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Supermarket Survey

After reading a few books recently on Asda/Wal-Mart and Tesco's stranglehold on the UK's food markets, I thought I'd see if I could find out just how much more it might cost me to shop somewhere else. I have chosen some of the items I frequently purchase and the results are presented in the table below, but before that a few notes about supermarkets :-

Morrisons

Not included as there is not one near to me. I am guessing they come in around the same as Asda/Tesco.

Aldi/Lidl

I have put these two together as they sell more or less the same thing at the same price. What's interesting about the results is that they are cheaper if you want something that UK supermarkets regard as European "Exotica", such as European meats, cheeses, sun dried tomatoes, fresh pasta etc, but not really much cheaper for anything else. I conclude that it's only worth me shopping there for this "exotica" type of stuff. Especially since they both only ever open one checkout no matter how busy it is.

Netto

Know as the lowest of the low, Netto really has terrible stores that make Aldi/Lidl look like Harrods. I took my list to Netto and found that most of the items were not available. The suprising part is that when the items were available, they were about the same price as you'd find them in Sainsbury's. There seems no reason whatsoever to shop in Netto ever.

Waitrose

Where Waitrose fall down the most on the table below is the cost of the meat and unbranded fresh produce. However, perhaps you get what you pay for. Whilst one raw chicken might look the same as any other, maybe Waitrose are really offering better quality meat, and since it's going to go in your body, perhaps this is worth considering/testing.

Sainsbury's

I was expecting Sainsbury's to be more expensive compared with Asda and Tesco. Perhaps it's the choice of items, or perhaps people just perceive it to be that way. Either way, I will try to shop more frequently in Sainsbury's as they do have a much better choice of raw cooking ingredients.

Organic food

If food is labelled as "organic" then does that imply the rest is inorganic? The dictionary defenition of inorganic is a. Involving neither organic life nor the products of organic life and b. Not composed of organic matter. What are they telling us. hahaha.

All Prices correct as of 20th July, 2007.

Item Tesco ASDA Sainsburys Waitrose Aldi/Lidl
Beef mince (1kg) £1.85 £2.00 £2.80 £5.29 £3.50
12 Pack Box Cat food £3.08 £3.08 £3.18 £3.19 £1.89 (not Whiskas)
Fruit n Fibre (750g) £2.54 £2.56 £2.56 £2.59 95p (not Kelloggs)
Sun dried tomatos (280g) £1.38 £1.20 £1.79 £3.98 99p
Milk (4 pints) £1.15 £1.15 £1.15 £1.55 (Organic only) £1.11
Bread, Medium sliced Hovis £1.08 £1.08 £1.08 £1.09 £1.08
Mayonnaise (600g) £1.79 £1.79 £1.88 £1.89 82p (not Hellmans)
Lettuce 65p 65p 65p 65p 49p
Bananas (1kg) 59p 59p 59p 93p 69p
Chicken breasts (1kg) £5.99 £6.84 £6.00 £7.99 £6.59
Red wine (cheapest) £2.69 £2.52 £2.81 £2.99 £2.79
Mushy Peas 29p 29p 29p 23p 24p (not Bachelors)
Diet lemonade 43p 53p 35p 46p 35p
Fish Fingers £2.35 £2.49 £2.70 £2.49 not available
Robinsons Organge (1L) 91p 91p 91p 93p not available
Orange Juice (1L) 88p 88p 88p 89p 59p
Edam cheese (500g) £1.97 £1.82 £2.07 £2.15 £1.75
Fresh Pasta (600g) £2.50 £2.00 £2.50 £3.20 69p
Radish (150g) 42p 39p 42p 54p not available
Cress 24p 24p 24p 25p not available
Economy peppers (700g) 74p £1.48 £1.56 £1.85 £2.00 (no economy pepper)
Aubergine 98p (large) 98p (large) 99p (large) 99p (small) not available
Tissues £1.88 £1.88 £1.95 £1.97 not available
Total £36.88 £37.35 £39.98 £48.09 £26.52 (incomplete order)

Copyright © M.F.Hughes 2007

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