When it comes to discount retailers, are you team Lidl or team Aldi? Either way, both supermarkets are renowned for their excellent bargains and value for money. That said, it was actually Lidl that was crowned the cheapest UK supermarket in April (and for the fifth month in a row), according to the monthly analysis by Which?.
We love to see what’s on offer in the ‘middle of Lidl’ and you’re lucky if you manage to basket an Aldi Specialbuy before it sells out, but how do the brands compare on essentials?
Every day throughout April, Which? checked the prices of 18 essentials in various supermarkets to figure out which one was the cheapest. The essential products included own-brand foods like unsalted butter and semi-skimmed milk. The consumer group also compared branded goods, like Hovis wholemeal bread.
Lidl beat Aldi to the top spot by just 74p, proving both stores are neck and neck when it comes to cheap prices. The shop at Lidl came to £25.92, while the same products at Aldi cost £26.66. Asda was the cheapest of the ‘big four’ supermarkets, with the trolley contents priced at £28.46.
It’s no surprise to see Waitrose at the other end of the scale, where the essential products were around £9 more than at Lidl, costing a total of £35.06.
Some of the groceries with the biggest price differences included own-label olive oil, which had a difference of £1.86 between Lidl and Waitrose.
A further investigation by Which? looked into the total cost of 63 items. The bigger selection included more branded items like Twinings tea bags and Cathedral City cheddar cheese. Aldi and Lidl weren’t included in the research as they have a smaller selection of products.
So Asda took the top spot this time, coming in at £132.81. In fact, Asda has been the cheapest mainstream supermarket for 28 months now, having claimed the title every month since January 2020.
Sainsbury’s was second at £138.58. In third place was Morrison’s with its trolley items costing £139.65. Tesco and Ocado followed, with around £2 between them. Waitrose was the most expensive, at £149.82.
Aldi was crowned the cheapest supermarket of 2021, as it was the most frequent winner of the cheapest supermarket title during 12 months of price comparisons from January to December.
