UK's cheapest supermarket revealed

Aldi been named the UK’s cheapest supermarket of the year, according to the latest analysis from consumer group Which?

Which? looked at the cost of everyday items such as bread, milk, and eggs across the UK’s eight major supermarkets throughout 2021.

Aldi came out on top over the course of the year. Its prices beat rival Lidl’s for six of the 12 months and tied with them for one. In January 2021, a basket of 19 items cost £18.45 ($25.09) at both discounters.

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Lidl, winner of the cheapest supermarket title for 2020, had the best prices for only five months of last year. In December, shoppers were paying £23.29 for a basket of 22 groceries at Lidl, 35p less than at Aldi, where the basket was £23.64.

The items cost £9 less than the priciest supermarket, Waitrose, which was charging £32.85 for an equivalent basket of groceries.

Asda was the cheapest of the "big four" supermarkets and has been for every month for the last two years.

The analysis also revealed that prices had risen significantly over the course of the last 12 months.

Some own-brand grocery items rose more in price than others across all eight supermarkets. The biggest increases among items in Which?’s basket were for Royal Gala apples (up 14%), free-range eggs (up 12%), brown onions (up 11%), skimmed milk (up 10%) and semi-skimmed milk (up 9%).

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Prices went up 3.4% on average across all the supermarkets between January and December 2021. For the same trolley of 19 items, Waitrose prices jumped the most (9.2%), and Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L) the least (0.59%).

Lidl shoppers saw a 5.13% price increase and Aldi prices were up 4.32%. Asda customers paid 2.89% more over the course of 2021. Prices at Morrisons rose 2.50% on average, Ocado (OCDO.L) prices were up 1.62% and Tesco (TSCO.L) was 0.89% more expensive.

“No one wants to overpay for basic groceries, especially when a cost of living crunch is putting extra pressure on household budgets,” Ele Clark, Which? retail editor, said.

“Our findings show that while prices are going up, some supermarkets are passing their rising costs onto shoppers more than others. As well as choosing a supermarket that is cheap overall, other ways to save include swapping from branded to own-brand products, sticking to a shopping list and resisting the temptation to pick up special offers you don’t need."

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