Cash-strapped shoppers shift towards discount stores, says Harris survey

Shoppers are shopping more at the hard discounters as the economy worsens, the latest Harris Interactive (HI) Omnibus survey for Food Manufacture has revealed.

These findings emerged as the latest Office for National Statistics figures showed sales volume in food outlets overall fell 0.1% in the three months to September.

Out of 827 people across the UK who professed in the HI survey to shop at Aldi, Lidl and Netto, more than a third said that they had bought food and drink there more frequently in the past six months.

"Just over half of those were shopping at such stores with the same frequency as six months ago, as opposed to 36% who said the frequency had increased due to the credit crunch," said HI researcher Ioannis Kranitis.

The largest growth in frequency in terms of age ranges was among those aged 55 or older.

Of those who visited the discounters, a quarter said they shopped at Aldi, 28% said they were regulars at Lidl and 8% said they bought products at Netto.

From a total of 1,935 people surveyed, the products most likely bought from these retailers were fresh fruit and vegetables, canned food and frozen food.

Almost three in five believed the quality of own-label products in the discount chains was as good as or better than the supermarket equivalents. And seven out of 10 thought the quality of food in the discounters had improved in the past six months.

Predictably, more than a third believed prices were lower in at least some of the discounters' product ranges.