A British TikToker known as Jordon Cox, who goes by the nickname “Coupon King” online, decided to put a bold theory to the test: could flying abroad to shop for groceries actually save him more money than simply visiting his local supermarket? He documented the entire experiment on video, boarding a six-hour flight to Turkey and comparing prices item by item to see whether the savings could justify the cost of the trip. The stunt quickly grabbed attention online, sparking a wide conversation about the state of British grocery prices.
Cox paid roughly $40 for a round-trip flight and about $1.75 for a round-trip tram ride to the city center, meaning he needed to save at least $42 just to break even. He headed straight to BIM, a popular budget supermarket chain in Turkey, and the price differences he found were striking. Oral-B dental products were around $2.05 per item at BIM, compared to roughly $6.00 for the same product at Tesco back home. A large box of Cocoa Pops cereal ran about $2.70 in Turkey, while Cox claims the equivalent amount would cost more than $12 in the UK.
The savings kept stacking up throughout his shopping trip. A bag of Doritos came to just over $1.00 in Turkey versus about $3.00 at Tesco. He also picked up Haribo gummy candies for around $0.59, a container of powder for $1.75, and a pack of wet wipes for as little as $0.22. By the time he wrapped up his haul at BIM, the total bill came to roughly $41 for everything in his basket.
@couponkiduk I saved money by flying to Turkey for groceries… 💀👇🏻 Flights this time of year are dirt cheap – and found a return flight on the same day to Turkey for £33.01. And I know food prices were super cheap out there! So while visiting the town & getting some sun on my face, I decided to do some grocery shopping – and see if I could do the WHOLE trip for cheaper than shopping at my local Tesco. We all know groceries are INSANELY expensive in the UK right now. They went up 37% between 2020-2025… but in Turkey, the same brands are much cheaper 👀 I’m talking 84p Doritos, 49p Haribos, £1.71 Oral B toothpaste (norm £5), and £2.24 for the BIGGEST pack of Coco Pops you’ve ever seen (that’d be £10+ in the UK) 😳 I bought as much as I could. In total, all the shopping totalled £34.34… which if bought in the UK, would have cost £89.38 (£86.18 with a Clubcard) 😅 My total expenses including flights, trams, and shopping? £68.79 So in total, by doing my grocery shopping in a different CONTINENT, I SAVED £20.59 (or £17.39 with a Clubcard). And all I had was a backpack! That total could be much higher if I’d have brought a check in bag 🤣 Honestly – this shouldn’t be possible 😅 Both supermarkets and people in power need to do something to reduce the burden… before we’re all flying abroad for Coco Pops 🙃 On the climate question… sure, it’s not the most environmentally friendly way to shop. But I filled an otherwise empty seat on the plane, and even if you ‘carbon offset’ the flight – it still works out cheaper! So serious question… have supermarket prices gone too far? And what can be done to make grocery shopping cheaper? Those questions need to be answered. I post tips to save money every week – so follow for more! 🙂👆🏻 Full video & cost breakdown on my YouTube channel (link in bio)
♬ original sound – Jordon Cox – The Coupon King
Back in Britain, Cox ran the numbers and shared the results with his followers. “All in all, this shopping at Tesco would have cost me 102 euros, and in Turkey I paid only 38 euros,” he said, adding “when you factor in the trip, I ended up saving around 24 dollars.” He also posed a pointed question to his audience: “Does this prove that supermarket prices have gone too far?” The video racked up a flood of responses, with many viewers feeling validated by what they saw.
Commenters were particularly vocal about their frustration with British retail costs. “This proves that supermarkets are robbing us blind,” one user wrote. Another added, “What a difference. Prices in Britain have gone through the roof.” The experiment clearly resonated with shoppers who have been feeling the pinch of elevated grocery bills for some time now.
The UK has experienced significant food price inflation over recent years, a trend driven by factors including supply chain disruptions, rising energy costs, and broader inflationary pressures that followed the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic shifts. Turkey, by contrast, has long been known for affordable consumer goods, particularly in budget-oriented supermarket chains like BIM and A101, which keep costs down through streamlined operations and local sourcing. BIM, founded in 1995, operates a discount model similar to Aldi or Lidl and has grown into one of Turkey’s largest grocery chains with thousands of stores across the country.
Jordon Cox built his following on TikTok by helping people find ways to spend less on everyday purchases, from coupon stacking to cashback deals, making him a recognizable voice in the UK’s money-saving community. His Turkey grocery experiment is part of a broader trend of consumers documenting price comparisons across countries as a way of highlighting cost-of-living concerns in their home markets. With grocery bills remaining a hot-button issue for households across Britain, videos like Cox’s tap into a frustration that many feel but rarely see laid out so vividly.
If this experiment sparked a reaction in you, share your thoughts on grocery prices and whether you think supermarkets have gone too far in the comments.
