Discounters more expensive than big four

The discounters are more expensive than all of the big four supermarkets, according to exclusive research carried out for The Grocer, with Asda the cheapest and Aldi charging the highest prices.

Using a list of 50 ‘essential’ grocery items, our ‘Discounter 33’ research, conducted by ESA, selected 33 products avilable across Aldi, Lidl and Netto, as well as the big four.

It found shopping at a discounter could be up to 61% more expensive than sticking to the budget ranges of standard supermarkets. The most expensive place to shop was Aldi, where the 33 basic items cost £30.76 – £11.66 more than at Asda.

At £20.85 Tesco’s basket was £1.75 more than Asda’s £19.10 bill. The trip to Sainsbury’s cost £21.76, with Morrisons’ basket costing £24.92. This was 38p cheaper than Lidl, the cheapest discounter, which came in at £25.30. Netto was close behind on £25.77, but Aldi was a huge £4.99 more than its nearest rival.

One senior retail executive said supermarkets often struggled to highlight their pricing credentials. “A problem for Sainsbury’s and Tesco especially is that if they highlight value, they risk looking irrelevant to their top-tier customers and could lose them to Waitrose by sounding downmarket,” he said. “Discounters have much less of a problem with this and have managed to get the media behind them.”

The discounters said their intention was never to be lowest on price, but rather to compete on quality and value-for-money. Aldi’s products were the “equivalent of finest own-label or brands”, claimed Aldi MD Paul Foley.

While some customers went to discounters for quality and to avoid temptation to trade up, analysts said many perceived the discounters to be a cheaper shop than the big four.

“These findings are really significant given consumers’ perception that discounters are less expensive,” said ESA chief executive Adam Donaldson. “The question for consumers now becomes one of value. Consumers must decide whether they can obtain the same or better levels of quality at Tesco or Asda as the discounters. If the answer is yes, the shift in shoppers to the discounters could easily reverse.”

The Grocer also carried out quality tests on the five items with the greatest variance in price.

Lidl’s offer across beer, wine, orange juice, tomato ketchup and toilet roll scored the highest, with Aldi a fraction ahead of Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. Sainsbury’s was the lowest rated on the quality of its five Basics lines.

Source: The Grocer