Worcester Food Shop Price Comparison. Do you go for the cheapest, or most convenient place to do a food shop? Written by Rosie Bramwell.
Taking a fake shopping list into six local food shops in Worcester clearly shows the difference in prices. But do you go for the cheapest, or most convenient place to do a food shop?
Sometimes, it is easy to pop into a shop every time you run out of something. But this is where the pennies add up. Working out a weekly food shop and budget can help you save up in the long run – even if it’s only a little extra at the end of the month.
Cost of Living on a student budget
With the current cost of living crisis, it can feel quite overwhelming meal planning and food shopping. Knowing where it’s cheap, and local, can make a huge difference. It’s so easy to stop by the Co-op or the student union shop when you need an extra thing or two, but your weekly food shop can soon become expensive.
For example, the cost of 2 pints of milk would only be £1.20 at Iceland, M&S Foodhall and Aldi, but at the Co-op this would cost you £1.35. That 15p may not feel like much, but if you shop cheaper on every item those savings would soon add up and make a noticeable difference.
Planning in advance can also save you extra pennies by doing larger food shops earlier in the semesters. Supermarkets, such as Asda, do home deliveries for as low as £2 per delivery and sometimes with no minimum spend. Shopping online can help you to stock up on dry foods which can last in your cupboard for several months.
What did I do?
To test this out, I created a fake shopping list and went around six Worcester food shops to work out the totals from each place. In my list I included vegetables, meat, and basics such as bread and milk, choosing particular quantities to look for so that each total was for the exact same items.
The six shops I chose were Aldi, Asda, Iceland, M&S Foodhall, Tesco Express and the Co-op. These are all shops within 15 minutes walking distance of both campuses and the city centre. Walking through Worcester, I popped into each of these food shops and took photos of price labels. I then took these photos and worked out my totals for each shop.
To see how our local supermarkets are combatting the cost of living crisis, I repeated my shopping trip one year later and noticed a very strange trend in the changing prices.
Food Shop List:
Milk, 2 pints
Cheese, 500g
Butter, 500g
Bread, loaf
Eggs, 6
Pasta, 500g
Mince, 500g
Carrots, 1kg
Potatoes, 1kg
Juice, 1 litre
The Food Shop Totals
| Shop | ALDI | ASDA | Co-Op | Iceland | M&S Foodhall | Tesco Express |
| 2023 Total | £14.44 | £15.22 | £19.97 | £19.45 | £17.19 | £19.05 |
| 2024 Total | £15.55 | £14.46 | £19.56 | £16.67 | £16.09 | £17.65 |
| Price Change | + £1.11 | – 76p | – 41p | – £2.78 | – £1.10 | – £1.40 |
Looking at the table, you can see the cheapest total was originally Aldi, working out as £5.53 cheaper than the most expensive total at the Co-op. Although the local Co-op is close and easy to access for students living on and near to the St Johns campus, Aldi is only a further five minutes down the road.
In only a year, Aldi has now increased its prices so subtly that the exact same shop would cost an extra £1.11 each week. That’s almost an extra £58 a year on just your basics. The biggest difference across the twelve-month span is that prices have actually dropped! ASDA, Aldi, and Iceland all dropped the price of a 2-pint of milk by 5p. The most expensive shop for butter dropped by 25p and a 500g portion of mince meat dropped by 14p.
So, if anything your overall food shop should be a lot cheaper, right?
The decrease in prices is noticeable with each local supermarket, but this won’t fix the entire cost of living crisis. Products, such as olive oil, have come into high demand due to the changing climate affecting the rate of production. A litre bottle of olive oil was only £1.85 at the start of the year is now £8 for the exact same bottle when you order it from Ocado (the food-delivery brand specifically delivering M&S products).
