Aldi was the cheapest supermarket in the UK in March, with an average shopping basket full of groceries and other essentials costing £72.54.
However, Lidl is closing the gap, as the same shopping basket would cost customers £72.79 at the discounter, just 25p more, according to consumer group Which?
The same purchase at Waitrose cost an average of £92.55, a difference of £20.01 – 27.6% more.
The same items cost £80.27 at Sainsbury’s (SBRY.L), £81.58 at Tesco (TSCO.L), £83.63 at Morrisons and £88.03 at Ocado (OCDO.L).
Ele Clark, retail editor at Which?, said: “We know that people are suffering from the worst cost of living crisis in decades and prices of food and drink have soared everywhere you shop.”
“However, our monthly supermarket analysis shows that you can save £20 on a basket of everyday groceries at the cheapest supermarket compared to the most expensive.”
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“Supermarkets are currently not doing enough to help their customers. Which? believes that major retailers have a responsibility to ensure that everyone has easy access to basic, affordable groceries in a store near them, and to offer transparent pricing so that people can easily find out which products offer the best value for money.”
In a more comprehensive analysis of 137 items across the six ‘traditional’ supermarkets, Asda was the cheapest supermarket at £343.91.
The next cheapest supermarket was Sainsbury’s at £353.16, around £9 more. Waitrose was £44.56 more expensive than Asda, with an average cost of £385.74 for the same trolley.
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Aldi and Lidl were not included in the larger store comparison because many brands are not found at the discounters. This larger shopping cart contained items such as Andrex toilet paper and Cathedral City cheese.
A Waitrose spokesperson told Yahoo Finance UK: “We continue to work with our suppliers to keep prices as low as possible and will continue to make price reductions in the future. At the same time, we remain committed to industry-leading animal welfare standards, paying our farmers fairly and offering products of outstanding quality.”
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