Supermarket under fire for hiking price of essential by 13%

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A supermarket is under fire for hiking the price of an essential 13% since last week. We've been tracking the cost of the same eight basics at the six main supermarkets for more than two years now since the cost of living crisis began to really take hold.

While some weeks see no changes at all in the prices, this week there have been three rises - and it's the 13% hike in the price of Asda's tea bags that's causing most concern. Read more: We tried sausage rolls from every supermarket and this cheapest 25p one is simply golden Shoppers tell us they'd hoped they'd seen the last of such big spikes and are already struggling to make ends meet without further increases.

As well as the price of 160 Just Essentials tea bags rising from £1.60 to £1.80, Asda has also increased the cost of its Just Essentials bread to 47p a loaf.

All of the other supermarkets have put their cheapest loaf up to the same price - with Morrisons making the same increase this week - and Sainsbury's is even dearer, at 50p. "It might not seem a lot, but when you're already on a strict budget, every penny counts," said one shopper. "I thought such big price rises were supposed to be stopping, but it doesn't feel that way." Aldi and Lidl have been virtually neck and neck as the overall cheapest over recent weeks.