Aldi snatches back cheapest supermarket crown

Aldi is once again the cheapest supermarket after taking back the title from rival Lidl. 

Lidl won the cheapest supermarket crown in July (for the first time in 20 months) and again in October. But for November, Aldi was once again the cheapest. 

We compared the prices of 70 popular grocery items. Read on to find out where it was priciest, plus how the supermarkets compared on a much bigger list of 183 products.

Aldi prices beat Lidl 

We checked the prices of 70 popular branded and own-brand groceries, including Hovis sliced bread, milk and cheese, at eight of the UK's biggest supermarkets throughout November to see how they compared.

The table shows how much our shopping cost on average:

Aldi was the cheapest for our shop, beating Lidl by £1.18 (or £1.13 for those with a Lidl Plus membership).

The next cheapest was Asda, which doesn't offer loyalty prices in the same way as the others. It was 10% more expensive than Lidl for our shopping list.

Meanwhile, shopping at Tesco without a loyalty card was cheaper than shopping at Sainsbury's with one.

Sainsbury's was running Nectar price promotions on 14 items on our list, and Tesco had Clubcard prices on 14, too. Meanwhile, Lidl had one item on our list with a loyalty discount. 

Morrisons and Waitrose also offer some loyalty prices to members, but there were none for items on our shopping list this month. 

Waitrose was the priciest supermarket again this month, averaging £166.79 – that's £45.57 (or 38%) more than Aldi.

• Find out more: cheapest supermarkets of 2025

What about a bigger shopping list? 

When we looked at a much larger selection (183 items), including more branded groceries, there were bigger savings with the loyalty schemes. 

Asda came out cheapest for the 11th month in a row, beating Tesco with a Clubcard by £9.71.

Tesco with a Clubcard – which had loyalty prices on 76 of the items – was the second cheapest, followed by Sainsbury's with Nectar.

Waitrose was most expensive again, at £522.91 – 15% more than Asda. 

We couldn't include Aldi or Lidl here as they didn't stock all the branded items on our list.

You'll pay a lot more if you stock up at Sainsbury's or Tesco without a loyalty card, but only slightly more at Morrisons.

For shoppers without a Nectar card, Sainsbury's was the second most expensive after Waitrose. 

This longer list included 82 items on loyalty discount at Sainsbury's, 76 at Tesco and just two at Morrisons. 

• Interested in more than just price? Shoppers have rated product quality, customer service, online deliveries and more to reveal the best and worst supermarkets.

How much of a discount do loyalty cards give?

Based on our smaller list of products, having a loyalty card would save an average of 0.04% at Lidl, 1.87% at Tesco and 2.72% at Sainsbury's over the month.

For our longer list, which included more branded groceries and a wider selection of items with loyalty discounts, the savings were generally much more substantial – 6.39% at Tesco and 6.98% at Sainsbury's. However, savings were still only 0.42% at Morrisons. 

The discounts offered by loyalty cards may sound good, but that's only if you can access them. Our research has found that millions of people can't access loyalty promotions because they're not eligible to join supermarket member schemes due to their age, lack of address or difficulties with digital access. 

We think some supermarkets could do more to ensure certain groups of shoppers, such as those without a smartphone or under-18s, can access – or know how they can access – loyalty prices.

• Find out more: loyalty schemes compared

What's happening to grocery prices?

Annual inflation for supermarket food and drink has slowed to 4.7% this month (from 5.2% last month), according to figures from Worldpanel by Numerator.

Prices are rising fastest for items such as chocolate, fresh unprocessed meat and coffee. They are falling fastest for household paper products, sweets and dog food. 

• Find out more: check what's happening to prices by supermarket, category of food and ranges using the Which? food and drink inflation tracker

How Which? finds the cheapest supermarket

We check the prices of hundreds of grocery items at eight major supermarkets, using an independent price-comparison website. 

For each supermarket, we calculate the average price of each item across the month, then add those up to get each supermarket's average total price. 

What items are on the list?

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 like 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 several factors, including quality and weight.

Which? never shares the full list of products used in its analysis, as we want to avoid any attempts by supermarkets to skew the results. 

We don't want supermarkets to compete with one another to lower prices only on the items they know they'll be judged on. Instead, we want retailers to work to make groceries affordable across the depth and breadth of their available lines.

What about special offers and loyalty prices?

We include special offers but not multibuy discounts. 

We are only able to include loyalty prices that apply to all members of a scheme (where there's one price on the shelf for shoppers with a loyalty card and another for those without). Currently, this type of two-tier pricing is used at Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. 

We're unable to include discounts that are personalised to selected members, and we can’t factor in points or other rewards, as these vary between customers and don't always have a quantifiable monetary value.

• Find out more: how to spend less at the supermarket

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