30 | £2.82 |
| Tesco Butter Me Up Spread 500G | £0.85 | £0.79 |
| Tesco Italian Chopped Tomatoes 4 X 400G | £1.39 | £1.39 |
| Tesco Bananas Loose x 6 (0.84kg) | £0.91 | £0.91 |
| Tesco Whole Cucumber Each | £0.60 | £0.60 |
| Richmond 12 Thin Pork Sausages 340G | £2.00 | £1.75 |
| Tesco Cola 2 Litre Bottle | £0.50 | £0.45 |
| Tesco Maris Piper Potatoes 2.5Kg | £2.00 | £1.63 |
| Tesco Sweetcorn 1Kg | £1.50 | £0.99 |
| Mission Deli Wheat & White Mini Wraps 6 Pack | £0.70 | £0.95 |
| Cow & Gate 4 Growing Up Milk Powder 2+ Years 800G | £8.00 | £7.50 |
| Tesco Brown Onions Minimum 3 Pack 385G | £0.85 | £0.50 |
| Tesco Broccoli Florets 900G | £1.10 | £0.99 |
| Tesco Gala Apple Minimum 5 Pack | £1.60 | £1.00 |
| Tesco Choco Snaps Cereal 350G | £1.00 | £1.01 |
| Tesco Raspberries 150G | £2.00 | £1.89 |
| Tesco Strawberries 400G | £3.00 | £2.00 |
| Redmere Farms Carrots 1Kg | £0.49 | £0.55 |
| Tesco Honey Hoops Cereal 375G | £1.00 | £0.86 |
| Kp Skips Prawn Cocktail Crisps 6 X 13.1G | £1.00 | £1.00 |
| Grower’s Harvest Garden Peas 900G | £0.62 | £0.68 |
| Tesco 15 Eggs | £1.19 | £1.63 |
| Tesco British Mild Cheddar Cheese 460G | £2.30 | £2.25 |
| Growers Harvest Red Kidney Beans In Water 400G | £0.30 | £0.30 |
| Tesco Drained Tuna Steak In Brine 3 X 110G | £3.30 | £3.35 |
| Fred & Flo Super Fit Size 4 Plus Nappies 38 Pack | £3.50 | £2.59 |
| Total | £45.00 | £40.38 |
The results were quite an eye-opener with ASDA coming ou 10% cheaper (£4.62) on a shop of 35 items. The Tesco shop cost £45.00 but to get the equivalent as ASDA would have cost us just £40.38…
So, it looks like ASDA takes the price test as this seems to match the findings of various other price comparisons.
The Verdict
So, which is the winner, Asda or Tesco? Well like most things in life it’s not completely clear cut. If price is your biggest priority then Asda wins the battle. But if your more concerned about things like customer service, loyalty points and flexibility with your online ordering, then Tesco might be your best bet. Or it might just depend on which one’s nearest!
Which supermarket do you prefer, Asda or Tesco? I’d love to hear in the comments below.
If you’re looking for ways to save money on your weekly shop why not take a look at these related posts.
