Lidl beats Aldi to be the cheapest supermarket in July

Lidl has snatched the cheapest supermarket crown from Aldi for the first time in 20 months. 

We compared the prices of 76 popular grocery items and found Lidl had beaten Aldi for the first time since October 2023. 

Read on to find out where was priciest, plus how the supermarkets compared on a much bigger list of 192 products.

Lidl prices beat Aldi 

We checked the prices of 76 popular branded and own-brand groceries, including Hovis sliced bread, milk and cheese, at eight of the UK's biggest supermarkets throughout July to see how they compared.

The table shows how much our shopping cost on average:

Lidl was the cheapest overall for our shop, beating rival discounter Aldi by £1.25 if you had a Lidl Plus card, or 85p if not.

The next cheapest was Asda, which doesn't offer loyalty prices in the same way as the others. It was 9% more than Lidl for our shopping list.

Meanwhile, shopping at Tesco without a loyalty card was still cheaper than shopping at Morrisons with one.

Sainsbury's was running Nectar price promotions on 15 items on our list, while Tesco had Clubcard prices on 16. Meanwhile, Morrisons had two More scheme discounts on items in our basket, and Lidl had three items on our list with a loyalty discount. 

Waitrose also offers some loyalty prices to members, but there were none for items on our shopping list this month. It was the priciest supermarket again this month, averaging £170.91 – that's over £42 (or 33%) more than Lidl.

• Find out more: cheapest supermarkets of 2025

What about a bigger shopping list? 

When we looked at a much larger selection (192 items), including more branded groceries, there were bigger savings with the loyalty schemes. 

Asda came out cheapest for this for the seventh month in a row, beating Tesco with a Clubcard by £7.47.

Tesco with a Clubcard – which had loyalty prices on 79 of the items – was the second cheapest, followed by Sainsbury's with Nectar and Morrisons with More.

Waitrose was most expensive again, at £538.33 - 14% 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 Morrisons, Sainsbury's or Tesco without a loyalty card.

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

• 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 0.3% at Lidl, 0.6% at Morrisons, 2.2% at Tesco and 3.6% 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 much more substantial – 2.1% at Morrisons, 6.3% at Tesco and 6.7% at Sainsbury's.

The discounts offered by loyalty cards may sound good. But that's only if you can access them. Our research has found 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 those who are under 18, can access – or know how they can access – loyalty prices.

• Find out more: loyalty schemes compared

What's happening to grocery prices?

Annual grocery price inflation jumped to 5.2% in the four weeks to 13 July, according to market analysis from Worldpanel by Numerator. That's the highest level since January 2024. 

Prices are rising faster for items such as chocolate, butters and spreads and fresh meat. They are falling fastest for dog food, sugar, confectionery and laundry.

• Find out more: 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 work out the average price of each item across the month, then add those up to get each one'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 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 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 just 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.

What about special offers and loyalty prices?

We include special offers but not multibuy discounts. 

We are only able to take into account 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 are unable to include discounts that are personalised to selected members, and we can’t factor in points or other rewards, as these vary from customer to customer and don't always have a quantifiable monetary value.

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