Cheapest supermarket in November: can Aldi beat Tesco Clubcard prices?

Aldi was the UK's cheapest supermarket in November – beating Lidl's loyalty prices by just 38p.

We compared the prices of 55 popular grocery items and found that both Aldi and Lidl (with and without loyalty prices) were cheaper than shopping at Sainsbury's with a Nectar card or Tesco with a Clubcard.

Read on to find out where was priciest, plus how the supermarkets compared for a much bigger list of 159 products.

Aldi prices beat Lidl Plus 

Every day in November, we checked the prices of 55 popular branded and own-brand groceries, including Hovis sliced bread, milk and cheese, at eight of the UK's biggest supermarkets to see how they compared.

The chart below shows how much our shopping cost:

It was a very tight result, but Aldi was the cheapest overall for our shop, beating rival discounter Lidl by just 38p if you had a Lidl Plus card, or 45p if not. 

Next cheapest was Tesco with a Clubcard (at £105.61) and then Sainsbury's with a Nectar card (£106.71). 

Sainsbury's was running Nectar price promotions on 11 items on our list, while Tesco had Clubcard prices on nine. Meanwhile, Morrisons had six More card discounts on items in our basket. 

Waitrose also offers some loyalty prices to members, but there were none for items on our shopping list this month. It was the priciest supermarket again this month, averaging £123.32 – that's £25.43 (26%) more than Aldi.

• Find out more: cheapest supermarkets of 2024

What about a bigger shopping list? 

When we looked at a much larger selection (159 items), including more branded groceries, there were bigger savings with the loyalty schemes. 

Tesco (with a Clubcard) came out cheapest for this. It had 80 products in the list on loyalty price discount.

Asda, which doesn't offer loyalty prices in the same way, came second. Members of Asda's Rewards scheme also would have earned £2.77 cashback on products with loyalty promotions. We haven't factored this into our main analysis because loyalty members don't receive a discount on the day, and cashback is only redeemable at Asda within a limited period (up to nine months) and in increments of £1.

Sainsbury's Nectar – which also had loyalty prices on 80 of the items – was a close third.

Interestingly, Ocado was second cheapest for those without a loyalty card at any of the stores.

We couldn't include Aldi or Lidl here as they didn't stock all the branded items on our list.

These results show just how much more you'll pay if you stock up at Morrisons, Sainsbury's or Tesco without a loyalty card.

For shoppers without a Nectar card, Sainsbury's was second-most expensive after Waitrose. For non-Clubcard members, Tesco was just behind.  

• Interested in more than just price? Shoppers have rated product quality, customer service, online deliveries and more to reveal the best and worst supermarkets.

How much discount do loyalty cards give?

Based on our smaller list of products, having a loyalty card would save an average of 0.07% at Lidl, 0.8% at Morrisons, 2.6% at Tesco and 4.8% at Sainsbury's on our basket over the month.

For our longer list, which included more branded groceries and a bigger selection of items with loyalty discounts, the savings were much more substantial – 3.2% at Morrisons, 8.3% at Sainsbury's and 9.4% at Tesco.

But you'd save even more money by switching to Aldi.

• Find out more: loyalty schemes compared

What's happening to grocery prices?

Grocery prices were 2.3% higher in the four weeks to 3 November 2024 compared with the year before, according to market analyst Kantar. 

Prices are rising fastest for items such as chilled soft drinks and chocolate. They are falling fastest for toothbrushes, household paper products (such as toilet roll and kitchen roll) and sparkling wine. 

• Find out more: Which? food and drink inflation tracker

Can enough people access loyalty prices?

Earlier this year, our research found that millions of people can't access loyalty promotions because they're not eligible to join the member schemes of supermarkets due to their age, lack of address or difficulties with digital access. 

And just a few days ago, the Competition and Markets Authority echoed these calls. 

It said some supermarkets could do more to ensure certain groups of shoppers, such as those without a smartphone or those who are under 18, can access – or know how they can access – loyalty prices.

• Find out more: supermarkets urged to widen access to cheaper loyalty prices

How Which? compares supermarket prices

We check the prices of hundreds of grocery items at eight major supermarkets every day throughout the year, using an independent price comparison website. 

For each supermarket, we work out the average price of each item across the month, then add those up to get each store’s average price. 

Our shopping list comprises the country’s most popular and widely available groceries, based on extensive market analysis. 

It includes branded items such as Cathedral City cheddar and Hellmann's mayonnaise, as well as own-brand products such as potatoes and baked beans. 

Own-brand items won’t be identical across supermarkets, but we’ve ensured everything we’ve compared is as similar as possible based on a number of factors, including quality and weight. 

We include special offers but not multibuy discounts. 

We are only able to take into account loyalty prices that apply to all members of a scheme (where there's one price on the shelf for shoppers with a loyalty card and another for those without). Currently, this type of two-tier pricing is used at Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. 

We are unable to include discounts that are personalised to selected members, and we can’t factor in points or other rewards as these vary from customer to customer and don't always have a quantifiable monetary value.

• Find out more: how to spend less at the supermarket