If you’re always on the hunt for a bargain when it comes to your weekly big shop, then heading to Lidl is a smart move.
Each week industry mag The Grocer compares the price of 33 staple items at mainstream supermarkets to rank them by cost.
But it normally excludes the likes of Aldi and Lidl as they have too few branches.
Not this week though, in its latest league table it included Lidl as a “guest retailer” and the firm took top spot by a significant margin, coming out almost £4 cheaper than its nearest rival and £21.32 cheaper than the most expensive.
In fact, Lidl was the cheapest place to buy 20 of the 33 items in the sample shopping basket, including for staples like apples, potatoes, chicken breast fillets and olive oil.
Here is how Lidl performed compared to the other main supermarkets in the study.
1. Lidl - £45.42
2. Asda - £49.27
3. Sainsbury’s - £51.75
4. Tesco - £55.00
5. Morrisons - £55.35
6. Waitrose - £66.74
Lidl UK chief executive Christian Härtnagel said: “For the past 25 years, our high quality products at unbeatable prices have been drawing in new customers across all corners of Britain.
"We're finding that more and more shoppers are switching to us, from the other supermarkets, and our ambitious expansion programme will continue to bring our unique offering to new communities across the country.”
With Lidl doing so well, you might well wonder where Aldi ranked.
The short answer is that it wasn't included, but the last time it featured as a "guest" it won too.
Aldi’s basket was calculated at costing £36.73 when it was included a month ago, which was £4.47 cheaper than second-placed Asda.
Clearly, if you want to save a few quid on your food shopping, focusing your efforts on the deep discounters like Aldi and Lidl where possible will leave you with a little extra in your pocket compared to sticking with one of the big high street names.
One of the important things that The Grocer ’s league table demonstrates is that the pricing employed by our food retailers, large and small, is constantly changing.
While it sticks to a ‘staple’ basket of 33 goods, your actual shopping needs can vary drastically by the week.
More than that, even though Lidl "won" overall this week, more than a third of the 33 items looked at could be picked up cheaper elsewhere.
As a result, the cheapest supermarket for you can also change on a regular basis.
The easiest way to compare prices is to put your basket into MySupermarket .
It will then tell you which store works out cheapest. Importantly it includes the likes of Aldi and Lidl alongside the big names too.
