Revealed. Hidden discounts in supermarkets’ fresh counters – up to 40% off meat, fish, cheese etc

We delved into the fresh meat, fish and cheese counters of four supermarkets – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons – and discovered that you could save up to 40% gram for gram for seemingly identical or similar products that are sold both on the fresh counters and down the chiller aisles of the same shop.

And when we say seemingly identical, our findings include a large number of branded groceries – eg, Cathedral City, Pilgrims Choice, and supermarkets’ premium brands such as Tesco Finest and Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference – suggesting you could be overpaying for essentially the same item, sold and packaged slightly differently.

Some of our examples were on offer at the time we did our research, but we’ve still included them as the same principle applies. It’s also worth noting that we did all of our research in stores, over a few weeks, so the prices below may be different to your local store’s.

What we found in the fresh counters…

Unlike pre-packaged aisle items, fresh counter goods are priced per 100g, and you can buy whatever weight (or amount, eg, slices) you like – so to demonstrate our findings, we’ve worked out how much each fresh counter item would cost if it weighed the same as its aisle equivalent.

We found 11 same-brand groceries and 14 similar that were up to 42% cheaper on the fresh counters (see all in table below).

We’ve picked out a few examples:

Morrisons roast topside beef 42% cheaper – £1.26 for 80g on the fresh counter and £2.15 for 80g down the aisle.

Tesco Finest outdoor-bred roast ham on the bone 25% cheaper – £2.25 for £125g on the fresh counter and £3 for 125g down the aisle.

Sainsbury’s fish pie mix 14% cheaper – £3 for 300g on the fresh counter and £3.50 for 300g down the aisle.

Tesco’s President brie 11% cheaper – £1.70 for 200g on the fresh counter and £1.90 for 200g down the aisle.

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference pork sausages 10% cheaper – £2.25 for 400g on the fresh counter and £2.50 for 400g down the aisle.

Fresh counters tend to be found in larger superstores, as opposed to smaller ‘express’ or ‘local’ stores. However, some big stores might not have fresh counters – so this may not always work.

How we did our research

To keep our examples as fair as possible, we’ve tried to compare the same or similar groceries. For branded comparisons, the label names of each item were almost identical, but worded slightly differently (see images above). For non-branded comparisons, we focused on items where only one version can be found in the aisle – and again, we only chose items with almost identical labelling.

Of course, there may be differences in some of these groceries – where and how they are farmed and produced – but where these details have been provided, we’ve taken them into account with our comparisons.

Is it worth switching to the fresh counters?

The majority of the items we looked at were cheaper on the fresh counters, but we also spotted many items that were cheaper down the aisles, eg, salmon fillets at Asda, Edam cheese at Morrisons and marinated anchovies at Sainsbury’s – so always check both the fresh counters and the aisles. While some savings might be small, we’re talking about items that are the essentially same or very similar, so we reckon it’s definitely worth checking out.

More supermarket savings

See our 36 supermarket shopping tips to cut the cost of your supermarket shop, including extreme couponing, an app to eat your neighbours’ food for free and the MSE Downshift challenge, where you swap branded items for cheaper own-brands. Plus, see our supermarket coupons page for all the latest coupons.

Have you spotted any bargains on supermarkets’ fresh counters? We’d love to hear your thoughts and findings in our supermarkets’ fresh counters forum thread or in the comments below.