Supermarket schemes compared including Clubcard and Nectar as shoppers given warning

Experts compared prices for shoppers both with and without loyalty cards at the major supermarkets
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With the UK's major supermarkets all constantly offering their own deals and discounts, it can be difficult to know where the cheapest place is for your food shop - as well as various loyalty schemes making matters more complicated.

Recent research by consumer experts at Which? have found that while the likes of a Tesco Clubcard or Sainsbury's Nectar Card typically spell savings, the cheapest supermarket in December 2024 is one of the only retailers not to have launched its own loyalty scheme. Based on a random basket of 56 everyday essentials, Aldi was found to be the cheapest out of the 10 biggest supermarkets last month, costing £100.29.

Lidl, meanwhile, came in a close second, with a shop of the same size found to cost £101.48 with a Lidl Plus card or slightly more without one at £101.56. However, both Aldi and Lidl were excluded from Which?'s bigger basket comparison, which totalled up the costs of 158 branded and non-branded goods, due to having a much smaller product range, The Mirror reports.

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Which? explained: "Asda was the cheapest supermarket for nine out of 12 months when we compared the total cost of a longer shopping list. However, Tesco was cheaper nearly half the time after we began including loyalty discounts in our analysis in June 2024."

The full results of Which's supermarket comparison for December 2024 are as follows:

Basket of 56 items

  • Aldi - £100.29

  • Lidl with Lidl Plus - £101.48

  • Lidl - £101.56

  • Tesco (with a Clubcard) - £111.22

  • Sainsbury's (with Nectar) - £112.13

  • Tesco - £112.90

  • Asda - £113.22

  • Morrisons (with More) - £114.01

  • Morrisons - £116.32

  • Sainsbury's - £116.32

  • Ocado - £120.83

  • Waitrose - £129.83

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Basket of 158 items

  • Tesco (with Clubcard) - £410.40

  • Sainsbury's (with Nectar) - £412.14

  • Morrisons (with More) - £414.06

  • Asda - £415.56

  • Morrisons - £426.86

  • Tesco - £440.40

  • Ocado - £444.12

  • Sainsbury's- £444.67

  • Waitrose - £458.12

From December's example alone, it's clear that loyalty schemes do offer genuine discounts, but perhaps not as significant as you may think. A Clubcard only saved 72p on last month's basket off 58 items, although the bigger shop yielded a more impressive £30 savings. Sainsbury's Nectar, meanwhile, provided a £4 discount on the smaller shop and more than £30 on the bigger shop too, while Morrisons' More card savings were much less at £2.31 and £12.80 respectively.

The Which? analysis also does not factor in the points that are collected with loyalty cards with each spend, which can then be used to get money off future shops. However, the experts warned that while it is worth joining loyalty schemes, this does not mean you should be loyal to one supermarket.

"There are big savings to be had by switching where you shop, particularly to Aldi and Lidl which regularly come out on top in our monthly cheapest supermarket comparison," Which? said when it compared loyalty schemes between supermarkets in autumn last year.

Tesco has introduced new anti-shoplifting measures in some stores as it looks to crackdown on theft. The supermarket giant has installed keypad-operated cabinets in the alcohol aisles of an additional 50 stores, specifically for champagne and other sparkling wines.