Lads claim it's cheaper to FLY to Poland to do your Lidl food shop

Lads claim it's cheaper to FLY to Poland to do your Lidl food shop

YouTubers who claimed it’s cheaper to fly to Poland for your weekly shop at Lidl than going to your local branch reveal their full shopping list

  • The London-based YouTubers have provided a full breakdown of items bought 
  • READ MORE: Meet the posh public school prankster and friend of Prince Harry who has been turning the tables on Just Stop Oil 

YouTube pranksters who claimed it’s cheaper to fly to Poland for your weekly shop than nip to your local supermarket in the UK have revealed a full breakdown of their shopping list.

Joshua Pieters, 30, and Archie Manners, also 30, both from London, grew so tired of Britain’s cost of living crisis they decided to test the prices against a store in mainland Europe.

Their video, which caused a storm on social media, showed the 30-year-olds splashing £164.47 in Lidl’s Clapham Junction store, southwest London.

They then found cheap return flights to Poznan, Poland, for a combined £48, and their Lidl shop in the city, containing the same 25 items such as butter, crisps, and bread, totalled the equivalent of just £96.75.

Their £67.72 saving was eaten into by the cost of flights, public transport, and a £8.55 overnight stay at a hostel- but it still left them £11.14 richer.

Joshua Pieters  (right), 30, and Archie Manners (left) travelled to Poland to do their weekly shop and claim its cheaper than going to a local supermarket in the UK. Above: Joshua and Archie are pictured outside Lidl in Poznan 

The items they bought were the same ones the Office of National Statistics (ONS) use to measure inflation.

They arrived back at Gatwick Airport with almost all the items intact, although the flour had leaked, and the raspberries had exploded.

Archie admitted the video won’t solve the cost-of-living crisis but feels it proves the point that inflation in the UK has left UK shoppers out of pocket compared to those in Poland.

The YouTubers’ video has racked up more than 60,000 views since being posted last Wednesday.

Archie said: ‘Combine the cost-of-living crisis with incredibly cheap flights we wondered if it would be cheaper to shop in Europe.

‘This doesn’t solve the cost-of-living crisis but it’s an interesting look at the difference in price. It seemed a fun way to prove a point.

‘It proves that inflation in this country is much higher than elsewhere and until the rate of inflation comes down then everyone’s going to continue to struggle.

‘It’s not a useful solution. If you’re going out to Poland every week, then it would be possible, but I don’t think people are going to stop shopping in Clapham and fly to Poland.

Joshua and Archie grew so tired of Britain’s cost of living crisis they tested just how inflated everyday food items’ prices were compared to a store in mainland Europe. The pair carried their groceries from Poland back to the UK (pictured) 

The 30-year-olds splashed out £164.47 in Lidl’s Clapham Junction store in south west London. The pair are pictured above outside Lidl in Clapham 

Joshua and Archie found cheap return flights to Poznan, Poland, for a combined £48 and spent £8.55 for an overnight stay at a bedsit

‘I don’t think we were hoping it would be cheaper or it would be similar. We just wanted to test it.’

Lidl declined to comment.

Speaking to MailOnline, Josh Pieters said: ‘This is not a suggestion for how people can save money. It is more of a piece to highlight the ridiculous situation we seem to find ourselves in with the way inflation is going…

‘Things are just so expensive now that it is literally cheaper to hop on an aeroplane and fly to another country and buy the same basket of goods – and still save money.

Full list of items bought in England and Poland Lidl stores 

  • White fish
  • Banana
  • Blueberries
  • Honey
  • Butter
  • Pork sausages
  • Beef mince
  • Pork joint
  • Frozen full chicken
  • Chicken breast
  • Tomato soup
  • Cream
  • Chicken nuggets
  • Salmon fillets
  • Canned fish
  • Eggs
  • Regional cheese
  • Peanut butter
  • Olive oil
  • Lettuce
  • Broccoli
  • Mushrooms
  • Bread
  • Crisps
  • Frozen vegetables

TOTAL IN LONDON: £164.47 

TOTAL IN POLAND:  £96.75

In the video, Josh explains the consumer price inflation basket to be a governmental measure used to track the changing cost of regular goods and services.

