That Ocado moment

Janet Street-Porter has a go at Nick Clegg in the Independent:

Nick reveals that his wife is "gravitating towards Sainsbury's from Ocado" in order to save money. WAKE UP LOVE! Haven't the Cleggs heard that Netto, Aldi and Lidl are the shopping destinations of thousands of voters who can't even afford Sainsbury's, let alone Waitrose?

Nick Clegg seems have started something. The Telegraph reckons that his revelation that he has, amongst other belt tightening measures, switched from Ocado to Sainsburys for his weekly shop, "must have resonated with families across the country".

The paper compares prices and finds that Nick Clegg's family could get even better bargains elsewhere:

Analysis of 30 popular items from a range of stores, however, reveals he could have saved even more. A typical weekly basket, worth £76.86 at Ocado, costs £70.69 at Sainsbury's, £69.43 at Tesco and £65.67 at Asda.

I am very disappointed that they didn't include Lidl or Aldi, or indeed using the local market for some items, in their survey. Despite having a name for the place that, allegedly, "chavs shop", Lidl is popular with "foodies". Their buying strategy seems to be misunderstood. Rather than selling cheap produce cheaply, Lidl seem to keep their prices down by bulk buying reasonably quality items across Europe in single lines. So, you might only have one choice of sliced meat, for example, there and the label is in German, but by golly it is cheap. Over at Ocado/Waitrose you have 53 choices of different sliced meat but you pay through the nose to shop where Mrs Bucket shops.