The great Aldi vs Lidl challenge

How do Lidl and Aldi compare on price? They’re seen as much the same but it’s hard to tell as Lidl doesn’t publish all prices online and regular comprehensive grocery price surveys are rare in Ireland.

Comparison site Quidu.ie is a great way to compare supermarket prices, excluding Lidl. That’s why Lidl wasn’t included in last week’s grocery price survey, which used

Quidu data.

So this week, we popped down to our local Lidl store to compare it with Aldi.

As you’d expect, Aldi and Lidl are almost ‘neck and neck’ when it comes to price.

Aldi edges it by a nose, coming out €3.72 cheaper on a basket of 27 basic items ranked by the cheapest available in each store.

Remarkably, 15 of the items were identically priced or within one or two cent across the two supermarket chains.

Of the remaining 12 items, Lidl is cheaper for three – bread, beans and apples – with Aldi edging out its competitor for the remaining nine items.

UK surveys and an Irish one from last year also show Aldi has a very slight edge on price.

It’s worth noting that both chains are cheaper than all others when it comes to average prices.

If you randomly picked these items in other shops, you’d pay twice or three times as much, as we showed in another survey last week.

But it’s also worth noting that other supermarkets are no dearer when it comes to ownbrand pricing.

If you were to hunt down the cheapest items in Dunnes, Tesco or SuperValu, for example, you could pay much the same as in Aldi or Lidl.

It’s also worth stressing that quality does matter too, especially for items such as sausages, mince and teabags – and your local butcher might be worth a visit if you want a juicy steak for dinner or a particularly nice joint for your Sunday roast.