Unexpected UK supermarket beats Tesco Clubcard prices for large weekly shop

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It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that Aldi and Lidl remain the cheapest supermarkets in the UK when it comes to the weekly shop.

Aldi was just crowned cheapest for a shopping list of 82 items in the month of May, costing £135.48 on average, while the same items at Lidl were just 31p more expensive at £135.79, according to the consumer champions at Which?.

But the retailer that came in third place might surprise you – as the prices were even cheaper than those for Tesco Clubcard members. 

Asda came after Aldi and Lidl, with a total cost of £149.94, beating Tesco’s Clubcard prices by 32p. However, it was in a larger shop of 198 items where there was the difference was most notable.

For a bigger shop, it was Asda that came out as the champions overall (Aldi and Lidl weren’t included in this as they stock a smaller range of products). The average price for all 198 items in May was £485.79 at Asda, which was £10.80 cheaper than at Tesco, even with its popular loyalty scheme discount.

The same big shop at Tesco was £496.59, while at Sainsbury’s it was £498.72 with Nectar prices and at Morrisons, More Card members would have paid £512.26. 

At the other end of the scale, Waitrose was the most expensive supermarket for the month when it came to both a shop of 82 items and one of 198. 

The smaller shop cost £184.03 on average (£48.55 more than Aldi) and the bigger shop came to £559.02 a difference of £73.23 compared to Asda.

Both the big and smaller shops featured a mix of own-brand and branded items, including Birds Eye Peas, Hovis bread, milk and butter, and the analysis also took into account special offer prices and loyalty prices, but not multibuys. 

Speaking about the findings, Reena Sewraz, Which? retail editor, said: ‘Aldi continues to be the UK’s cheapest supermarket in our monthly price analysis for May while Lidl has narrowed the gap to just 31p. For a bigger list of groceries, Asda continues to be the cheapest supermarket, beating shopping at Tesco with a Clubcard by more than £10.

‘Food prices are still high and are likely to rise again so many people will be looking to cut costs where they can. Our analysis shows that by not switching supermarkets, shoppers could pay up to 36% more, highlighting the advantages of shopping around where possible.’

This comes after some other big supermarket news, including a change to Tesco Clubcard perks.

Customers who use the retailer’s car park will now be able to claim points while they do their shopping but only if they use the Pod electric vehicle chargers while they are in the store.

So you have to have an electric vehicle in order to take advantage of this new offer. 

Those with electric vehicles can collect one Clubcard point for every pound they spend on Pod’s Vauxhall-branded chargers at Tesco Extra and Tesco Superstore car parks.

At present, Pod operates roughly 2,600 EV charging bays at more than 600 Tesco car Parks across the UK.

Aldi has also announced plans to open 10 new stores across the UK this summer in locations such as Diss, Deeside, Southampton, Brighouse and Oldbury.

And M&S has left shoppers ‘drooling’ over its latest additions to the Foodhall. The retailer has added 100 brand new and refreshed products for summer, including several tempting sweet treats.

New desserts include Cookie Cups (Raspberry & White Chocolate, Extremely Chocolatey and Hazelnut Praline), Double Filled Lemon Eclairs and Pistachio Tiramisu Pots.

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