Tesco/Sainsburys are not cheaper than Aldi

[Jac912]

I’ve shopped at Aldi for awhile now, and I believe it to be the cheapest supermarket.

Someone told me they stopped shopping in Aldi and went to Tesco/Sainsburys and now save £40-50 a WEEK on their food shop. So surely if you’re saving that much the items must be significantly cheaper compared to Aldi, right? But when pressed they couldn’t give me a single item that was cheaper than Aldi. It was all Club card/nectar deals which come and go.

I am not debating quality, we all know sometimes Aldi quality isn’t as good as other brands but personally I think Aldi quality is pretty good overall, there’s only a few things I wouldn’t buy from there. I am also not debating that many supermarkets sell items for the EXACT same price.

If you believe another supermarket is cheaper than Aldi then I would genuinely love to know what you buy because I really need to save on my food shop.

No idea about price comparison but having tried Aldi, there is so little choice on many items and their fruit and veg is often rubbish or doesn’t last long. I’d rather pay more and get more choice and better quality fruit and veg. I use Tesco and Morrisons and between the two find lots of things we want are on offer and they deliver too.

Why are you bothered anyway? If you’re happy with where you shop, let’s others shop where they want. You don’t need to prove Aldi is cheaper/better. I know a few people who shop at Aldi and Lidl and they bang on about the ways in which it’s better and why everyone should shop there. It’s a bit weird, like they’re trying to justify shopping there when no one else actually cares.

I buy wine from Aldi. It is significantly cheaper than the Tesco/sainsburys, even when they do the 25% off for 6 bottles.
You can get a really decent bottle from Aldi for around a fiver.

What do you specifically buy in Sainsbury’s that’s cheaper than Aldi?

Totally fair enough and I agree about the quality of some items. But I am literally just talking about like for like price here.

Totally get the quality issue and I agree I’m willing to pay more for better quality.
I don’t care where anyone else shops, but I do want to save money so when people say they are saving £40-50 a week by shopping in Sainsbury’s and Tesco I want to know how.

Dp works for one of the 'big' supermarkets, we get staff discount. Aldi can still be cheaper than the big supermarket even with discount applied, on some products. The difference can be considerable, eg I wanted a reusable pepper grinder approx £1.60 in Aldi and the cheapest in the other supermarket was nearly £3.

Oh come on, millions for their weekly shops.

Ours does gluten free pastas and breads etc

Yes like for like basket. So if Aldi own brand popadoms 300g for example then I compare it to the Tesco own brand 300g popadmoms. I’m not comparing Heinz brand for Aldi brand if you see what I mean and I always do same weight.

and I agree, Aldi is cheaper but by no means cheap anymore. I could very well get a similar basket from anywhere else for around the same price but not cheaper.

I cost my time in too. I work full time so I apply my hourly rate to the supermarket shop. I can do the Tesco shop online in 15 mins from my desk. To go to Aldi takes an hour (driving across town and back again) and then on to another shop to pick up all the stuff Aldi didn't have in takes another hour. On that basis Tesco is significantly cheaper.

I'm only cooking for one but prefer Lidl to Aldi - our local Aldi store always felt dirty and grubby even though it wasn't and their 'fresh' fruit and veg was never that good. I mix between Lidl and Waitrose as for one person, Waitrose isn't much more expensive and the quality is definitely better.
Like a PP I despise the Cllubcard and Nectar price discounts on display - have no issue with people getting the discount at the till but to outright charge such hugely different prices is very wrong. Except on chocolate and biscuits as the increased prices definitely stop me buyingthem

If you're buying fruitv, veg, milk etc etc they'll always have that in. Aldi seem to have a perfectly good range of spices and you surely don't need to buy those every week. We don't have any allergies so can't comment there.
Aldi had Davidstow cheese a few weeks ago. Very small packets. Waitrose had the same cheese in larger packs that were on offer and were cheaper by weight than Aldi. Stockpiled it from Waitrose.

No that’s not what I’m talking about. I don’t care about travel costs, if you like to do your shop online or whatever. I’m talking about people who say they used to shop in Aldi and changed to Sainsbury’s and now their shop is magically £50 cheaper a week.

