Lidl 2

Source: RPMI Railpen

There were two key takeaways from this week’s second-ever ‘super’ Grocer 33 with Lidl again emerging cheaper than Aldi and inflation reaching double figures for the first time.

Lidl and Aldi were in a league of their own, price wise, with Lidl coming in 69p cheaper than Aldi – while the five fully fledged supermarkets were left trailing in their wake.

But with inflation figures 11.9% more expensive than a year ago on average, the discounters were certainly not immune. In fact they were slightly higher than the average, with Lidl prices up 12.7% year on year and Aldi 12.3%.

The biggest price hikes were at Asda however – up 15.9% – as six of the seven retailers saw double-digit inflation. Only Sainsbury’s kept price hikes in check, just 5.5% up on last year.

At a product level, nine lines increased by more than 25%, with the biggest increase on penne pasta, which was 50% pricier than last year but everything from milk (44%) and soft cheese (43%) to baaked beans, crumpets, a loaf of bread , orange juice, oven chips and cucumber were up over 20%.

Lidl offered the lowest price for 21 products and was exclusively cheapest for nine, including the carrot cake, crumpets, penne and Sure deodorant. Aldi offered the lowest price for 17 products and was exclusively cheapest for five.

At £43.89, Asda was £3.93 more expensive than Lidl albeit this was a difference of 9%. Asda offered the lowest price for eight products of which five were exclusively cheapest.

The other members of the big four were considerably more expensive. Our shopping cost £8.30 more at Sainsbury’s than Lidl. Tesco was £8.81 more expensive than the discounter, though Clubcard Prices would have cut the gap by just over a quid to £7.63. Morrisons was just short of a tenner more expensive than Lidl at £49.95.

Waitrose was exclusively cheapest for the Nescafé but overall it was £21.13 more expensive than Lidl at £61.01.