Aldi and Lidl Rivalry Heats Up in Race for UK Discount Shoppers

Aeryn Buttolph is painting miniature replicas of the tea-rooms and florists that dot the high street in the quaint English town of Holt. Missing from her collection are the big supermarkets now eyeing up the neighborhood.

An affluent area surrounded by farmland about 110 miles (180 kilometers) northeast of London, Holt has become an unlikely battleground for Britain’s biggest discount grocers. Both Aldi and Lidl, the German chains that upended the UK grocery market since arriving in the early 1990s, want to open in the town.