I’m talking about like for like, item for item cost. Not travel distance, quality etc.

I shop around and price compare online before going to the shop - usually Tesco and Aldi. So I know what items are cheaper at Aldi and what are either the same price or cheaper at Tesco. If they are the same price it is better to buy at Tesco as you get Clubcard points which add up over the year.

Aldi used to be significantly cheaper (about 30%) than Tesco or Asda. Now its negliable each week - a couple of £ overall. But it does add up if you save that every week over the month and year.

Apart from the obvious outliers such as Waitrose, I have found over the years the prices don’t vary that much across a whole trolley load. Prices / offers are always changing. Unless you are on the bones of your arse financially, it’s better to focus on the quality of the food you’re buying.

But they may buy products you don’t want or need so its of no use to you. If you’re interested, type your shopping into Tesco etc and see how it compares. Unless you’re going to buy random products just because they’re cheaper then someone else’s weekly shopping will be of no use to you, which leads me to believe you are just one of those people desperate to prove Aldi is great to justify shopping there when you don’t have to and no one cares.

Tesco clubcard offers and clubcard points can be great for money saving though. I’ve got hundreds of pounds in clubcard points. We used to use them on days out when the kids were little but now I mainly just spend them on weekly shops.

Yes Aldi have shot up in price recently.

Yes but the cost to you in time and resources is also relevant I think.

And yes you can get milk and veg but the rest of it isn't predictable. I need a very predictable shop so I can cook the meals that are planned. I haven't got headspace around work to come up with other meals last minute. Maybe our Aldi is a small one? Because it never has half of what we need, even fresh food is often limited. They didn't have lettuce last time I went in for example.

All the grapes I get from Aldi I wash and bag them up and put in the freezer so they don't spoil. I agree with a PP that the quality isn't as good for fresh produce but I won't be wasting fuel to shop around to buy things like grapes, instead I make sure to freeze the produce so I can still enjoy it. Saving money and saving the limited quality of the fruit at the same time.

It’s hard to compare anyway because so often it’s not like for like. A product may contain more or less of a certain ingredient or be a slightly different sized packet.

But you can't be pricing up branded goods because Aldi don't sell many, therefore isn't the comparison pointless?

I am not pricing up any branded goods. I compare like for like product. Own brand with same weight.

For example

Aldi chicken breast 300g to Tesco brand chicken breast 300g

Aldi popadoms 150g compared to Tesco brand popadoms 150g

Aldi stock cubes 50g to Tesco brand stock cubes 50g

I agree with this. I visit Lidl from time to time as there is one in my road so will drop in for milk etc but I can't do a whole shop there as they just don't have anything. I'd say they really only have basics mainly.

I generally shop at Sainsbury’s via delivery. I can’t be doing with Aldi / Lidl on a weekend and sadly I work full time.

I’ve done a bit of research via those comparison sites and I don’t think the difference in price is significant now. Most of the supermarkets do price match on certain things. I have a friend who works for Sainsbos and although she can’t give me a discount obviously she has advised me re how to optimise what you buy to save money.

We are like you with Sainsbury's. The Nectar prices and deals are definitely worth taking in to account and often are targeted at the things you buy often. Also I am now so used to Smart shop that I couldn't be doing with anything else for my big shop. On one occasion when Sainsbury's Smart shop system was down we just turned straight around and went to Tesco instead so that we could use their equivalent. We do have a Tesco club card too but don't shop there as often so probably don't see the same benefits.

A while back we decided to try Aldi to see if we made significant savings. We usually found that, although the price at the Aldi till looked less, there were always a small number of items on our list that they didn't have. By the time we had called at Sainsbury's to get those items then the final total wasn't much different.

We don’t have an Aldi nearby but we have a Lidl. As a meat and dairy free household we eat a lot of lentils and beans. Lidl does not have the variety at all. What it does have are price matched with Sainsbury’s.

We find other things very similar on price with Sainsbury’s. We mostly buy budget range except preserved tomatoes. Rice and pasta often work out cheaper. Tofu always works out cheaper, if lidl even have it. We just go to Lidl for nappies, which are definitely cheaper and also fit better. I think their produce is good quality too, but we go to the grocer for that and seasonal things are definitely cheaper there.