20 own brand heroes to slash your shopping bills by €43!
Shoppers could save €54 a week by switching just 20 products to own brand items that are just as good – or better – than the leading brands
Shoppers could save €43 a week by switching just 20 products to own brand items that are just as good – or better – than the leading brands
That’s the conclusion we can make after sampling a range of high-quality own-brand goods that Aldi and Lidl are using to take on the big brands.
Those same big brands have been ripping us off for years, despite staunch customer loyalty.
Recent reports suggest that many major brands even took advantage of confusion to increase their prices by more than rampant inflation during the cost of living crisis. Grrrr.
And customers are increasingly switching to the supermarket’s own label goods in response.
We’re all familiar with the own-brand labels that are pretty basic but very cheap.
But now supermarkets are upping their gamne with fancier ‘own-label’ items that claim to rival big brand names on taste and quality.
Tesco shoppers will be familiar with its Finest range, while Dunnes offers Simply Better. Both do a great job of giving shoppers a better deal.
More recently Aldi and Lidl have got in this act. Both are offering a growing range of higher quality own-label alternatives to the major brands.
This week I sampled 21 products and found that own brand versions were better in seven cases – and just as good in 13. The branded product clearly won out only once, in my view (and you can guess one! – see panel).
Some of these own-label products are tastier (in my opinion) and even more importantly, healthier.
Here are the Magnificent 7 Aldi and Lidl products that beat the big brands at their own game:
Chocolate bars: I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic a few years ago but brought my blood sugar levels back to normal by being careful about my sugar intake.
And I am not alone – hundreds of thousands of Irish people are believed to be pre-diabetic, on the verge of serious health issues if they don’t do likewise.
After my eyes were opened, I was shocked at the enormous sugar levels in what is regarded as chocolate but is really candy, containing more sugar than cocoa.
Most bars contain nearly 60% sugar. I weaned myself onto 50%, then 40% and now I am happy with sugar content of 30%.
I was able to do this thanks to Aldi and Lidl’s chocolate range which goes from 30% cocoa content to 85% (anything not cocoa in chocolate is basically sugar).
It was like weaning yourself off having three spoons of sugar in your tea to none when you grow up and become an adult. You finally taste the actual tea - and the same goes for chocolate. Also, you don’t tend to eat so much as it is the high sugar content that triggers the urge to keep eating more. A few squares will satisfy – you won’t eat the whole bar.
Aldi and Lidl’s chocolate range is not only healthier – but also cheaper. Bars of 100g cost just over a euro – just over half the price of a similarly sized bar of dairy milk.
Chocolates: Aldi’s Moser Roth dark chocolates collection went down a treat on Valentine’s Day despite being half the price of premium brands that have twice as much sugar (and therefore half as much cocoa, which is the real measure of quality).
Ice cream: Almost half of most ice cream content is sugar. But both Aldi and Lidl offer versions with as little as a third of the calories and half the price of premium brands. I can recommend Gianni’s chocolate brownie ice cream in Aldi and would choose it over my previous favourite Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food for health and taste reasons (the latter now seems too sweet).
Protein bars: ‘protein bars’ are another low-sugar product that have boomed in recent years. I’ve been a fan of Fulfil, an Irish company whose products are now widespread. But they are quite expensive. My favourite – peanut and caramel – costs over €3 a bar – or €6.90 for three in Tesco (which is a good deal for this product). Aldi and Lidl both offered many versions of protein bars that I never liked much….until Aldi’s Harvest Morn came along. This is delicious – even nicer than Fulfil bars - at just over half the price.
Fancy tea: Like many people who value their sleep, I shun caffeine and drink ‘relaxing tea’ in the evening. Up to recently, this was a pricey habit. Twinings ‘Sleep’ brand was my favourite with a spiced apple and camomile flavour. But this costs over a fiver for just 20 tea bags. Aldi brought out their own version with similar ingredients that I now actually prefer. Cost: just €1.29.
Marmalade: I do like some thick cut orange marmalade on my toast in the morning. Old Time Irish used to be my go-to brand. But I’ve been converted to both Aldi and Lidl’s versions which cost just 49c - less than ONE SIXTH of the price.
Washing Powder. Aldi’s Almat Bio is not only the best value washing powder – it was, incredibly, voted the product of the year for 2023 by respected consumer champion Which? magazine, beating Dyson’s best devices and even the new iPhone 15. ‘Nuff said.
Thirteen items that matched the big brands...
Most products we tried seemed much the same the same whether you paid for a well-known brand, or bought a discount store’s label.mean, cheap eggs, milk, and white bread just taste like dear eggs milk and white bread. Do we really want to pay for the nose for them for the sake of a label?
Both Lidl and Aldi chocolate digestives taste like McVities to me at just over a quarter of the price.
We tested Helmann’s and Heinz mayonnaise and ketchup before versus the discount store versions and found little difference.
Another pricey branded product is Himalayan Rock Salt, which sounds like it was lovingly hewn out of Mount Everest by a team of Sherpas.
It wasn’t. It was more likely dragged out of a swamp near Islamabad in Pakistan, which is where most of it actually comes from.
You could pay €5.99 for 110g with a premium brand label. You can also pay 99c for a grinder of the same size with Aldi.
Or you could get 750g in an old-style but comparatively massive plastic salt container that really ‘earns its salt’ by costing just 45c!
And one that never will.... don't touch my Barry's Tea
Not all big-name branded products can be easily replaced. And I think you know the one I’m talking about…
Yes…it was Barrys Tea!
I won’t beat around the tea bush here: I am a Barrys man. Brought up in Cork, I won’t drink anything else.
Aldi and Lidl’s basic own brand teas - McGrath’s and Fallon’s – I find a bit ‘watery’.
But both chains have brought out more upmarket versions.
Lidl has McGrath’s Masterblend, while Aldi now has Fairtrade Reserve.
I tried them both this week. And they are very decent, reasonably strong, teas. I liked and would happily drink both.
But do they measure up to Barry’s? Not quite - for me anyway. But they will probably appeal to others and at just €1.55 compared to over twice that for Barry’s they are well worth a try!
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