I shopped at 'UK's fastest growing supermarket' and compared it with Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons

I bought 'essential range' bread, butter, bacon, beans, tomato soup and coffee to see how the prices compared

Marks & Spencer has been named the 'fastest growing supermarket' in the UK, according to research group Kantar, thanks to sales growing by 12.4 per cent last month in its food halls. Experts say it is beating the likes of Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons.

As we are still in a cost of living crisis, this seems surprising to me. Surely most people are choosing the cheapest option when it comes to grocery shopping?

Last week, I popped into the large store in Longbridge to see what it is about M&S food hall that's attracting so many shoppers. Whilst there, I picked up some essentials - bread, butter, beans, coffee, etc - to see how the prices compared with the same items from Lidl, Aldi and Morrisons, the latter of which was recently named as the 'cheapest supermarket' by one of our sister titles.

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First up, I was surprised by the prices of some of the items. M&S has cut the price of more than 200 essential products, such as coffee, rice, cereal and baked beans, as part of its 'Remarksable Value' range.

However, unlike Morrisons' 'Savers' and Aldi's 'Essentials' ranges, these products aren't labelled up as 'Remarksable' so they're not always easy to spot. Instead you have to check the shelves for grey stickers declaring these items as 'Remarksable Value'.

I'm not sure why this is. The only thing I can think is that perhaps M&S customers don't want items labelled 'value' in their baskets and store cupboards.

I bought bread, butter, soup, coffee, bacon and beans from M&S and Morrisons' Savers range together with the cheapest varieties of the same products from Aldi and Lidl. The latter two supermarkets have a limited 'essentials' range as they each tend to sell just one version of each product.

Where there was more than one choice available, I opted for the cheapest version. Here's what I found.

M&S 'Remarksable Value' basket

M&S Longbridge is a huge store with a large food hall. You can enter via the clothing department, going through a 'pumpkin archway' to celebrate Halloween, or from an entrance direct from the free car park, which takes you straight into the flower section. There's a deli, a bakery full of tempting goods, lots of ready meals in the fridges and a wine and beer section.

I was only interested in the 'Remarksable Value' range so I had to trawl the shelves searching for the best deals. This is what I spent:

M&S tomato soup 65p

M&S butter £1.80

M&S thick white loaf 75p

M&S back bacon £2.65 for 300g

M&S baked beans cost 45p

M&S coffee £1.10 for 100g

Total: £7.40

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Morrisons Savers basket

At Morrisons, it was the Savers range I wanted to look at because it's this collection of products that's garnering attention for price-matching or beating the budget retailers. This is what I spent:

Savers tomato soup 55p

Savers butter £1.69

Savers white loaf 47p

Back bacon £1.45 for 300g

Savers baked beans 27p

Savers Coffee 99p for 100g

Total: £5.42

Aldi's Everyday Essentials basket

At Aldi, the store is smaller, with just five aisles compared to way more than double this at Morrisons. It made it easier to find what I was looking for. Here's what I bought:

Tomato soup 62p

Butter £1.79

White loaf 47p

Back bacon £4.49 for bumper 1kg pack (smallest value pack available, which equates to £1.35 for a 300g pack)

Baked beans 28p

Rich roast coffee £1.99 for 200g (99p for 100g)

Total: £9.64 (for a much larger pack of bacon, would actually be £6.50 if Aldi sold a 300g pack of essentials bacon)

Lidl basket

Lidl doesn't appear to have a 'basics' range. The store was a similar size to Aldi but also had an instore bakery. Here's what I bought:

Cream of tomato soup 62p

West Country butter £1.79

Soft medium white loaf 74p

Back bacon £1.45 for 300g

Baked beans 42p

Rich roast coffee £1.99 for 200g (99p for 100g)

Total: £7.01

Overall verdict

So, at first glance it appeared that Aldi was considerably more expensive than Lidl, Morrisons and even M&S. However, this was because you could only buy larger packs of bacon and coffee. If you compare like-for-like sizes of the items then the prices are very similar.

Aldi's bacon worked out to be 45p per 100g, which is the same price as Morrisons and Lidl, it was just sold in a bigger pack. It was cheaper than M&S's bacon, which was 88p per 100g.

Coffee cost 99p per 100g across all stores (you just had to buy bigger jars at Lidl and Aldi) whilst it was £1.10 at M&S. Butter was cheapest from Morrisons - at £1.69 for 250g compared to £1.79 for the same amount from Aldi and Lidl and £1.80 from M&S.

Bread cost 47p per loaf from Aldi and Morrisons but it was 74p from Lidl and 75p from M&S. The price of baked beans differed considerably too. They cost just 27p per tin from Morrisons, 28p a tin from Aldi, 42p a tin from Lidl and 45p a tin from M&S. Tomato soup was just 55p a tin from Morrisons, 62p a tin from Lidl and Aldi but 65p a tin from M&S.

As you can see, the prices were fairly comparable but still a few pence more expensive at M&S every time. Whilst M&S is certainly becoming more affordable for some of the basics, I reckon you'll still spend more shopping here than you would at Aldi, Lidl and Morrisons. The overall basket price was nearly £2 more at M&S than it was at the cheapest, which was Morrisons.