Tesco vs Sainsbury | Which One Is Cheaper & Better For You?

If you’re going to get groceries and are deciding between Tesco and Sainsbury, there are many things to consider. In other words, you may be trying to figure out which grocery store is better.

To help you figure this out, I decided to look at two major decision making factors when it comes to grocery shopping:

  • Price
  • Quality

By the end of this article you should have a much better understanding of which grocery store is right for you.

Which one is better: Tesco or Sainsbury? In terms of price, Tesco offers slightly cheaper products. They are anywhere from 2% to 14% cheaper for certain items. However, Sainsbury has slightly better product quality according to the Food Standards Agency.

Which One Is Cheaper: Tesco vs Sainsbury

Price is one of the biggest decision-making factors when it comes to choosing the correct grocery store. To get a better idea of which grocery store has better prices, between Tesco and Sainsbury, I collected the prices of the most commonly purchased store brand items and averaged the price out.

This gave a good idea as to which store offers good pricing relative to the other store. In other words it is an apples to apples comparison.

Tesco is slightly cheaper than Sainsbury for a majority of items. More specifically, Tesco is anywhere from 2% to 14% cheaper than Sainsbury for common storebrand items. However it should be noted that they do have the same average prices for many of their other storebrand items.

Below is a chart that breaks down the average prices from each store a little bit more. You were able to see the average prices as well as a closer look as to how the other store compares.

The two categories where Tesco is the cheaper option is in the eggs and beverages category. The one category where Sainsbury is the cheaper option is the bread category.

The two stores had the same pricing for both of their milk and frozen vegetable items. It should be worth noting that even in the instances where one store is cheaper than the other, the prices are generally very close.

Which Store Has Better Quality: Tesco vs Sainsbury

Product quality is another major decision making factor when it comes to picking which grocery store is better. In other words, customers want to make sure the products they’re purchasing are high-quality.

So, to figure out which store has better quality products I decided to take a look at the food standards agency. They have a database that allows anyone to view recent product recalls at a store..

  • Tesco: 46 recalls
  • Sainsbury: 43 recalls

After checking the database, it appears that Tesco has slightly more product recalls. So it is safe to assume that their products may not be as high quality.

Final Thoughts: Tesco vs Sainsbury

So, depending on which you consider more important, price or quality, your decision should be easy. If you enjoy cheaper prices, then Tesco is a better choice for you. However if you prefer product quality, then Sainsbury is the right choice for you.