Aldi named UK’s cheapest supermarket for 12 months in a row in latest analysis by Which?

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This supermarket has been crowned the UK’s cheapest 12 months in a row - but stores still need to be ‘doing more’ to help consumers navigate the cost of living crisis.

Aldi has been named the UK’s cheapest supermarket for 12 months in a row. It comes after a study by Which? as the consumer champion found shoppers could save over £18 on a basket of items there compared to the most expensive store.

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Which?’s analsysis involves comparing the average prices of a shop consisting of popular groceries at eight of the UK’s biggest supermarkets. It is carried out on a monthly basis and found that Aldi was the cheapest supermarket overall again in May 2023.

A basket of goods cost £68.60 on average across the month in Aldi, which has remained the cheapest store since May 2022. Lidl placed behind Aldi with a difference of £1.91 (£70.51), widening the gap from last month which was just a 65p difference.

In comparison, Waitrose came out as the most expensive this month, with a basket of goods totalling £86.91 - 23.5 per cent more than Aldi. Which? also compared the cost of a larger trolley of 131 items – the original 40, plus 91 more.

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These items included a larger number of branded items, such as Andrex toilet paper and Cathedral City cheese, and did not include discounter supermarkets Aldi and Lidl, as they do not always stock some of these products. This month, Asda was yet again the cheapest for this larger trolley of groceries, a title it has held since January 2020.

In May 2023, it cost £332.40 on average for this shop, beating the next cheapest, Morrisons (£334.47), by just £2.07. Waitrose was an eye-watering £31.59 more expensive than Asda, coming in at £363.99, on average, for the trolley of comparable goods – 9.5 per cent more.

Ele Clark, Which? retail editor, said:“The Which? Food Inflation Tracker shows that the price of food and drink is continuing to soar, as people suffer through the worst cost of living crisis in decades. It’s no surprise to see many shoppers turning to discounters like Aldi and Lidl when our research shows they could make savings of more than £18 on a basket of everyday groceries.

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“Supermarkets aren’t currently doing enough to help shoppers. Which? believes the big retailers have a responsibility to ensure everyone has easy access to basic, affordable food ranges at a store near them, and to provide transparent and comparable pricing so people can easily work out which products offer the best value.”

A shopping trolley filled with groceries from Aldi, which has been named the UK’s cheapest supermarket for 12 months in a row.A shopping trolley filled with groceries from Aldi, which has been named the UK’s cheapest supermarket for 12 months in a row.
A shopping trolley filled with groceries from Aldi, which has been named the UK’s cheapest supermarket for 12 months in a row. | Getty Images

This latest pricing analysis demonstrates that shoppers can make considerable savings on their groceries depending on where they buy their food. But with even budget ranges and prices at the discounters rising significantly, and the traditional supermarkets’ convenience stores failing to offer or stock budget lines, the consumer champion believes supermarkets must do more to help their customers.

Which? has found that while some good practice exists, many of the major supermarkets “have not done enough” to support their customers during the cost of living crisis. It said retailers should be helping customers by making sure “affordable basic ranges are available in all branches including convenience stores, as well as improving unit pricing on all products, so that customers can easily work out the best value for them”.

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