Most customers try shopping at Lidl or Aldi in an attempt to reduce what they spend, but in reality, they only save £5 a month.
Those are the findings of a new report by market research agency Impact Research, which found that shoppers at the UK’s two largest discounters spend £235 a month on average, compared to £240 of claimed monthly spend among non-discounter shoppers.
However, this is set to rise as 21 per cent of Lidl and Aldi customers said they will shop there more often in the future.
The research claimed that the reason most consumers are not making larger savings is because they are only using the discounters for top-up shops.
Just under two quarters of Lidl customers (73 per cent) and around two thirds (63 per cent) of Aldi shoppers said they only used the stores for top-up or specific-item shops. This was significantly higher than the number who said they used the discounters for their primary stock-up shop (27 per cent for Lidl; 37 per cent for Aldi).
The study also found that discounter shoppers are more “promiscuous” and on average have shopped in five grocery shops this year, compared to non-discounters who had only visited three.
“When examining the type of shop Aldi and Lidl customers perform, the research reveals that currently, UK discount shoppers are more likely to use these shops for top up, or specific-item shops,” said Impact Research managing director, Darryl Swift. “This would mean that customers are not making huge savings as they are only buying a small proportion of their shopping here.”
The survey questioned a total of 1,725 shoppers, 1,007 of whom had shopped at a discounter over the last four months compared to 718 who had not.
