'I did my big shop at Britain's poshest supermarket for just £50' (2024)

It's the supermarket known as the "poshest" in Britain, said to have the Royal Family among its customers. But Waitroses' reputation for high end and quality produce also tends to mean it has the highest prices of any supermarket chain too.

But now Waitrose is pushing a new agenda - boasting of "new lower prices" across hundreds of products in its stores. The message flashes up if you shop online, while there are labels boasting it on almost every trolley in stores too.

So could the "poshest supermarket" in the land now be offering more value for money than you might think? Well there was only one way to find out.

READ MORE: "Most expensive" supermarket now among cheapest after price drop

I headed to the Waitrose store in Altrincham to purchase a typical basket of goods that would feed me and my two young children across a week. My first impression was that it's a pretty pleasant place to shop - light and airy with well-stocked aisles on my visit.

In a bid to get the best value for money, I mostly stuck to its own brand, Essential Waitrose, across every day products. Many of these products have had price cuts in recent weeks.

But you can also find price cuts on a host of its more premium ranges too including Duchy Organics - the UK's largest own-label organic food and drink brand. On the Waitrose website there's a dedicated section to the price cuts showing where the reductions have been made.

You can expect up to 10 per cent off the price of items like lettuce (80p down from 90p), organic apples (£2.25 down from £2.55) frozen oven chips (£1.75 down from £2) and tins of kidney beans (£1 down from £1.10).

I also noticed that in store there were lots of prominent "Offers" stands at the end of every aisle, boasting an array of goods with special offers and price cuts.

'I did my big shop at Britain's poshest supermarket for just £50' (1)

For those feeling a little flusher, there are also some good deals to be had on Waitrose's meal deals. These can be found in sections through the fresh food aisles.

On my visit there were two different "Dine In" meal deals - a pizza and prosecco one for £15, while the "Dine in for 2" for £12 did seem to be a very good deal. You get a main with two sides and either a starter or dessert - when I totted up the options you could save up to £8 on buying these items individually which was a pretty impressive saving.

There was also a stir fry dine in meal for £7 where you get noodles, sauce, stir fry veg and meat or tofu all in.

On my shop, I found it was worthwhile keeping an eye on the prices for branded goods compared to the Essentials range - as they didn't always work out cheaper. For example, I initially intended to buy the Waitrose own brand of tuna (4 tins for £5), but when I had a good scout of the shelves, I could see it would work out cheaper to buy four tins of John West tuna on offer for £4 instead.

'I did my big shop at Britain's poshest supermarket for just £50' (2)

Heading to the tills with a loaded trolley I wasn't quite sure how much it would all tot up to. But I was pleasantly surprised when it came in at just over £50 in total.

I've found that doing my "big shop" at bigger supermarkets in recent weeks has been stacking up to over £100 - perhaps because I usually tend to stick to branded goods. So to get a big shop at half that price seemed a pretty good result to me.

Here's the breakdown of what I purchased.

The full shop

'I did my big shop at Britain's poshest supermarket for just £50' (3)

(All products are Waitrose Essentials brand except where stated)

Whole chicken small - £3.70

Eggs (6) - £1.30

Back bacon 10 rashers - £3

Beef mince (20% fat) - £2.75

2 pints of whole milk - £1.25

Bunch of bananas - 95p

Raspberries - £2.35

Runner beans - £2.20

Jacket potatoes (4) - 80p

The verdict

'I did my big shop at Britain's poshest supermarket for just £50' (4)

I was pretty pleased to get a full week's shop at Waitrose for £50, given the amount I seem to have been spending on my weekly shop at other supermarkets recently. But naturally on this visit I was focusing on the essentials for a week's worth of meals rather than stocking up on multi-buy offers or non-essential treats.

I couldn't really fault it on quality - particularly on the fresh produce - which was all excellent. The fruit in particular stayed really fresh and tasty.

I was also impressed with a lot of the own brand Essentials produce. So much so I wouldn't want to swap back to named brands after trying the Waitrose own version of Weetabix, chocolate digestive biscuits and their excellent Greek yoghurt.

So how does it all compare to cheaper supermarkets? Well, I decided to compare the prices of the shop I did at Waitrose to Aldi, which is consistently voted the UK's cheapest supermarket.

Naturally, not all goods on the list would compare like-for-like on sizes and style of produce, but for a similar shop I'd be looking at paying £43 at Aldi. That's a whopping £7 difference in price from the Waitrose shop.

But personally I tend to avoid Aldi for fresh fruit and veg these days as I've not been impressed with the quality on previous shops I've made in recent months, and to me that's a false economy to make.

When it came to branded goods, I baulked at the price of some treat items I would usually buy - like Mr Kipling Angel Slices cakes which are priced at £3.95 in Waitrose, when you can get them on offer at Tesco (with clubcard) for £1.45.

Ultimately, it always pays to shop around for branded items like this for the best offers across the big supermarkets. But for its own brand basics I was pretty impressed with what I purchased at Waitrose.

Overall it's good news for shoppers that supermarkets like Waitrose are actively trying to reduce prices across its ranges. We seem to have suffered long enough with rocketing prices across the nation's supermarkets in recent years.