Aldi and Lidl are increasing their share of the grocery market in both the US and the UK.
They offer shoppers some of the lowest prices as well as a selection of time-limited items.
I visited Aldi and Lidl stores in the UK to see how they compare and how they keep prices down.
German discount grocer Aldi first came to the UK in 1990, with rival Lidl arriving four years later.
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Both have a similar number of stores in the UK – Aldi has more than 970 and Lidl has more than 920 – but Aldi has a slightly bigger market share. Both are becoming more popular as people try to save money. They're expanding rapidly in the US, too.
Aldi and Lidl have remarkably similar approaches. They're both famed for their low prices, promotions, focus on efficiency, and rotating selection of time-limited items. Both sell mainly own-label products that often mimic big brands, too.
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I visited Aldi and Lidl stores in the UK to see how they compare and whether I could spot the strategies they use to keep prices down.
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The stores I visited were standalone sites with their own parking lots in largely residential suburbs of London. Because Aldi and Lidl stores only stock a small selection of brands, they typically have much less floor space than other grocery stores, which means lower property costs. Both chains' stores are about 18,000 square feet.
But inside, both stores seemed relatively spacious, with wide aisles and shelves at sensible heights. The displays were laid out simply, with none of the frills that you may find in some other stores.
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At both Aldi and Lidl, it's quite common to see staff restocking when you visit.
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Rather than unpacking products in rows on the shelves, the discounters display them in the crates and boxes they're delivered in to save on labor.
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There were a few empty crates dotted around both stores after customers had taken items.
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In some cases this method of stocking the shelves made the products a bit hard to grab, like these four-packs of kitchens rolls in Aldi that you had to tear through plastic wrapping to reach.
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I quickly spotted the bargains at both stores. The Lidl store had a display of six "pick of the week" fruit and vegetables by its entrance, with prices down by as much as 46%.
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Aldi similarly has a "super six" promotion of discounted fruit and vegetables each fortnight, which features heavily in its advertising.
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Across the stores, prices for many items were really low. For example, at Lidl, I spotted numerous types of cereal for less than £1 ($1.15), while at Aldi bananas cost just £0.74 ($0.85) per kilogram, the lowest I'd seen, compared to £0.78 ($0.91) at Tesco, the UK's biggest grocery chain.
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Consumer watchdog Which? says that Aldi and Lidl have been the UK's cheapest supermarkets every month since June 2020, based on the price of an average basket of goods.
But what makes shopping at both Aldi and Lidl confusing is the endless promotions, which makes it hard to tell which items are actually bargains. These bright orange signs advertising promotions with slogans like "When it's gone, it's gone" were dotted throughout the Lidl store, like this random assortment of items that included tea, cereal, and jars of sauces.
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It wasn't clear why these items were chosen for promotion, as they weren't seasonal or approaching their expiration dates. The price labels didn't say whether they were discounted from their previous selling price, either.
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Lidl, for example, store had a huge display of promotional items centered on a Greek theme. Lidl frequently orders in large shipments of products based around a certain cuisine or theme. It seemed like it were trying to clear out its remaining stock of Greek items, but I couldn't tell if it had actually reduced the prices.
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Both stores had sections in the center dedicated to time-limited special offers. The so-called "middle of Lidl" was home to garden furniture, electronics, cooking equipment, pet products, and kids toys. I spotted recipe books, massage guns, £60 ($71) leaf blowers, £50 ($59) kayaks, and £130 ($153) outdoor dining sets.
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At Aldi, meanwhile, I spotted dog car seats, CBD candles, tape, and £200 ($231) lawn mowers. In both stores the aisles were designated as either "Thursday" or "Sunday," which when the stock is refreshed.
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Having one-time buys like these influences customer behavior in two ways. Customers feel a pressure to buy the items up while they're still available, and they want to return to the stores when stock refreshes each week to see what's new.
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Aldi also had some random food items included under its "Specialbuys," including certain varieties of Coca-Cola and Pringles products that it may not stock all the time.
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Lidl is well known in the UK for its bakery, which sells fresh bread, pastries, and cookies at bargain prices. A variety of bread rolls were available for less than £0.30 ($0.37), while pizza slices cost £0.69 ($0.84).
But when we visited the store at around 4 p.m. on a Monday, many of the products had sold out. The bakery section was tucked away at the back of the store – perhaps to force shoppers to walk past other rows of products to get their fresh bread.
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The Aldi store I visited didn't have a fresh bakery counter, though I've previously spotted them in some other Aldi stores. This was perhaps the biggest different between the Aldi and Lidl stores. The lack of bakery could have been to save space or remove the need for specialist labor.
