WHEN I found out that a new supermarket was launching to rival Aldi and Lidl, I couldn’t resist the chance to see if I could save on my weekly food shop.
We’re all looking for ways to protect our pockets at the moment, particularly when it comes to the weekly shop.
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With the cost of food rising, I decided to try out Swedish retailer Motatos.
The online supermarket has loads of products ranging from snacks and sweets, store cupboard staples, and health and beauty.
Bargain retailers Aldi and Lidl have snatched market share from supermarket giants but they don’t yet offer online shopping – so Motatos has clearly spotted a gap in the market.
Because unlike its rivals, Motatos delivers items straight to your door using courier service Evri (the delivery firm previously called Hermes).
Me and my fiance, Henry, bought £40 worth of essentials including tea bags, cereal and pasta to see if we could really save.
What happened when I shopped at Motatos
The first thing I noticed when I loaded up the website were the huge, bright banners promising “big discounts” and deals.
Motatos promises to sell its products at up to 60% less than other supermarkets.
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It’s able to do this by selling items destined for landfill due to changes in packaging, seasonal changes or short best before dates.
On the website, products are divided into clear categories such as food cupboard, juices and soft drinks, health and beauty, baby and toddler, and pets.
There’s also a household section, stocked with a wide range of big brand cleaning supplies, including Finish and Vanish.
You can browse the sections or use the search bar to find what you’re looking for, which speeds things up a bit.
But shoppers should be aware that Motatos doesn’t stock fridge or freezer items – so you’ll still have to visit your local supermarket for a pint of milk or a bag of frozen peas.
The grocer only sells long-life and household essentials – and, to be honest, there isn’t a huge range to chose from.
There’s a good selection of big name well-known brands like Cadbury, Kellogg’s, Walkers and Typhoo but you may find that some of your weekly staples aren’t available.
I loaded up my online basket with £40 worth of goodies (meaning I avoided a £2.99 delivery fee) and paid with PayPal.
Shoppers can pay with buy now pay later service Klarna if you prefer.
Three working days later, two large boxes turned up at my front door and I was keen to get stuck in.
What did we order and how much did it cost?
A lot of the products on Motatos are cheapest when you buy them in bulk, which means you might have to buy more than a week’s worth at a time to get the best deal.
Here is a full list of everything we ordered and how much it cost:
- Tetley Everyday Tea Bags 80 softpack- £1.69
- Walkers Wotsits Cheese 12×16.5g x 2- £3.80
- Robinsons Blackcurrant double strength 1l x 2- £2.90
- Weetos Cereal Original 350g – £2.15
- Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons Mint 95g x3 – £2.25
- Heinz Tomato Ketchup 570g – £1.50
- Mr Organic Baked Beans 500g x2 – £1.90
- Cadbury Dairy Milk Fingers Milk Chocolate 114g x2 – £2
- Oatly Original Oat Drink Long Life 1l x2 – £1.70
- Mr Organic Chopped Tomatoes 400g x2 – £1.90
- Dolmio Original Bolognese Sauce 500g x2 – £2.80
- Candy Kittens Tropical Mango 54g x2 – £1.30
- Dettol Antibacterial Surface Wipes Lime & Mint 36pcs x2 – £1.50
- Walkers Quavers Cheese 12x16g x2 – £3.50
- Nando’s Peri Peri Sauce Mild 250g x2 – £3.80
- Ritz Crackers Box 165g x2 – £1.80
- Garofalo Fusilli 500g x2 – £3.80
The total came to £39.99.
But the key question is: how much cheaper was it than if we’d shopped elsewhere?
When we compared prices, we found the same basket would have cost £47.83 if we’d found the best price for each item at another supermarket.
Overall, 14 out of the 17 items we bought were cheaper at Motatos.
It’s worth noting, however, that it isn’t possible to do an exact price comparison with every item we ordered from Motatos because some are no longer sold in the major supermarkets.
But where we couldn’t find an exact match, we have compared it with the closest product that we could see on the market.
We used price comparison website Trolley.co.uk to compare the prices at Motatos with all other major supermarkets.
Here are some of the items we compared:
Tetley Everyday Teabags
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We paid £1.69 for a packet of 80 Tetley Everyday Teabags – that works out at 2.1p a teabag.
We couldn’t find the exact product on sale at any of the major supermarkets, but we did find other Tetley products to compare.
In Sainsbury’s, you can get a packet of 240 Tetley teabags for £4.20 – which works out at 1.8p per bag.
Buying a 240 bag from Asda, Morrisons and Tesco would also work out cheaper.
Walkers Wotsits
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Asda and Morrisons both sell multipacks containing 12 packets of Wotists for £3, and it’s £2.75 at Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
At Motatos, we paid £3.50 for two 12-packs (a total of 24 bags), making it around £2.50 less than Asda and Morrisons.
Robinsons Blackcurrant
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We bought two 1 litre bottles of Robinsons double strength blackcurrant from Motatos for £2.90.
One bottle costs £2 at Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s, and £2.25 at Tesco – that means we saved at least £1.60 at Motatos.
Weetos
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We ordered a 350g box of Weetos from Motatos for £2.15, which works out at around 61p per 100g.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s both sell 500g boxes of Weetos for £3.30 (66p per 100g) and Morrisons sells the breakfast cereal for £3.25 (65p per 100g)
But Asda sells Weetos for £3, which is around 60p per 100g – 1p cheaper per 100g than Motatos.
Heinz Tomtato Ketchup
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For decades, Heinz has been the UK’s most popular ketchup and we bought a 570g bottle of the popular sauce for £1.50 from Motatos.
Most major supermarkets don’t sell this size, but we did manage find it on sale in Co-op at £2.40.
