Survey: Split your shopping basket to get real value
Anyone lucky enough to have a range of shops available in their community should use them, said NCA chief executive Ann Fitzgerald yesterday.
“As grocery prices go up due to international factors, price and value for money become even more important and our strong advice to consumers is to split their shopping basket, if possible, and to seek value in the range of shops available.”
And, she said, the country’s planning authority must ensure that communities had a range of retail outlets to choose from. “We genuinely need all these different types of outlets.”
While the NCA was delighted that SuperValu was proving to be a real competitor to Dunnes Stores and Tesco, it was concerned that there was little price difference between them.
“They are not competing for our wallet or purse,” Ms Fitzgerald said at the launch of a price survey between Ireland’s multiples, symbol groups, discount stores and independent shops.
“While the multiples and SuperValu demonstrated only small price differentials between each other, independent retailers were vastly cheaper in some cases and more expensive in others.”
The survey found virtually no price difference between Dunnes Stores and Tesco with only 35c between them for a basket of 61 branded goods.
And across all the categories surveyed by the NCA, Dunnes and Tesco were virtually neck and neck in pricing terms.
The survey, conducted last December, found that discount stores Aldi and Lidl were showing real price competition between each other and were competing very favourably with Dunnes, Tesco and SuperValu’s mid-range own brand products.
The prices of the symbol groups (excluding SuperValu) reflected the fact that they are convenience stores, but Eurospar, which is seeking to position itself as a full service supermarket, was found to be more expensive than Dunnes Stores, Tesco and SuperValu in most cases.
And while the multiples proved to be most cost effective for branded goods, independent retailers, Aldi and Lidl could offer significant value on meat, fruit and vegetables.
Aldi and Lidl were also providing value on own-brand goods, while convenience stores are useful for top-up purchases.
The survey was welcomed by Retail Ireland, a part of employers’ body, IBEC; RGDATA, the independent grocers’ lobby group; and Musgrave, the wholesale grocery company.
Retail Ireland director Torlach Denihan said the survey showed consumers were well served by the combined efforts of seven major retail groups competing aggressively on price, quality, choice and service.
* Details on the survey can be found on www.consumerconnect.ie.
* Branded comparisons (61 products): Dunnes €187.04; Tesco €187.39 and Superquinn €188.95.
* Multiples v SuperValu (51 products): Dunnes at €163.19 is the cheapest while Superquinn at €165.00 is the dearest. Four SuperValu outlets in Dublin, Limerick and Cork all around €164.
* Own brands: Only 1% difference between Dunnes and Tesco but the difference between Aldi and Lidl is almost 17%.
* Loose meat: Dunnes and Tesco emerge well from comparison with independent butchers. Cheapest and dearest prices were from independent butchers.
* Pre-packed meat: First signs of price differentiation between Dunnes and Tesco at 3.5% with SuperValu cheaper than the multiples on a basket of five items. Aldi’s basket is the cheapest.
* Loose fruit and vegetables: Mainly cheaper to shop in independent fruit and vegetable outlets.