Cheapest Food Shop
ASDA
Aldi
M&S Foodhall
Iceland
Tesco Express
Co-Op
Most Expensive Food Shop
Last year, the price difference between the cheapest shop (Aldi) and the most expensive (Co-Op) was £5.53. This has now dropped by 43p with ASDA now claiming the title of cheapest local supermarket. Saving that extra £5.10 on your weekly food shop can save you over £20 a month that, for some people, could make or break their student budget. Food shopping can be expensive enough as a student, so sometimes those savings can make loans stretch a bit further.
Food Shop Price Variations (And where it was cheapest)
Milk: £1.25 – £1.65
Cheese: £3.49 – £4.50
Butter: 99p – £2.65
Bread: 45p – 95p
Eggs: £1.25 – £1.70
Pasta: 45p – £1
Mince: £2.50 – £4.64
Carrots: 58p – £1.65
Potatoes: 85p – £1.65
Juice: 95p – £2
As a student, a food shop can be complex and time consuming, especially when you’re trying to balance eating healthily with finding the time to prepare meals. Having a simple plan of what to buy fresh can organise and make meal prepping easier, as well as having plenty of small things in your cupboard, such as dry food items, for when your studies may take over.
Although this shopping list isn’t representative of everyone’s dietary requirements and preferences, the difference in prices still varies hugely across shops that are local. Taking a moment to consider cheaper food shops could save you the extra pennies you may need in the future.
For those Seafood-Eaters and Salmon-Lovers
Food Made Good – a blog run by the sustainable restaurant association – released an article discussing the sustainable consumption of Salmon. As of data collected from 2022, the overall consumption of fish and seafood was at an all-time high, reaching 94 million tonnes caught from the wild, and that figure is still rising!
Why is this becoming a concern?
Farming salmon creates concerns for environmental damage, resource demand and animal welfare. Open-net cages are used for harvesting fish and can easily cause damage to the ecosystems they’re invading. Diseases are also easily spread by escaped fish who enter the habitat and compete with the wild populations for food.
“Wild salmon populations are 50% less likely to survive when exposed to salmon farms”, Amelia Cookson, Industrial Aquaculture Campaigner at Feedback.
Resource demand is reducing the biodiversity and food security, as large quantities of seafood are harvested on such a quick and regular basis. Lex Rigby, a Farmed Salmon Campaign Manager at Wildfish says, “It can take as many as 440 wild fish to produce one farmed salmon.”
“The degradation of ecosystems underscores just how unsustainable the industry is”, Catalina Cendoya, Director of The Global Salmon Farming Resistance. to make salmon farming a more sustainable industry, the demand needs to lessen and restaurants need to reduce or remove salmon from their menus. Companies, brands and restaurants should also actively understand and share the journey of supply and demand to support their sources and ensure they are following the most sustainable practices.
As for the regular fish-eaters adding it to their food shop, cutting down on your fish consumption will not drastically impact the sustainability of salmon fishing, but holding your local businesses responsible will! Eating a tuna sandwich once or twice a week won’t be harmful, but it’s good to check exactly where your food is coming from.
Further support for students
More alternatives for students struggling with money, food planning, time for shopping and cooking is the Student Union Community Cupboard. This cupboard is in the foyer between the Hangar and the student union shop. This is where people can donate extra food or take what they need when they are struggling themselves.
Download the rewards apps for your local supermarket. Signing up for a Clubcard, Co-Op card or Nectar card may feel like wasted effort but it helps the pennies add up in the long term. With Tesco, each £1 = 1 club card point, which can be turned into vouchers. Each store also has ‘member prices’ which makes your items cheaper when you scan it at the checkout! ASDA rewards, M&S Sparks card and Tesco Clubcard randomly send offers on the app for ’50p off’ rewards, and occasionally free items with your shop.
The To Good To Go app is another option for people wanting leftover fresh food from supermarkets, cafes and delis. The app allows you to reserve bags which are filled with the food that would be thrown away. It is still fresh and safe to eat, however stores cannot sell food past it’s sell-by-date.
In the midst of a cost of living crisis, prioritising meals and eating regularly is so important, and there are ways to do so without blowing your budget in one go.
