persianpower

What is the cheapest, chain supermarket in London?

stut

The cheapest supermarkets are generally Lidl and Aldi (also Netto, but there are not many of those in London), which have a low-cost model, and sell little-know brands from Central Europe. You can get some genuine bargains here (Aldi has a great '6 for 59p' offer on fresh fruit & veg), and they have some very random sales on occasion. However, you couldn't do a full week's shop here, unless you have very odd, and probably rather unbalanced eating habits.

Next up are Morrison's, Asda and Tesco, all of whom claim to be cheaper than the other, but basically, the whole load of them (plus Sainsbury's, who are marginally more expensive) fix prices between them and have very marginal differences, however many price checks they run.

Sainsbury's are a little dearer, but generally have better fresh produce and own brand goods, and Waitrose are top of the heap, with excellent own brand produce.

The cheapest can often be local markets or stalls, particularly for fresh produce. There's some greengrocers' stalls around Holborn, where I work, whose prices and quality put the major chains to shame.

However, these are just overall categories: it really depends what you want to buy and when. If you buy a load of fresh veg from Waitrose on a Sunday afternoon, you'll probably end up with much better quality stuff (closer to expiration date - if you believe in them) for half the price of Asda.

Alternatively, if you only buy branded convenience foods, you'll probably find Tesco and the other pile-'em-high merchants cheapest.

It also depends on the type of shop you visit. The full-size supermarkets (plus Waitrose) have decent ranges of well-priced fresh produce, whereas the 'Local' and 'Metro' stores have shockingly poor ranges of anything that isn't pre-packaged and packed to the gills with salt and sugar.

There's also Iceland (who specialise in frozen produce - some of which can be OK if it's suitable for freezing, but most of which is simply awful) and M&S, including M&S simply food, who do very high quality, adjective-laden fresh produce, at quite a premium. They tend to be well located (stations, etc) and do good, if over-packaged, lunch food (pre-prepared salads and sandwiches), but I refuse to buy apples and oranges in trays, in cellophane, wrapped up, etc. Their ready meals are among the better of the genre.

So, sorry, there isn't a simple answer

Capricorn

Look out for Budgens too. They're local to London and suburbs rather than a nationwide chain.

stut

Oh, yes, there's lots of little local ones like Budgens.

They do have branches elsewhere though - I've been to the one in York... The one in Sandy is the main shop in town!

graraps

While I think the summary you've written is superb, I will disagree with this.
Netto is indeed weird and cannot be relied on for a weekly shop, but Aldi and (especially) Lidl have pretty much everything you need in terms of food... They don't stock organic duck meat or sevruga caviar, but they always have veggies, meats, fish, breads, eggs, cheeses, spices, pastas and great wines. The only thing that's missing are small non-food items that you may happen to need (e.g. corkscrews, sieves).

stut

My experience is probably coloured by the rather small branch of Aldi we have locally, graraps!

I do find they lack the range of (particularly salad) vegetables that I look for, and ditto for dairy products, fruit juices and fresh meat/fish (the frozen fish looks pretty decent, mind). Of course, it varies according to your eating habits and branch. Our local one also seems to vary the chilled foods it stocks rather wildly, making it hard to shop consistently for anything other than a top-up.

This may, of course, explain why it's usually half-empty...

LapLap

People who use and depend on these stores tend to know when the stocks are replenished. This is certainly the case for the Lidl in Romford.
Both Aldi and Lidl offer weekly specials which can be learnt about through pamphlets or in their webpages. When genuine bargains are offered, their core clientele swoop on the stores the moment they go on sale. Within a few hours those buys can have disappeared.
People who shop there in the evenings and weekends don't usually see these occasional rushes.
It's rarely food items that merit this kind of attention though, for instance, my father was able to nab one of these store's last remaining satellite dishes that became available is way. I like these stores for things like Christmas lights (and olive oil, and tinned herring, and pumpernickel bread come to think of it - there are usually some interesting delicacies from the Continent)

stut

Ah yes, many a time I've tried to get the cheap cycling gear from Lidl/Aldi weekly specials. The London ones seem to be targeted now by eBay resellers.

LapLap

You may be giving the OP ideas...

It is legit though.