Aldi hailed as cheapest supermarket

Aldi is the UK's cheapest supermarket, an analysis has shown, with a basket of goods from the discount store coming in at nearly a third less than the price from Ocado.

The 15-item grocery basket cost just £14.75 at Aldi, compared with £21.58 from Ocado. And, perhaps unexpectedly, Aldi was the only store that actually had all the items available, with all the others missing at least one item.

Asda was second cheapest, with the basket of goods costing £16.62. At Tesco's, it was £17.87. Waitrose, despite its posh reputation was third cheapest, at £18.82, followed by Morrisons at £20.10. Sainsbury's and Ocado, at £20.21 and £21.58 repectively, were the most expensive.

The analysis was carried out by the Press Association, which used data from MySupermarket. The items included were milk, eggs, bread, tomatoes, cheese, butter, bananas, yoghurt, frozen peas, fish fingers, broccoli, penne pasta, washing up liquid, antibacterial handwash and toilet rolls.

Competition on supermarket prices has ramped up significantly as Aldi and Lidl have increased in popularity, pressuring the big four to act. This week, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's all announced plans for major price cuts, with Asda, for example, spending £300 million on cutting the cost of 2,500 'essentials'.

Tesco has pledged today to cut the price on 380 items, including brands such as Hovis, Coca-Cola, Marmite and Tetley, by an average of 25%; Sainsbury's, meanwhile, is investing £150 million in price cuts across 1,000 lines.

And Morrisons announced in October that it was now price-matching its products against Aldi and Lidl, in a move which saw it named as the UK's cheapest supermarket in a Guardian survey in November. It may now have been knocked off its perch.

MySupermarket says that prices look set to carry on falling over the coming months.

"The news of price cuts from the major supermarkets this week demonstrates that we are experiencing a new price war in the UK. These price cuts can only be a good thing for shoppers who are looking to save money on their weekly supermarket shop," says CEO Gilad Simhony.

"To see supermarkets investing in keeping prices low is a positive thing for shoppers in the UK, and will especially be welcomed in January when people are traditionally cutting back on their weekly bill."

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