They were billed as the saviours of the economic downturn, packing their shelves with cheap 'no-frills' food to help hard-up consumers through the credit crunch. But research shows that some budget food stores are actually more expensive than the 'big four' supermarkets when it comes to groceries. It found discount chain Aldi charged the most for a basket of basic shopping items, including bread, toilet rolls, washing-up liquid and wine, while Asda worked out the cheapest.

Somerfield posted like-for-like sales growth of 5.4% in the six months to 8 November 2008, the retailer said today. Year-on-year sales growth was 2.5% to 28 April, while the previous year sales dipped 2.4%.