SuperValu’s own brand products pass taste test
Editor Kevin Hughes was invited to take the SuperValu price challenge and try the store’s own brand goods. Here’s how he got on.
THEY say never grocer y shop on an empty stomach... it’s just not wallet- friendly. But when an email landed in work last week offering the chance to put SuperValu’s own brand products to a price test, dinner was put on hold and a-shopping we went.
So this was the deal – shop as you would normally, selecting branded products, and a member of the SuperValu team would ‘shadow shop’, placing SuperValu’s own brand equivalent in her trolley for every branded item we had in ours.
As a family with three children under 10, we’re regular shoppers in SuperValu and are well aware of their range but, on reflection, it’s rare that we’d select SuperValu branded products for the kids. With the company’s recent marketing campaign alerting customers to potential savings, this was the ideal opportunity to check out the deal.
So off we went to Peter Keane’s in Killorglin and there we were met by the lovely Caroline Browne, duty manager.
Trollies to the ready and we were off. Fresh fruit and vegetables were first up, including strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, peppers, mushrooms – all brands matched by SuperValu, straight up savings with no difference in quality, so a no-brainer really.
Bread, rolls, butter, milk, salt, soups, frozen chips, baked beans, sparkling water, strawberry jam, castor sugar, nuts, all replaced by own brands.
And I can confidently say that all have passed the taste test this week
To be honest, with a young – and growing – family, cereals were always going to be the big test and back at home there were queries from young lips asking why the packaging was different from ‘the norm’. “Ah sure they’ve only just changed the wrapping son,” says I.
There were curious looks but, after a large bowl of Wheat Biscuits was cleared, the verdict was... “it was a little different but tasted alright”. Major saving there then as the SuperValu brand was easily less than half-price.
And as for SuperValu’s Corn Flakes, well our youngest didn’t pass comment and cleared the bowl too. Job done then.
Other successes included snacks such as SuperValu crackers, smoked salmon and coleslaw.
As for domestic cleaning products, the bleach did just what it was supposed to and while we were slow to try out the dishwashing tablets, they did the job too, as did the various types of wipes needed in a young family home. I would, though, stick with three-ply toilet roll over the SuperValu two-ply option!
Then there were the treats and all three kids raved about the SuperValu branded biscuits, chocolate bars and popcorn.
Our four-legged friend seemed happy too, giving a paws up to his dogfood and dental sticks.
And while I sit to write this, we’ve just undertaken the last real taste test – tea bags.
Now for me this could have been a deal breaker, changing from Ireland’s most popular blend in that iconic red box, to a SuperValu brand.
And you know what, SuperValu’s candidate ain’t half bad. In fact, we even checked the box to make sure it was the SuperValu brand.
So what was the all-important price difference? Well it was a fair sized shop and Caroline scanned our branded trolley in at €329.27. Caroline’s SuperValu trolley, meanwhile, totalled €193.21 – that meant a hugely impressive saving of over 41 per cent.
The ‘experiment’ proved one thing – that the power of advertising does a first class job at convincing us that to consume certain products we need to buy certain brands, even to the point that we think brands before product – for instance Coca Cola and Taytos.
I suppose it’s something I already knew as I grew up in a family-run grocery store that also sold own-branded goods butt’s something I’d overlooked in recent years.
Our recent shopping trip to PK’s certainly debunked the idea that branded is best.
So shopping with or without an empty stomach, SuperValu is onto an own-brand winner!