An unusual feature at the Lidl store was a station where you could bag up your own loose nuts. While these are common at zero-waste and organic shops, I'd never spotted them at a Lidl store before. Rather than bringing your own containers, you had to scoop the nuts into plastic bags. A small sign said: "Please refrain from eating loose nuts before purchase."
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Aldi did, however, have something that Lidl didn't – a cash machine, although it was broken when I visited. Because of Aldi's emphasis on using its real estate as efficiently as possible, it surprised me to see this in a prime spot in the middle of the store.
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While Aldi and Lidl both sell some big-name brands, they mainly sell own-label products. Some of their products appear to be based closely on popular brands, and in many cases were displayed right next to them but sold for much lower prices. Younger shoppers are increasingly brand-agnostic, and inflation is pushing more customers to trade down. Coffee sachets made by Nescafé that cost £1.69 ($1.96) were next to Aldi's own-label equivalent Alcafé that cost £0.95 ($0.98). Their boxes look very similar at first glance, and the shelf labels described them both as "frothy coffee sachets."
As well as their basic own-brand products, Aldi and Lidl sold some premium items with fancier packaging and higher price tags. Aldi sold organic chocolate under its "Moser Roth" range for twice the price per 100 grams of its generic own-brand label.
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Here are the three different own-brand pasta labels Aldi sold, with a budget, mid-range, and higher-end offering.
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Both stores emphasized the locality of their produce. Signs inside the store and the packaging highlighted which meat and dairy products were British. The stores were awash with union jacks as well as slogans like "big on British."
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Overall, the particular Lidl store I visited seemed tidier than the Aldi store. The Aldi store had lots of empty boxes and jumbled displays, as well as some inventory gaps. And some products were in random places, which I put down to customers.
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One of the refrigerators had been leaking when I visited, too.
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And when I was trying to buy eggs at Aldi, the first two boxes I opened had a cracked egg in, while the third was just completely missing one.
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The Aldi store I visited just had cashier-operated checkouts.
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I went at around 4:15 p.m. on a weekday, and had to stand in line for quite a few minutes to pay. Like at other stores, Aldi and Lidl both used the space behind the conveyor belt to plug last-minute items shoppers may have forgotten as well as snacks and treats. These included batteries, chewing gum, and small packs of peanuts.
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Not all the checkouts were open, and this one had been used by customers to dump unwanted items.
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At the Lidl store, meanwhile, you could pay either with a cashier or at a self-service checkout. While self-service facilities have been multiplying dramatically at British supermarkets over the last decade, they're more of a recent phenomenon at Aldi and Lidl, both of which are known for their fast-scanning staff. I've spotted self-service checkouts at other Aldi stores, but not the one I visited for this article.
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Aldi and Lidl stores are designed to maximize efficiency. This includes bag packing. Rather than customers packing their bags at the checkouts like at other UK supermarkets, at the discounter stores shoppers simply put their scanned items back in their baskets to save on time. A table behind the checkouts gives customers space to then sort their purchases into bags.
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But this can sometimes make the checkout process stressful because the staff usually scan very quickly and it requires more effort from the shopper. At Aldi and Lidl the expectation is that you unload your items onto the conveyor belt, reload them into your basket or cart after they've been scanned, then unload them at the table and pack them into bags.
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Although both grocery chains has apps, only Lidl has a loyalty program. This gives customers discounts and special offers based on how much they spend.
I bought a similar basket of goods at both shops and spent around £22 ($25.40) at each. The prices were very similar.
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Both stores weren't as sleek as some other grocery chains. Some of the cost-cutting measures – like selling products straight out of their delivery cases and scanning rapidly – can be frustrating, but customers visit them for their cheap prices, not for a luxurious experience.
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And for some customers, it can also be annoying that these stores don't have a wide selection of brands, often just selling one or two leaders in each product category, plus an own-brand version. But the limited range can help make the shopping easier to navigate for customers because they don't have as many products to choose between, and their store-own brands are often priced much lower.
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The use of time-limited promotions is a great way of luring customers in. But with so many signs throughout the store touting special offers, it was hard to tell where the real bargains were – especially because many of the price labels didn't actually say whether the products were discounted or just available for a short time period.
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And the endless displays of promotions made the stores hard to physically navigate, too – chocolate, cereal bars, and candies, for example, were displayed in Aldi in the Specialbuys section as well as their own dedicated section. If you were buying cereal bars and didn't have time to look down every aisle, you might miss these items.
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But ultimately, I can see why more and more shoppers are flocking to Aldi and Lidl – their compact size and limited range of products make them quicker to shop at and their no-frills approach keeps prices down. Attractive packaging and eye-catching displays are nice, but as inflation continues to bite I think that more customers will start to focus on price as the main differentiating factor between grocery chains.
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