Over recent months there has been a change in the trend of shoppers in the UK. Many households have been faced with a surge in the cost of bills, borrowing costs, and other living costs. One of the living costs that has gone up hugely over the past year is the price of food, and the average household has seen the weekly or monthly grocery bill go up by a huge amount, which has simply added to the financial strain that most households are already facing.

As a result of the huge increase in food costs many people have turned to discount supermarkets in order to cut back on the cost of their food shopping, and this has been reflected in an increase in sales at stores such as Aldi, Netto, and Lidl. Many consumers have ditched the big name stores such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Asda because of the rising cost of food and household goods.

Furthermore, a recent report claims that those that switch to a discount supermarket such as those named above could actually save around 20% on their shopping bills, which in he current financial climate could prove extremely useful to most households. Research was carried out by the consumer campaign group, Which?, and officials from the group claimed that there was a significant difference at the checkout when shopping at one of the discount stores compared to one of the traditional supermarket giants.

Using a list of fifteen items researchers compared the costs. It was found that the fifteen items at Tesco cost 21% more than at one of the discount supermarkets, Lidl. At Aldi the price was lower than Tesco by around 18%. More and more people are turning to the discount stores in order to cut the cost of their weekly or monthly shop, and this is making the bigger name supermarkets nervous with regards to how to hang on to their client base.

In fact many of the major supermarket giants have been taking action to try and increase custom and win back customers from the discount stores. Many have reduced the cost of thousands of items, launched greater discount products, and relaunched own branded items in order to help consumers to cut their grocery bills and come back to the bigger name stores. However, the discount supermarkets have also been fighting to keep a hold of the new found custom through increased advertising and improvement in their ranges of products.

One official from Which? stated: ‘Which? members have already become wise to the concept and rated Lidl and Aldi higher in this year’s retail survey. You weren’t impressed by the shopping experience or service, but you were happy with the prices.’

Which? officials added: ‘Tesco was cheapest for two of the 15 items we bought - milk-chocolate digestives and mature cheddar. Aldi came out cheapest on five items and Lidl on three, while all three stores matched prices for bananas at 67p and salted butter at 85p.’

Which? also said: ‘We didn’t attempt to compare the quality of the ingredients but when it comes to the contents of the cheapest food, the discount stores did just as well and sometimes better than Tesco.’