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Manchester Evening News

Business

Emma Gill

'I did the exact same shop at Aldi and Lidl to see which is cheapest'

Aldi Lidl Which Manchester Family

They've long been rivals in the supermarket world and both Aldi and Lidl have seen their popularity soar amid the cost of living crisis.

In September it was widely reported how Aldi had overtaken Morrisons to become the UK’s fourth largest supermarket for the first time and, in the run up to Christmas, they were the strongest performing supermarkets of them all.

With recent data showing shoppers are continuing to switch to the retailers, I decided to do a typical shop at both to see which is cheapest.

I picked 18 products most commonly bought by shoppers including essentials such as milk, bread, eggs, chicken and some fruit and veg.

I bought the same products from both stores (Manchester Family/MEN)

While both sell mainly their own brands, I went for like-for-like items - in size and quality - opting for a tier up from the most basic available.

I know from our weekly price comparison, which has been tracking the cost of the same eight items in the big six supermarkets for a year now, just how close the retailers are on price.

For the majority of the last 12 months, it's been Lidl that has come out on top as the cheapest retailer for the shopping basket. Although it's usually just pennies apart from Aldi.

They're not too far apart in the number of stores they have either - Lidl now has more than 950 across the UK, while Aldi has close to 1,000.

It's all a far cry from the noughties when some shoppers were embarrassed to be seen at the discount stores.

David Sables, CEO of Sentinel Management Consultants, told The Grocer that it was only in 2008 when there was a 'stigma around being seen in the car park of an Aldi' - 'a resistance to going to those stores'.

But now, through their evolution, their range expansion, and improved quality, it's not only become accepted to shop at the discounters, but trendy.

“What’s happened isn’t about geographies and locations,” Sables said. "It’s about loyalty to a new discounter format.

“People now brag about drinking Aldi champagne. That’s totally different to how it was in 2008.”

The experience of shopping there is pretty similar. Neither offer the option of ordering online, except for Aldi's click and collect, and you're not bombarded with endless big brand offers as you make your way around. Temptation is found in the middle aisles where you're in danger of coming away with everything from a kayak to a new cat toy, but generally you're more likely to stick to the basics you go in for.

So how do they compare on price? Well unsurprisingly many of the products I bought had the exact same price - 12 in fact. But while two items cost less at Lidl, there were four costing less at Aldi, which made it the cheapest overall, with a bill of £27.23 compared with Lidl's £27.44.

It's not easy to make sense of either - there's no simple explanation such as 'meat is cheaper' at such a place - as the pack of ham was cheaper at Lidl, yet the pack of chicken breast fillets was cheaper at Aldi.

The only other item which fared better at Lidl was plain flour - 69p for 1.5kg and 10p cheaper than Aldi.

Flour was 10p more expensive at Aldi (Manchester Family/MEN)

It was tinned tomatoes, beans and mayonnaise that gave Aldi the lead - even Lidl's 89p offer price on mayo, down from 95p, couldn't beat Aldi's 85p. But while Lidl's tinned tomatoes did seem a lot more expensive, 65p compared with Aldi's 42p, I'm told it does sell a cheaper Baresa tin for 45p, but these were unavailable.

And while Lidl's beans were slightly more expensive, at 49p compared with 47p, they were also slightly bigger - 420g compared with Aldi's 410g.

Quality was much of a muchness, the ham for instance has the exact same 86% pork content at both. The only difference really was the melon size, with a much bigger one available at Lidl.

I wouldn't typically spend £1.99 on half a dozen eggs, but the current shortage meant the superior quality ones were all that was left in both stores. I have to admit you can really tell the difference from budget eggs though, so it was money well spent.

Lidl's melon was much larger (Manchester Family/MEN)

Had Lidl's cheaper tomatoes been available, the retailers would have been just a penny apart on price. It really is a closely fought battle that's not ending anytime soon.

An Aldi spokesperson said: “We are the benchmark for value in Britain and our customers always pay less for their shop with Aldi. That’s why price comparisons like this and Which? routinely name us as the lowest-priced supermarket.

"Value is the number one consideration for most households as they wrestle with rising costs and our promise to them is that we will always provide the lowest grocery prices in Britain.”

Chicken breast fillets were cheaper at Aldi, left (Manchester Family/MEN)

A spokesperson for Lidl said: "We’re really pleased that over the last three months, Manchester Evening News found Lidl to be the best value supermarket for 11 weeks in a row.

"Having recently been named the fastest growing supermarket in the UK, we remain committed to supporting shoppers through the cost of living crisis and providing them with the quality-value combination that they come to us for."

Do you have a favourite out of Aldi or Lidl? Have you started shopping at the budget retailers to cut costs? Let us know in the comments.

Product - prices Aldi / Lidl