Supermarkets reviewed: compare the best and worst

Discount supermarket Aldi is in joint third place for in-store shopping alongside Iceland and Waitrose. 

Shoppers gave it a solid four-star rating for value for money (no supermarket scored the full five stars). We also crowned Aldi the cheapest supermarket of 2024 after it came out cheaper than any other major supermarket every single time in our monthly price analysis.

However, customers gave it just two stars on every other measure we asked about – everything from store appearance and stock availability to product quality and customer service. Some were fed up with long checkout queues or feeling rushed by cashiers, while others told us their local stores were messy or badly stocked. 

Those bargain prices are hard to resist, though: Aldi’s latest figures revealed its pre-tax profits had more than tripled. 

Last year it closed down its click and collect service and so it no longer appears in our online shopping table. 

Amazon's online grocery shop offers deliveries to a limited number of postcodes. It sells a range of Morrisons, Iceland and Booths products along with own-label items and big-name brands such as Heinz and Kellogg's.

Amazon Fresh has languished at or near the bottom of our online supermarkets table for the past three years, and this year was no exception. 

Once again it earned a mediocre customer score with ratings to match, including two stars for value for money, product range and communication. 

Still, customers like its speedy same-day and next-day delivery service. One said they ‘love [it] for top-up shops’. 

Amazon Fresh recently scrapped its online grocery offering in five cities but still delivers to London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester. 

Depending on the area, you can also buy groceries from Co-op on Amazon, Iceland on Amazon and Morrisons on Amazon, with orders delivered by the supermarkets. Amazon.co.uk also sells non-perishable groceries nationwide.

We didn’t receive enough responses to rate its checkout-free physical stores, which are almost all in London.

Asda, the UK’s third-biggest supermarket failed to impress customers, coming joint last for in-store shopping (alongside Morrisons) and bottom for online shopping.

It’s been at or near the bottom of our in-store table for at least the last six years of our survey. This year it picked up mostly two-star ratings including for customer service, store appearance and stock availability. 

Several customers told us their local stores often have bare shelves and unmanned checkouts. Online shoppers awarded Asda a middling three stars for delivery and the availability of time slots but were unimpressed by its product range and customer service.

Despite Asda often being named one of the cheapest major supermarkets in our monthly supermarket price comparison, survey respondents were clearly aware that price and value don't necessarily mean the same thing - it got just two stars for value for money as well.

This might explain why Asda has been losing shoppers, with its slice of the grocery market shrinking in recent years. New boss Allan Leighton – who turned around the chain’s fortunes in the late 90s – has pledged to ‘restore Asda’s DNA’ by, among other things, reviving its Rollback pricing. 

Instead of trying to lure in shoppers with loyalty prices, its membership scheme – Asda Rewards – offers cashback on selected products.

Iceland is joint third for in-store shopping alongside Aldi and Waitrose.

Shoppers love the frozen-food specialist’s competitive prices – it was one of only three retailers to earn four stars for value for money for in-store shopping (with Aldi and Lidl). 

But they were less impressed by checkout queues, the quality of fresh products and the lack of staff to help with queries. Although the frozen-food specialist has increased its range of fresh and non-frozen items in the last couple of years, some customers think it’s still too limited. 

For online shopping, Iceland is mid-table and shoppers were largely satisfied, praising its slick delivery service and helpful drivers. It only scored poorly in one area – for its choice of substitutes.

It’s the smallest bricks-and-mortar chain in our table and reportedly aims to double the number of its Food Warehouse outlets in the next decade – larger, out-of-town stores that stock a wider array of branded products, fresh products and bulk packs. 

In our survey, 83% of Iceland shoppers had used regular stores and 37% had shopped at The Food Warehouse.

Unsurprisingly, Lidl does well for value for money with its four stars only matched in-store by Aldi and Iceland. No supermarket received five stars for value this year, so it’s one of the most highly rated on this measure.

The discount supermarket is always close behind Aldi in our monthly grocery basket price comparison, with the average price difference between them just £1.99 across 2024 before Lidl’s loyalty discounts are taken into account.

Like its old rival, Lidl earned just two stars on every other measure including store appearance, queuing time and the quality of its own-label and fresh products. However, it has a lower customer score than Aldi and is near the bottom of our in-store table. 

That said, it’s still got a successful formula: Lidl is the fastest-growing bricks-and-mortar supermarket and the third-biggest chain in London.

Its loyalty scheme is one big difference between the rivals – it offers personalised coupons, lower prices on selected products and freebies when you spend a certain amount. 

Another is that its stores have popular bakeries – it sells 122 all-butter croissants every minute.

Morrisons joins Asda at the bottom of our in-store shopping table for the second year in a row. Its poor-to-middling ratings include just two stars for the availability and helpfulness of staff, overall customer service and value for money. 

Shoppers had mixed experiences, with several complaining of cramped stores and poorly manned checkouts. ‘Morrisons has gone downhill,’ said one, which may explain why the UK's fifth-largest supermarket chain has lost market share in recent years.  

