Which were the cheapest and most expensive supermarkets last month?

Shoppers could have saved themselves nearly £40 buying a trolley-load of goods at Aldi rather than Waitrose last month, new research by consumer group Which? has claimed.

Aldi beat all of Britain’s other major supermarkets to come in first place on pricing for the 74 products in question, followed by fellow German discounter Lidl and rival Asda.

At the other end of the spectrum, Waitrose, Ocado and Sainsbury’s came in markedly more expensive, according to the findings.

The price data by Which? covered a range of 74 branded and supermarket own-label products last month, including everything from free-range eggs and semi-skimmed milk to Hovis wholemeal bread and Knorr vegetable stock pots.

Taking into account all the 74 items included in the shop, shoppers at Aldi would have spent £66.45 last month, while those plumping for Lidl would have forked out slightly more, with the total coming in at £67.17.

Julie Ashfield, managing director of buying at Aldi, said: ‘We know that this is a difficult time for many and so we are incredibly proud to have maintained our position as the UK’s cheapest supermarket. 

‘We remain wholly committed to continuing to provide our customers with the best value products of any supermarket.’

At Asda, Tesco and Morrisons, the shopping bill for the 74 items would have ended up at, on average, £74.12, £82.11 and £84.73 respectively.

Meanwhile, at Sainsbury’s, Ocado and high-end Waitrose, the total spend came in at £87.45, £100.16 and £105.25 respectively.

Of course, supermarket own-label products will not be exactly the same at every supermarket.

Acknowledging this in its latest research, Which? said: ‘We’ve used experts to ensure that the products are as comparable as possible based on a range of factors including weight, quality and other industry data.’ 

It added: ‘Using an independent price comparison website, we calculated the average price (including special offers but not multibuys) for each item throughout the month. 

‘We added those individual averages together to give an overall price for the trolley at each shop for the month.’ 

The consumer group also conducted a ‘larger trolley analysis’ for August, pitting the average prices of a further 91 products in every supermarkets apart from Aldi and Lidl last month.

This included a bigger selection of branded items, including Branston baked beans and Flash cleaning spray. Which? said such items were ‘not typically available all year round from the discounters – hence Aldi and Lidl not appearing in this chart.’ 

In this bigger analysis Asda, at £256.31, was ‘by far the cheapest supermarket’, and £15.41 cheaper than nearest rival Tesco, Which? said. Compared with priciest supermarket Waitrose, where the larger shop spend came in at £322.87, Asda shoppers could have saved £66.55. 

Supermarkets up and down the country enjoyed a major spike in sales during lockdown, with shoppers vying to get hold of essentials like eggs and flour.

Online supermarket shopping has surged over the period, and, according to recent findings by Waitrose, over three quarters of people now do at least some of their food shopping online.

Waitrose said the surge in online supermarket shopping due to coronavirus was ‘reminiscent of scaling Everest.’

In a bid to ensure people keep spending in its stores, Lidl, which does not have a full-scale online shop, launched a new rewards app for use in store last week, promising shoppers discounts and other perks.

Meanwhile, in a major shift in the supermarket landscape, at the start of the month Ocado ended its 20-year partnership with Waitrose, and is now selling Marks & Spencer products via its website.