Trolley Trends Week 4: Hot weather, hotter competition

Research evidence excerpt

Trolley Trends Week 4: Hot weather, hotter competition

J P M O R G A N Europe Credit Research

28 May 2026

Trolley Trends

Week 4: Hot weather, hotter competition

Europe Corporate Credit - Retailing Over a sizzling bank holiday weekend in the UK, Asda again achieved the

& Consumer Products

highest composite score – despite lower availability w/w – and lowest price

trolley in our survey. What stands out, however, is that across the Big Four, Neill Keaney AC

just £3.73 separated Asda’s cheapest trolley from Sainsbury’s most (44 20) 7134-2002

neill.keaney@jpmorgan.com

expensive. Ahead of Asda’s 1Q26 results tomorrow, its price lead over its J.P. Morgan Securities plc

rivals has fallen to between 0.8% (Morrisons) and 1.4% (Tesco, Sainsbury’s). Alice Rossini, CFA

Tesco, thanks to large savings on high-priced branded HPC SKUs, recovered (44 20) 7134 0478

from last week’s uncompetitive showing but trailed a further-improved alice.rossini@jpmorgan.com

Morrisons in pure price terms. That said, Morrisons’ promotional intensity J.P. Morgan Securities plc

remains the highest of all grocers and with just 88 of 92 items available it European Food Retail

matched Asda for lowest availability. Finally, it is worth noting this week that Borja Olcese

Waitrose cut the prices of six own-label SKUs in our trolley by an average of (34-91) 516-1511

8.8%. These are part of the group’s rolling “New Lower Price” campaign and borja.olcese@jpmorgan.com

span own-brand items across protein, fresh produce, ambient and frozen J.P. Morgan Securities plc

categories. Palak Garg

(91-22) 6157-5102

palak.x2.garg@jpmorgan.com

Table 1: Trolley Trends Scorecard J.P. Morgan India Private Limited

Premium European General Retail

Composite Total (vs Pricing vs Pricing vs 4 Promo Georgina Johanan, ACA