The basket is made up of representative items such as bread, eggs and meats that consumers can be expected to buy in British stores.

The duo start their journey at Lidl in Clapham, London, buying the entire list for £164.47.

They then set about planning a cheap trip to Europe to find the same items for less, settling on Poznan in the west of Poland.

Budget airlines often run inexpensive flights to Poland from the UK and travellers can save large sums by booking in advance.

Hesitating to couch-surf, the pair spent about £56.68 on return overnight flights and a hostel, which cut largely into their budget.

But after spending only about £96.75 (converted from Zloty) on the equivalent shop in a Polish Lidl, they came out £11.14 richer for having left the country.

Speaking to MailOnline, Josh said the main concern was the extra cost of luggage on the flight if they went over their 20kg limit.

‘Honestly, I thought we thought our plan might have been foiled by the charge of the the bag because the flight was obviously so cheap, but what we hadn’t thought about when we were planning the idea was that we’d obviously need a bag to come back because we needed to bring the groceries back to make the video work.

‘The fact that adding a bag is actually more expensive than the flight itself was a bit of a surprise. We were fine because we did make a profit, but only a small one.’

He said the process was quite tedious, finding all the items on the list and their equivalents in Poland.

The pair spent £164.47 at Lidl’s branch in Clapham. The pair purchased staple items including olive oil, butter, and bread 

The pair purchased the same items in the UK and Poland, which was made up of food items used to measure inflation by the ONS 

The pair packed their food and bought it back to the UK. All items survived except for a packet of leaking flour and raspberries that exploded 

Joshua and Archie checked their bag full of food as a cabin bag, which later arrived on the conveyor belt at Gatwick Airport (pictured) 

‘There was a lot of footage to cut down because that basket of goods is quite long and I saw the inside of a Lidl for many hours. We spared the viewers the boredom of having to watch us do two entire shops in Lidl. But it was a laborious process, making sure we picked out the exact same items and then also translating those items… because obviously they are in Polish in Poland.’

Earlier this year, the duo made headlines when they crashed Just Stop Oil’s ‘Beyond F***ed Banquet’.

The banquet was thrown off course when ‘Just Stop P***ing Everyone Off’ protestors crashed the event with deafening ‘personal safety alarms’.

At the time, Archie told MailOnline: ‘Climate Change is the greatest crisis facing our generation – but if we’re going to solve it we need to work together.

‘JSO’s tactics over the last 18 months haven’t worked; indeed people across the country are put off this vital cause as a result of their protesting.

Archie admits the idea won’t solve the cost-of-living crisis but feels it proves the point that inflation in the UK has left UK shoppers out of pocket compared to those in Poland

The YouTubers’ video that follows the pair on their journey racked up more than 60,000 views since being posted last Wednesday

Their staggering £67.72 saving in the food shop in Poland was dented by the cost of flights, public transport, and a £8.55 overnight stay at a bedsit – but it still left them with a profit of £11.14

The YouTubers filled their basket with representative items such as bread, eggs and meats that consumers can be expected to buy in British stores

‘The people at JSO are well-intended; but they’re going about it the wrong way. Stopping mothers getting to hospital, or ruining people’s day out at the snooker isn’t doing anything to tackle climate change.’

Speaking this evening, Josh said the group would continue to find entertaining ways to ‘ask questions’ about culturally interesting talking points.

On flying to Poland to save money on groceries, he said: ‘The main theme of our content would be finding silly loopholes and things which this video obviously does. You know, you can save money by doing your grocery shopping in Poland. It’s obviously ridiculous. No one has time to fly to Poland to do their grocery shop but it is a funny loophole.

‘I would also say the secondary strand of what we like to try and do is to pose questions to people and to society. And I suppose that was the the point with the Just Stop Oil video, which was “OK, these people are running ordinary people, ordinary people’s day, they’re blocking traffic… and basically disrupting people. How would they like it if we did the same thing to them?”

‘We try never to pick a side or get a political point across. We more look to pose a question and do it in an entertaining way. Above all else we want to entertain. That’s our main goal with all of these things. But if we can be slightly informative and make people think a little bit as well, then that’s great.’

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