Aldi Chipping Norton
The value run on the edge of Chippy for basics, barbecue food and drinks, with a wine selection that punches above its price.
The value run on the edge of Chippy for basics, barbecue food and drinks, with a wine selection that punches above its price.
There's no pretending Aldi is a charming Cotswold farm shop. It sits on the Banbury Road on the edge of Chipping Norton, it has strip lighting, and nobody is going to offer you a tasting of anything. But that's not why you go. With a cottage that sleeps seven, the maths of a self-catering week adds up fast, and this is the shop that keeps it in check. The basics are genuinely good, the prices are startlingly low, and one big trolley here does the heavy lifting that would cost noticeably more anywhere else. It's about fifteen minutes from the cottage by car, straight into Chippy.
We think of the town's shops as a team, and Aldi is the value player. The M&S Foodhall is where we grab the first-night dinner and the treats; the Co-op is for the quick top-up when you've run out of milk; Sainsbury's handles the proper big weekly shop with everything under one roof. Aldi is the one you point at when the brief is simple: feed a full house well, and don't spend a fortune doing it.
The other reason Aldi keeps a group happy is the wine. The aisle regularly turns up bottles that taste like they cost twice as much, which matters when you're buying by the case rather than the bottle. We've had crisp Albariños, honest Malbecs and the odd award-winning fizz, all at prices that mean nobody minds opening a second one. It's the difference between a week that feels generous and one that feels careful, and it costs surprisingly little to land on the generous side. Buy a mixed case at the start of the stay and you rarely need to think about it again.
A practical tip if you're arriving with a carful of people: do this shop first, before you get to the cottage, so the fridge is full from the moment you walk in. Aldi sits right on the way into town, so it slots neatly into the drive rather than sending you back out later. The store is compact and the tills move fast, so even a big trolley doesn't eat into the afternoon.
Aldi won't cover everything, and it isn't meant to. The trick is to do the bulk of the week here, then fill the gaps in town: a stop at the Co-op for anything you forgot, a swing through M&S for the bits that make it feel like a holiday rather than a house move. For the full run-down of where to shop and eat, our guide to eating and drinking in the area lays out the pubs, delis and farm shops alongside the supermarkets. Between them you can keep the cottage kitchen stocked for a week without the bill getting out of hand.
“Aldi does the big shop and the barbecue food, then M&S does the treats. Feed seven people all week and still have change: that's the whole game.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.