That works out at 42p per 100g from the Co-op, compared to just 26.3p per 100g at Motatos, saving you 90p per bottle.
Dettol Wipes
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We purchased two 36-packets of 36 Dettol Antibacterial Surface Wipes for £1.50 – this works out at around 0.02p a wipe.
The cheapest wipes we could find elsewhere were on sale at Asda for £1.99 – or 0.03p a wipe – slightly more expensive that Motatos.
Dolmio Bolognese Sauce
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A spag bol or a tomato pasta bake are easy meals to rustle up to feed hungry mouths, making a jar of sauce a kitchen cupboard must-have.
We paid £2.80 for two 500g jars, which works out at 56p per 100g.
But we found that Motatos was beaten on price at all major supermarkets – Tesco and Asda were the cheapest, with one jar costing £1.55, or 33p per 100g.
Cadbury’s Mint Chocolate Buttons
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We all need a little treat every now and again, so we bought three 95g bags of Cadbury’s Mint Chocolate Buttons for £2.25 – priced at 75p each.
This works out at £1.26 per 100g.
The closest product we could find was a 110g bag of the same buttons at Asda for £1.25 – working out at £1.14 per 100g.
So although buying three bags at Asda would cost you £1.50 more, you would actually be getting more for your money.
Cadbury’s chocolate fingers
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We bought two 114g boxes of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate fingers for £2, or £1 each.
Tesco is currently selling exactly the same product for £1.50, as is Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – 50p a pack more expensive.
Baked beans
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If there’s one food most of us have stashed away in our cupboards, it’s the humble tin of baked beans.
We bought two 400g tins of Mr Organic baked beans for £1.90 – 23p per 100g.
We could only find Mr Organic baked beans for sale at Waitrose, where they were priced at £1 – 25p per 100g.
This makes Motatos better value for money – saving you 20p – but you could get own-brand beans elsewhere for cheaper.
Chopped tomatoes
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A tin of tomatoes is perfect for making a delicious curry or homemade pasta sauce.
We bought two 400g tins of Dr Organic Chopped Tomatoes for £1.90 – which works out at 95p each.
The Sun could only find these tomatoes on sale at Ocado where they were priced at £1.30 – but again, you could get own-brand versions cheaper elsewhere.
Oatly Oat Milk
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Plant-based milks have soared in popularity recently – but so have their prices.
We got two litres of Oatly Original Long Life Oat Milk from Motatos for £1.70 – or 8.5p per ml.
The cheapest Oatly milk we could find was on sale in Asda for £1.30, or 13p per 100ml, while Waitrose and Co-op were the most expensive at £1.65.
Walkers Quavers
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Whether you prefer to eat them straight from the packet or pop them in a sandwich, most of us love a bag of crisps.
We bagged 24 16kg packets of Walkers Quavers for £3.50 from Motatos.
Per 100g, this works out at £1.20 per 100g.
This was cheaper than buying 12 packets for £1.84.
Once again, Motatos was cheaper than all the major supermarkets.
The cheapest multipack of Quavers we could find was priced at £2.50 at Asda.
Co-op was the most expensive, where customers would have to fork out £3 for a 12 bag multipack.
This was a saving of at least £1.50.
Pasta
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Pasta dishes are family-tea time favourites because they’re relatively cheap and quick to whip up.
We bought two 500g bags of Garofalo Fusilli from Motatos for £3.80.
This works out at 38p per 100g.
We could only find this exact brand of pasta on sale at Ocado for £2.50, or 50p per 100g.
This is a saving of £1.20.
Nando’s Peri Peri Sauce
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Fans of food chain Nando’s can enjoy their favourite sauces at home without having to visit their nearest restaurants.
But can they do this without breaking the bank?
Motatos were selling two 250g bottles of Mild Peri Peri sauce for £3.80, or 76p per 100g.
We couldn’t find the exact bottle on sale in any of the major supermarkets.
The closest we could find was a 250g bottle of Nando’s Medium Peri Peri cause.
At Morrisons, shopper can buy one bottle at £2.60, or £1.04 per 100g.
This makes Motatos the cheaper option, with customers saving £1.40.
Ritz Crackers
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Crackers are great if you’re looking for a quick snack, and they fit perfectly in a school lunchbox.
So for this reason, we ordered two 165g boxes of Ritz Crackers from Motatos for £1.65.
Once again, it was cheaper to bulk buy two boxes than to buy a single box of crackers.
This works out at 54.5p per 100g.
We could only find this exact box of Ritz on sale at Iceland for £1, or 61p per 100g.
If you were to buy Ritz crackers from Motatos, you would therefore save 35p.
Candy Kittens
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Vegan sweets have also soared in popularity, with Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing’s brand Candy Kittens leading the way.
We decided to try the tropical mango flavour of the fizzy sweets and paid £1.30 for two 54g bags.
This works out at £1.20 per 100g.
We couldn’t find the exact same size bag of sweets for sale in any supermarket.
The closest we found was a 125g bag in Asda, priced at £2.
This is £1.60 per 100g grams.
This means you’re saving at least 40p per 100g by buying from Motatos.
Our verdict
There is no doubt there are bargains to be found at Motatos – particularly if you’re a fan of big brands.
But where the budget retailer falls down is that it doesn’t take into account supermarket own brands.
These are often cheaper and offer better value for money.
This being said, you should always compare prices before you go shopping to make sure you are getting the best deal.
You can do this by using comparison websites such as Trolley.co.uk, which compares the prices of 130,000 products across 14 major supermarkets.
Motatos also leaves you with a gap in your groceries by not selling fridge and freezer items.
Overall, I was very impressed with the customer service and swift delivery, but it still has a long way to go before it can compete with supermarket giants.
