Aldi was the cheapest supermarket in January, Which? reveals

Aldi has narrowly beaten rival Lidl to be named as the cheapest supermarket in January - as Asda made up ground on some of its rivals, Which? research has found. 

The consumer champion's monthly analysis involves comparing the average price of a shop consisting of popular groceries at eight of the UK's biggest supermarkets. 

The cheapest supermarket for a shopping list of 100 items was Aldi, where the groceries cost £185.83 on average across the month. 

Fellow discounter Lidl was close behind Aldi in January, costing only 76p more with the supermarket's loyalty scheme Lidl Plus and 79p more without (£186.59/£186.62 on average).

This month, for a bigger shop of 210 items, Asda has beaten Tesco with a Clubcard and regained its place as one of the UK's cheapest supermarkets. Aldi and Lidl are not included in this comparison as they have a smaller range of products compared to the other supermarkets.

Asda came out cheapest at £518.90, beating Tesco with a Clubcard by £10.11 (£529.01). Asda's return to the top spot for the longer shopping list comes just days after it announced it was dropping its Aldi and Lidl price match scheme. 

The supermarket, which saw sales fall in the run-up to Christmas, has instead brought back Rollback pricing - claiming to have slashed the prices of more than 4,000 products in-store and online by an average of 25%.

It may be too early for these price cuts to have made a huge difference to Which?'s cheapest supermarket rankings this time - but it will be interesting to see what the results show next month.

Waitrose was the most expensive on average, with the bigger shop costing £592.34. Waitrose was the most expensive supermarket for a smaller list of items this month too, totalling £242.91 on average - a difference of £57.08 compared to Aldi - 31% more.

The list of 100 items included both branded and own-brand items, such as Birds Eye Peas, Hovis bread, milk and butter.

The analysis includes special offer prices and loyalty prices where applicable, but not multibuys.

For the smaller shop, Tesco Clubcard members would have paid £207.66 on average - while without a Clubcard, the Tesco shop cost £213.14. 

For those using a Sainsbury's Nectar card, January's shopping list of items averaged £214.04, which is £28.21 more than at Aldi. Without a Nectar card, the same items at Sainsbury's cost £223.84.

This latest pricing analysis from Which? demonstrates that shoppers can make considerable savings on their groceries depending on where they buy their food. 

Reena Sewraz, Which? Retail Editor, said:

“Our latest monthly analysis once again sees Aldi crowned as the UK's cheapest supermarket, however, Lidl remains hot on its rival's heels. Asda has also made up some ground after slipping back in our rankings in recent months.

“With people still feeling the effects of food inflation, they are likely looking to cut costs where they can. Our analysis shows that by switching supermarkets consumers could save up to 23%, highlighting the advantages of shopping around where possible."

ENDS

Notes to editors: 

Research

Each month Which? compares how much supermarkets charge for a selection of groceries, this month we compared 100 items that were available across all eight supermarkets. The data is based on availability across supermarkets each month, taken from our longer list of just over 200 items. Our 'bigger shop' excludes Aldi and Lidl and this month compared 210 items that were available across the remaining 6 supermarkets.This list is made up of some of the UK's most popular groceries, based on industry data on sales value and availability. We include special offers and loyalty discounts where they apply but not multibuys.

Because the main list of around 200 groceries remains unchanged from month to month (other than being refreshed occasionally to reflect consumer shopping habits as it was this January), Which? never shares the full list of products with retailers as we want to avoid any attempt to skew the results. We do not want supermarkets to compete with one another to lower prices only on the items they know they will be judged on. Instead, we want retailers to work to make groceries affordable across the depth and breadth of their available lines.

Full table of results for January (based on 100 items) in price order: 

Full table of results for the bigger shop (based on 210 items) in price order:

Average price

We check the prices of hundreds of grocery items at eight major supermarkets throughout the year, using an independent price comparison website. For each supermarket, we work out the average price of each item across the month, then add those up to get each store's average price.

Our shopping list comprises the country's most popular and widely available groceries, based on extensive market analysis. It includes branded items such as Cathedral City cheddar and Hellmann's mayonnaise, as well as own-brand products such as potatoes and baked beans.

Own-brand items won't be identical across supermarkets, but we've ensured everything we've compared is as similar as possible based on a number of factors, including quality and weight.

Loyalty pricing 

Which? looked at loyalty pricing for Lidl, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Waitrose, but none of the items on our shopping list had a loyalty price at Waitrose this month.

Asda's Rewards scheme offers cashback on products with loyalty promotions. For example, members would have earned 95p cashback on average on Which?'s bigger shop of 210 items. We haven't factored this into our main analysis because loyalty members don't receive a discount on the day and the cashback is only redeemable at Asda, within a limited period (up to nine months) and in increments of £1.

As there are restrictions on who can access loyalty prices, Which? will only award a cheapest supermarket endorsement to the retailer with the lowest prices that are available to all consumers.

Useful links: 

• Cheapest supermarket monthly analysis - big and small shop

• Loyalty cards compared

• Millions of people excluded from lower prices at big stores

• How to spend less at the supermarket 

• Which? Food Inflation Tracker