The Grocer Gold Awards 2026: Britain’s favourite supermarket

Winner: Tesco

Tesco made it a dozen victories in a row in the battle to be crowned Britain’s favourite supermarket, with the ongoing cost of living crisis displaying a notable influence over what sways shopper spending and opinions.

Tesco’s Clubcard Prices and strong everyday low pricing offer fared well in this area despite continued competition from the discounters.

In the survey of nearly 15,000 respondents from NIQ’s Homescan Consumer Panel, Tesco came out top overall despite coming third again behind Aldi and Lidl on price alone.

Its overall performance was unmatched, however, as it triumphed in six out of 10 categories: promotions & offers, shopping experience, use of tech, convenience, availability and choice of products.

Tesco also maintained a heathy lead over Ocado in the running for the best online retailer, with its votes remaining steady at just over a quarter of shoppers surveyed.

The all-conquering Clubcard continues to be a key weapon for the supermarket, and it was again voted the most popular loyalty scheme among shoppers, with its popularity even growing slightly compared to last year, ahead of the next best, Sainsbury’s Nectar.

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It was also a great year for the discounters, reflecting again the influence of the continued squeeze on wallets. Aldi maintained its solid second place overall, while Lidl has continued to make great strides and is now tying with Sainsbury’s for third spot, both of them with 14% of the vote. Lidl also gatecrashed the top three in terms of promotions and offers as well as maintaining its place as the second best supermarket based on price, behind Aldi in first.

Change was also afoot in the most important attributes for shoppers this year. Promotions & offers overtook overall shopping experience to become the second most important attribute customers are looking for from retailers. Unsurprisingly, price came out as the top metric for the fourth consecutive year, while good use of technology and good product availability both went up in the ranking, jumping to fourth and sixth respectively.

M&S had another strong year and continues to win shoppers’ affection. It is currently in fifth place overall, but just a single percentage point behind Lidl and Sainsbury’s in joint-third. The top five retailers are now comfortably ahead, with Asda losing touch with the leading pack. M&S also came out on top in three of 10 categories, with shoppers voting it the best in ethics & social responsibility, environmental practices and quality of food & drink.

Summing up the results, Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business insight at NIQ, said Tesco was continuing to lead the pack despite a rapidly changing retail backdrop because of its “very clear and consistent strategy”.

He said Tesco’s successful loyalty scheme has helped the supermarket meet continuing demand for competitive prices while also responding well to the growing demand for personalised offers.

“For the fourth year running, price tops the list but promotions & offers have moved up from third to second most important, which is quite a big deal. I think we should expect personalised promotions to become more and more important.”