For most middle-class Londoners, shopping at Aldi or Lidl was once an activity that only happened in distant, rundown provinces.
But 15 years of austerity, pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have revolutionised retail habits in the capital perhaps even more than the rest of the country. Now the citadels of Waitrose, Sainsbury and Tesco are very much under siege.
Yesterday Aldi, the bigger of the German discounter twins, notched up a significant landmark. Its market share overtook that of Morrisons, the weakest of the “Big Four” supermarket chains, after sales soared by 18.7 per cent in a year. Lidl is not far behind, with sales growing at 20.9 per cent. By contrast, Morrisons’ revenues fell 4.1 per cent and Waitrose were 4.7 per cent lower, according to data from analysts Kantar.
There are now more Aldi than Waitrose branches in and around Greater London, and affluent districts such as Camden, Putney and Clapham all have Aldi or Lidl stores, with more openings planned.
Nowhere is the shift in the balance of power more glaring than in Shepherd’s Bush. The supermarket in the West12 shopping centre was a Safeway for years, morphing into a Morrisons after a takeover. Since 2017 it has been one of the largest London branches of Lidl.At first this was just about price. Real wages have stagnated since the global financial meltdown and the cost-of-living crisis means they are falling faster now than any time at least since the Fifties. Today’s inflation data showed prices jumped by 9.9 per cent over the year to August, far outstripping wages that rose by just 5.2 per cent.
A recent Which? survey found that a typical basket of 49 essentials would cost £76.24 at Aldi, £96.54 at Morrisons and £102.20 at Waitrose.
The discounters have been smart. They targeted middle-class shoppers with a pivot into upmarket ranges that became known as the “claret offensive” after Lidl stocked classy Bordeaux wines. Aldi and Lidl are as likely as their rivals to win food and drink awards.
When earlier this year Lidl published its list of locations where it hopes to open in London it was no surprise to see Chelsea, Kensington and Knightsbridge among them. When it happens, and it probably will, the discounters’ conquest of the capital will be complete.
