The cheapest supermarket in the UK has been revealed – with Aldi once again taking the crown.
Analysis of grocery shopping prices by consumer outlet Which? has found Aldi is the cheapest shop for the seventh month in a row.
A basket of goods from the retailer comes in at £2.65 cheaper than its nearest competitor, Lidl, and a full £68.90 cheaper than Waitrose – which was by far the most expensive.
Which? uses a basket of 93 popular products, both branded and own-label, for their tests. The shopping list includes products such as milk, bread, beans, potatoes and cheese – though the full list is never revealed to avoid shops lowering prices specifically to look lower-cost in the monthly rankings.
At Aldi, the list came to an average price of £158.05 in July, compared to £160.75 at Lidl.
Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco make up the top five, in that order, and with under £3 separating them. Though the use of loyalty cards – Nectar for Sainsbury’s and Clubcard for Tesco – makes a material difference in pricing, with up to £10 more being added to those supermarkets’ costs if you don’t use them.
Which? data suggests an average saving across a month of up to five per cent if a loyalty card is used, though earlier research also claimed millions of shoppers were left excluded from loyalty cards due to factors such as lacking digital access to sign up, not having fixed UK addresses to register to or being aged under 18.
Morrisons comes in cheaper than Tesco and Sainsbury’s with no loyalty cards used, but more expensive than them if they are. Ocado (£209.40) and Waitrose (£226.95) make up the remainder of the list.
For consumers who prefer only to shop for branded goods, Which? also releases a monthly ranking for pricing up a much larger range – 232 items, all branded – that does not include Lidl and Aldi.
The July ranking is expected to be released shortly, but in June it was Asda which came out cheapest. Sainsbury’s was the most expensive for a fully branded shop if a Nectar card wasn’t used, more than 15 per cent more expensive than Asda.
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By contrast, if a Nectar card was used it was only 3.74 per cent more expensive, with Morrisons (4.39 per cent), Waitrose (11.28 per cent) and Tesco without a Clubcard (14.26 per cent) also notably above Asda’s prices.
With inflation continuing to send prices up, Which? data shows the average household spent £5,530 on groceries over the 12 months to July 2026 – up £156 against the same period last year.
