Ask any driver and they will tell you supermarkets are cheaper. Mostly they are right — but the size of the gap varies from town to town, and occasionally reverses.
Why supermarkets are usually cheaper
Fuel is a footfall product for a supermarket: it gets you onto the site, where the margin is in the shopping. That lets them run fuel at thinner margins than a standalone station that has to make its living from the pump.
Where the gap comes from
- Volume — higher throughput per site
- Business model — fuel as a loss-leader
- Locality — where there is no supermarket nearby, branded stations hold the price up
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Compare Local Deals →Reading it locally
Every town and region page here shows the supermarket-versus-branded price gap for that area, calculated from recent reports. In some towns it is 5p; in others, 12p. Compare the reported prices and check when they were last updated.
Written by UKFuelPrices.uk, using open data from the UK Government Fuel Finder scheme. Last reviewed June 2026 · see our methodology.