Which? names the cheapest supermarket of the year and it is not who you might think
Budget supermarkets battled throughout last year to be named the UK's cheapest, as food prices in the shops continued to rise.
Aldi and Lidl spent every month trying to be named as the best value for money but now the ultimate winner can be revealed.
Aldi is the cheapest supermarket of 2023, according to analysis into thousands of grocery prices carried out by comparison website Which?. It sent secret shoppers to all the UK's supermarkets each month to fill a basket with everyday essentials such as fruit, bread and cheese and also shop for a trolley load of goods.
Aldi was cheapest for a basket 11 out of 12 months, beaten just once by Lidl, leading Which? to name it the cheapest supermarket of the year. Lidl beat Aldi in October; however, the price difference between them month on month averaged out to about £1.33.
The most expensive for 2023 was Waitrose, where shoppers would have paid the most for a small basket of common essentials every single month last year. It was also the most expensive in the larger trolley analysis for every month except September, when Sainsbury's was priciest.
For a big trolley shop, Asda was the cheapest: a title it's claimed every month since January 2020 except for July 2023, when Morrisons undercut it. A trolley of food cost on average £326.77 at Asda, comfortably beating next-cheapest Morrisons by nearly £10.
A Which? spokesman said: "Our analysis also found that Waitrose was £41.02 pricier than Asda on average, with our big shop costing £367.79 at the high-end supermarket."