THE popularity of discount supermarkets is on the rise and with the news that Netto will be moving into Lymm, we decided to put to the test whether people could really tell the difference.

I headed out to The Cross in the centre of Lymm today, Friday, with politics reporter Aran Dhillon who kindly took some time off from giving MPs a hard time to help me run a taste test.

Armed with cheese, ham, smoked salmon, grapes and dark chocolate we put the public’s tastebuds to the test to see which they preferred – the cheaper products from Netto or the pricier versions from M&S.

Despite a light sprinkling of rain, a few people had recovered enough from the excitement of the eclipse to come and give our taste test a whirl.

Each participant got to try a product from Netto and one from Marks and Spencer in no particular order and with no idea which was which before being asked for their preference.

We would then reveal which store their favoured item had come from to a chorus of many oohs and aahs.

To be honest, we didn’t really keep score but most people favoured the Netto dark chocolate - a steal at 85p - to the more expensive M&S version whille the majority favoured the sweetness of the M&S grapes to the sharpness of those from the discounter.

The Wiltshire ham from Netto also went down well while the West Country mature cheddar received a mixed response and most chose the M&S smoked salmon over the cheaper version.

First up was Richie Hipkin, aged 29, 28-year-old Nick Stacey and Sue Stacey, aged 62, from Cheadle Hulme who were in Lymm for a day out.

They all favoured the chocolate from Netto but the rest of the products split opinion with two votes for the M&S cheddar trumping the one for the Netto version.

Richie said: “I prefer that chocolate because it is had a bit more flavour and it was creamier, the first one was bit bland and there was bitter after taste.”

Next up was 90-year-old Audrey Taylor and Maimie Fleming, aged 86, who both live in Lymm and both favoured the M&S grapes saying they were sweeter than the Netto grapes.

Patrick Hart, aged 79, picked the smoked salmon and the ham from Netto over those from M&S saying the salmon had ‘more flavour’.

Last up was 65-year-old Catherine Wilkinson who couldn’t tell the difference in taste between any of the items but thought the M&S grapes looked more appealing.