Lidl has broken Aldi’s winning streak in the Super Grocer 33, which pits the discounters against fullrange rivals.
After seven wins on the trot for Aldi, a price cut on savoy cabbage made all the difference, resulting in Lidl being crowned the winner, with a basket that cost £46.80.
This week’s basket focused on feeding a family on a low budget and included eight basic own-label lines. The discounters were closer than ever and offered identical prices for 32 SKUs. Lidl ran a ‘35% off’ deal on the cabbage. In another week it would have been a draw.
Asda came closest to the discounters, but at £51.08 was 9.1% dearer than Lidl. Asda officially axed its Aldi and Lidl price match scheme last January but its prices were the same for 12 items this week.
Tesco was just 7p behind Asda (£51.15) and matched the discounters on 16 SKUs, the most of the full-range supermarkets this week.
Sainsbury’s (£53.39) was 14.1% more expensive than Lidl and Morrisons (£55.38) was 18.3% dearer.
Waitrose makes no attempt to compete with the discounters’ lower-priced ranges. Its £69.06 failed to price match a single SKU and was 47.6% more expensive than winner Lidl.
Across the basket, Lidl was cheapest for 29 SKUs and Aldi for 28. Wins against the discounters from full-range supermarkets comprised Sainsbury’s grapes and Original Source shower gel, both on Nectar promotions, plus Club biscuits at Morrisons and Sensodyne toothpaste at Asda.
In a basket heavy with own-label and budget lines there were very few discounts to be found. The largest was Tesco, where two price cuts produced savings of 75p.
Competition kept prices in check, with the basket average 2.2% more than last year.
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