The supermarket shoppers are abandoning amid the cost of living crisis

RISING food prices as a result of a sharp increase in inflation has seen struggling Britons turn to cheaper supermarkets.

On Wednesday, the consumer prices index (CPI) inflation was revealed to be 11.1 percent in October, jumping to a 41-year-high from 10.1 percent the previous month.

The increase was driven by higher energy bills and more expensive food, with essentials such as milk and pasta leaping in price.

Now a Yougov poll has shown that one in six shoppers have switched their main supermarket because of the ongoing cost of living crisis – with switchers most likely to have abandoned Tesco.

The poll, which was conducted in early September, found that 28 percent of shoppers who have made a switch have moved from Tesco, far ahead of those from Asda and Sainsbury’s (both 16 percent ).

The biggest beneficiary has been Aldi, with 41 percent of responders saying they had made the discount retailer their new supermarket.

Aldi’s rival, Lidl, also saw a substantial increase of shoppers, with 24 percent switching to them.

The results come after Aldi boss Giles Hurley revealed that customers were switching to them “in droves” in an effort to save money.

He told the BBC in September that Aldi, which has overtaken Morrisons to become the fourth largest supermarket in the UK, had gained 1.5 million customers in just 12 weeks.

Hurley added: “Customers are prioritising value like never before and switching their

Last month, Tesco announced falling half-year profits and warned that annual earnings will be towards the lower end of expectations amid soaring inflation and as customers trade down in the cost of living crisis.

The group warned of “significant” inflation pressures and a return in food shopper habits to those seen before the pandemic, which it said were being compounded by customer moves to rein in spending.

In another sign of those at the sharp end of the crisis, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the poorest tenth of UK households witnessed the sharpest jump in the cost of living last month, experiencing a 12.5 percent rise in their living costs for the month.

The richest 10 percent of households experienced inflation of 9.6 percent in October.

They said the gap is largely driven by increases in energy and food costs as poorer households spent “a greater proportion of their expenditure” on these compared with the top tenth. Source