How do Trader Joe’s, ALDI’s, and Lidl’s Prices Compare?
Last updated November 2025
German-based discounters ALDI and Lidl, ubiquitous in most of western Europe, continue to expand their U.S. footprints. These chains focus on low costs, and our survey of prices at area grocery stores found them quite inexpensive: Our survey of prices at major grocery stores in seven metro areas found that ALDI’s prices were 20 to 40 percent lower than the all-store average in each area, and Lidl’s were about 15 to 20 percent lower. ALDI’s per-unit prices were even lower than Costco and Sam’s Club.
These savings are partly explained by ALDI’s and Lidl’s smaller-format stores, which have much lower overhead costs than conventional supermarkets.
ALDI and Lidl also benefit from different expectations. Shoppers at conventional supermarkets and Walmart expect to always find their favorite brands in a variety of sizes on the shelves. Like Trader Joe’s, ALDI and Lidl carry mostly their own brands, not national-brand products. ALDI and Lidl do offer some national brands, but overall, selection is limited. In other words, you’ll find some of the most popular brands (Coke, Heinz ketchup, Hellmann’s mayo, etc.) at ALDI and Lidl, but probably only in one size.
So, shoppers at quirky ALDI and Lidl don’t expect wide choices of brands or sizes. Instead, they’re being offered comparable products in exchange for big savings.
Although its prices were higher than ALDI and Lidl, Trader Joe’s still offered savings compared to most traditional supermarket chains. And it continues to earn highly favorable ratings from its customers overall.
We used a modified survey when collecting prices for ALDI, Lidl, and Trader Joe’s and comparing them with conventional supermarkets. Because our market basket of 150 items largely consists of national-brand products, and because these three companies offer mainly their own brands, we couldn’t compare their prices using our standard price survey. Instead, we developed a special survey that included the same fresh produce, meats, and dairy items as in our standard survey, but for conventional grocery stores we substituted their cheapest available comparable store brands. (When comparing prices, we used per-unit pricing—for example, price per ounce.)