Save your cents and be a savvy shopper...
New app aims to pinpoint cheapest stores for groceries in real time
It’s not where you shop – it’s how you shop. That’s the message from the shopping prices we totted up for you this week comparing the major supermarkets. When you look at the average prices across the stores for a basket of 18 basic items, Aldi comes out cheapest by a long way, as you’d expect. Your bill at the Aldi checkout if you bought the average-priced item across our selection would come to €80.89.
That’s 23% cheaper than the next cheapest store based on average prices – Dunnes at €104, according to a new grocery comparison website Quidu.ie.
But if you compare the cheapest items in each store, there’s a completely different outcome.
All four supermarket chains are neck and neck. And you will pay a hell of a lot less than you would if you paid average prices, never mind premium brands.
If you shop smartly and ignore the big brands, you’ll cut your bill by up to two thirds. Aldi, Tesco and Dunnes would each charge you around €44 for the 18 cheapest basics – while Supervalu is only €4 dearer.
If you didn’t bother looking for bargains and picked items at random, you’d pay twice as much with Aldi and three times in Supervalu.
But if you insisted on the premium brands, you’d pay twice as much again.
The survey also shows how supermarkets are shadowing each other when it comes to the cost of basic items.
Tesco are upfront about shadowing Aldi with a special price promise. But Dunnes also charges exactly the same price as Aldi for its cheapest offering of many products. The lowest price for milk and bread – 98c and 111c respectively – is the same across all four supermarkets.
The cheapest cheddar cheese costs exactly €5.66 a kilo in Aldi and Dunnes, just 1c more in Tesco and it’s €6 in Supervalu.
You could pay 79c a kilo for oats in both Aldi and Dunnes, which is fantastic value that could make 20 breakfast bowls of porridge for 4c a go. Or you could pay several times that for a premium brand. The taste difference? None. Meanwhile the lowest cost eggs are identically priced (€1.26 for 6) in three of the four stores and just 12c cheaper in Supervalu.
In a recent report, we compared big names with own-brand products and found there was little difference in taste but a massive gap in price. For example, Aldi and Lidl’s own-brand ketchup cost 85c and 65c respectively compared to a fiver for Heinz’s version.
Yet a taste test by Which? found little difference between Heinz and Aldi’s own brand version. And we agreed with that verdict in our house. Mayonnaise showed a similar price disparity with the premium brand. They all tasted the same too. Aldi has even won plaudits for its own-brand products, snapping up Which? magazine’s brand of the year last year with its Almat Bio washing powder.
It also won 20 gongs for its Mamia range at the 2023 National Parenting Product Awards, including gold for being the Best Family-Friendly Supermarket in Ireland.
It all goes to show what a rip-off the big brands are, relying on name recognition rather than any great difference in quality.
Supermarkets have also become very good at mimicking big brands when it comes to taste and quality – with ‘deluxe’ versions of their own brands.
Lidl isn’t included in this survey as it doesn’t publish pricing online. The survey was compiled using quidu.ie, a new website that puts the prices of most supermarkets at the fingertips of Irish shoppers.
Quidu, from the Irish word Cuidiú (to help or support), was set up with the aim of ‘making life a tad bit easier for the people of Ireland’, the company says. ‘We set out on a mission – simplifying the way Irish shoppers compare prices.’
THRIFTY TIPS
Other handy shopping tips to beat the big brand premium are:
● Watch the price per kilo or litre.
● Keep your eye on the bottom shelf. That’s where they don’t want you to look. But it’s where you’ll find real value, like 1kg of oats for 79c, or 750g of salt for 49c, compared to several times more at eye-level.
● Steer clear of goods near the checkout, which are over-priced and low in quantity.
● Watch out for small or instant packages. They ramp up the price and increase packaging waste. For example, ‘instant oats’ – often sold near the checkout – cost umpteen times more than the 79c bargain bag.
● Grab a bargain when you see it. Reduced items are often on display at the end of the vegetable counter – or with special stickers.
● Compare prices online before you shop. Up until recently, it had been hard to do this. But now you can easily shop around on Quidu.ie and there’ll also soon be a new app to help you keep an eye out for the best deals.
SavvySpender will compare prices across most supermarkets, excluding Lidl. The app is due to be launched this month for free – with a premium subscription planned at a later date.