According to the latest data from Which?, Lidl was the cheapest of the UK supermarkets, with shoppers paying, on average, £23.55 for a basket of 18 popular grocery items at Lidl – £1.05 cheaper than rival discounter Aldi.
Which? compared prices for a basket – including seedless grapes, white bread, and tea bags – for each day during the month of May. The most expensive supermarket was £8.30 pricier than Lidl for an equivalent basket of groceries.
Of the ‘big four’ UK supermarkets, Asda was the cheapest, with the basket costing £26.28. The most expensive supermarket for this basket was Waitrose, at £31.85. However, the latest report noted that Which? doesn’t compare the same items each month due to changes in product availability.
The cost of an average large trolley of 59 products, which includes the original basket plus 41 more items, was also compared as part of this month’s survey.
Asda was the cheapest supermarket for this trolley, continuing its streak as the cheapest traditional supermarket that started in January 2020. It cost £129.53 on average for this trolley of items, £3.94 cheaper than Sainsbury’s.
Inflationary pressures
A Which? study of 21,000 groceries across two years found that the average product had risen in price by 3.14%. Around 265 grocery products had inflation of over 20%. It was found that the price of Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes (500g) is up 21.4% at Tesco in this time, and own-brand closed cup mushrooms (250g) have seen prices rises of 21.4% at Asda.
