We price checked Dunnes against Lidl and Aldi AGAIN to see what's changed since last year

Lisa Cope
May 5
7 min read

Updated: 7 days ago

*This article was updated on 13th May 2026 to correct some inaccuracies and reflect changes in pricing on some products since its initial publication on 5th May 2026*

The Dunnes voucher scheme remains the biggest supermarket success story in decades, with the "voucher cult" keeping customers loyal to ensure their vouchers stay active. Local Whatsapp groups are plagued with people looking for spare vouchers, and there are Facebook groups and even a dedicated website designed to source vouchers for those in need. The first rule of the Dunnes club is - you do not shop without a voucher. The second rule is, you must spend in multiples of €25 to maximise your savings - a €25 spend with a €5 voucher = 20% off. A €35 spend with €5 voucher = just 15% off and so on....

Last year our curiosity got the better of us, so we price checked almost 70 every day, comparable items from Dunnes against discounters Lidl and Aldi to see if the voucher scheme actually means savings, or if we're all part of a big grocery game and they just inflated the prices by 20% to begin with.

To our (and everyone else's) surprise we discovered that after using Dunnes vouchers to maximise your saving, Dunnes technically were the cheapest, but you had to be getting exactly 20% off each shop (it's possible but it takes work).

A LOT has changed in the global landscape in the past 12 months, with multiple wars causing food prices to increase faster than a bullet train, and empty supermarket shelves becoming more of a common sight. We're all concerned, we're all feeling the difference in our bank accounts, and we're all trying to make our money go further, so we thought it was time to spend hours trawling the supermarket shelves again to see what's changed since June 2025, and whether Dunnes would still come out on top...

What were the parameters?

Everything was price and weight checked between Thursday 30th April and Saturday 2th May (some items were rechecked on Wednesday 13th May)
We only included basic, whole food products where was no discernible difference, e.g. a net of three lemons, 800g stewing beef, 500g frozen mango. We did not compare processed food items where quality can vary substantially
If items were slightly different weights (e.g. 125g v 150g fresh raspberries) we calculated the comparative price by weight
Some products had to be omitted as there were not like for like examples in all three supermarkets e.g. tofu, strong flour, Spanish EVOO
We did not include special/weekly offers, just the on shelf ticket prices