Customers rated Morrisons slightly better for online grocery shopping, awarding it four stars for customer service and three for value. The minimum order amount for delivery is £25 – lower than most competitors. 

Last year it revamped its loyalty scheme – Morrisons More – introducing member-only discounts to win back customers, though it currently has far fewer than Tesco and Sainsbury’s. Last Christmas, a technical glitch meant shoppers were unable to access More Card promotions.

M&S is the best supermarket for in-store shopping for the fourth year running and a Which? Recommended Provider. 

It was the only supermarket to earn the maximum five stars for the quality of its own-label and fresh items as well as its range of products – pretty impressive given it only stocks a sprinkling of brands and used to be best known for clothes and convenience food.

M&S was also the only supermarket apart from Waitrose to clinch five stars for store appearance. It was rated an average three stars for value for money – on a par with Tesco and Sainsbury's and better than its upmarket rival.

One customer explained the appeal: ‘It’s a real treat to shop there – great-quality products that I don’t mind spending a bit more on.’ 

In the past couple of years, M&S has targeted the weekly shop by expanding its foodhalls and freezing or lowering the price of staples. This strategy is paying off: it reported an 8% year-on-year rise in food sales in its half-year results. 

Ocado is an online-only supermarket and consistently a top performer in our customer satisfaction survey: it’s joint first with Tesco for online shopping and a Which? Recommended Provider for the second year running. 

Shoppers like Ocado's range and own-label products, rating both a very good four stars. They were also impressed by the availability of collection/delivery slots, communication and overall customer service from the online supermarket.

One loyal customer told us ‘Ocado gives the best all-round experience of all the online retailers’, while a recent convert said they ‘will not use anyone else from now on’. No wonder it’s one of the UK’s fastest-growing supermarkets, if still a minnow compared with rival Waitrose. 

During the cost of living crisis, Ocado started price-matching 10,000 products against Tesco, but it’s still usually one of the costlier supermarkets in our monthly price comparison. It recently expanded its own-label range and is the only online retailer to sell M&S-branded groceries. 

Just over half of the Ocado shoppers we surveyed had a Smartpass, which costs £8.99 per month for free deliveries at any time or £4.99 for deliveries Tuesday to Thursday. Smartpass also offers exclusive discounts, making it Ocado’s version of a loyalty scheme. It’s on the expensive side, but worth considering if you get more than one Ocado delivery a month.

Sainsbury's put in a solid performance in our customer satisfaction survey. The UK's second-largest supermarket is joint third for online grocery shopping and mid-table for in-store.

Online shoppers gave it four stars for the availability and quality of its products as well as communication and customer service, plus the full five for delivery. It’s a Which? Recommended Provider (WRP) for online. 

One customer said its drivers ‘are always really friendly and helpful’. 

It’s not a WRP in-store as it didn’t score quite as highly, but still earned three or four stars across the board. Several shoppers praised its ‘spacious’, ‘well-stocked’ stores. 

Sainsbury’s has followed Tesco’s lead and introduced loyalty prices and Aldi pricematching in the past few years. It offers a lot of loyalty discounts, where Nectar members pay less for some items, so if you aren’t a member you’ll often pay more.

It was the first supermarket to match some of Aldi’s prices in its convenience outlets, but has yet to offer member-only Nectar promotions in Local stores.

Tesco has climbed our in-store ranking, placing second and earning a very respectable four stars for store appearance, product range and stock availability. 

One shopper said of their local store: ‘It’s well-lit, clean and tidy, with lots of discounts, friendly staff, and plenty of self-service checkouts.’ 

The UK's biggest supermarket is also joint first for online grocery shopping (alongside Ocado), with an impressive customer score of 79% and five stars for delivery. 

Tesco is often the cheapest of the major chains in our monthly supermarket price comparison but fell down slightly on value for money – both in-store and online shoppers only awarded it a middling three stars.

Nevertheless, its strategy of offering lower prices to Clubcard members and matching Aldi’s prices on essential items is paying off: it's increased its already substantial slice of the grocery market and is on track to make record profits in 2025.

Tesco isn't a Which? Recommended Provider because we are concerned about the accessibility of its Clubcard loyalty scheme, which is only available to over-18s. Which? is calling on supermarkets to widen access to their loyalty schemes, particularly where they unlock big discounts.

Waitrose is joint third for in-store shopping alongside Aldi and Iceland. It was the only supermarket apart from M&S to notch up four stars for the availability and helpfulness of its staff and overall customer service, plus the full five stars for store appearance. 

One customer told us: ‘I enjoy browsing because it’s a great store to walk around.’ 

The upmarket grocer is also one of the best supermarkets for online shopping, placing second with an excellent customer score of 78% and a clutch of four-star ratings including for the availability of time slots for collection/delivery and its delivery service.

Despite this, we haven’t made it a Which? Recommended Provider as it only got two stars for value for money. ‘I love it but my wallet doesn’t,’ said one shopper.

Waitrose is regularly the most expensive supermarket in our monthly price comparison, too.