Aldi has little-known ‘secret’ shops across the UK with even cheaper food 

Did you know there are ‘secret’ Aldi shops around the UK that sell products for an even lower price than usual?

Well, if you didn’t, now you do. They exist, but there’s a big catch…

Most Brits aren’t able to visit them as they’re not open to the general public.

Known as colleague shops, these little-known stores are for Aldi staff members only, and are located inside the retailer’s 11 distribution centres.

The shops are intended to give staff the chance to buy discounted products that can’t be sold in regular stores, in a bid to reduce food waste.

According to Aldi, the food products are safe for consumption and help prevent an estimated 240 tonnes of food waste per year. 

Luke Emery, national sustainability director at Aldi UK, said: ‘The colleague shop is another example of how we’re working to cut food waste across our operations.

‘It’s a practical initiative that benefits both colleagues and the environment, and we’re pleased to extend it nationwide following a successful pilot.’

The rollout of colleague shops was announced in October 2025, and it followed a successful trial at Aldi’s Darlington Regional Distribution Centre.

And this isn’t the only way Aldi is tackling food waste, as the retailer also recently launched ‘reduction zones’ in its UK stores. These are designated areas featuring discounted bread, fresh produce and other perishable items approaching their use-by date.

Items are discounted throughout the day, so new products are regularly added to the zones, offering shoppers the chance to save money on products that might otherwise go unsold.

In other bargain supermarket news, shoppers signed up to the Tesco Clubcard scheme are now able to triple the value of their vouchers at six new chain restaurants, meaning you can get a cheap meal out simply by doing your food shop.

High street chain favourites including ASK Italian, Bella Italia, Frankie & Benny’s, Prezzo Italian, Zizzi, and Las Iguanas are taking part in the scheme.

This means that every £0.50 in vouchers would be turned into £1.50. For example, a £10 voucher would now be valued at £30.

You can also save money on your weekly grocery shop by trying the downshift challenge, a term coined by Money Saving Expert (MSE).

It’s simple to do and just involves making a few product swaps, with the consumer finance site explaining: ‘Drop one brand level on everything to see if you can tell the difference. If you can’t, then stick with the cheaper product.’

So, if you normally opt for premium (usually labelled as ‘finest’ or ‘luxury’) pasta sauce, you’d swap to a branded option like Loyd Grossman or Dolmio. Or, if you buy name-branded biscuits, you’d go from McVitie’s to supermarket own-brand digestives. Taking things even further, you can also swap from own-brand to value options —  typically presented as ‘basic’ or ‘savers’ rangers.

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Hi, I’m Courtney Pochin, Metro’s specialist food writer.

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A version of this story was first published on October 24, 2025.

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