Which supermarket ‘essentials’ are cheaper?

Prices of ‘‘essential’’ grocery items have now been frozen or rolled back by both of New Zealand’s big supermarket operators.

But does Countdown, which has frozen the price of more than 600 items over winter, or Foodstuffs, which has rolled back the prices of 110 items, give you the best deal?

Foodstuffs, which operates the New World, Pak’n Save and Four Square brands, yesterday reduced the prices of its best-selling items to what they averaged during the 13 weeks between January 25 and April 25 last year.

We put together a cart made up of nine staples that Foodstuffs reduced the price of yesterday, to see where the best prices can now be found.

The cart at each supermarket was made up of a 1.5 kilogram bag of apples, 1.5kg bag of carrots, a block of home brand butter, a 1.5kg bag of home brand oats, 1kg of home brand wheat biscuits, a can of Oak spaghetti, 1kg of home brand long grain rice, home brand white bread and 500 grams of home brand pasta.

At an Auckland New World, the cart came to a total of $29.61.

But slap $14 on for delivery and a $1 bag fee, it pushed the order out to $44.61. Click and collect was almost $10 cheaper, at $35.61.

At a Christchurch New World, both the Yummy apples and Pam’s carrots were unavailable under the price rollback, and the cart totalled $31.91 – $46.91 with delivery.

At an Auckland Pak’n Save, the cart came to $28.09 – just $1.52 cheaper than New World.

At a Christchurch Pak’n Save, the total came to $27.83.

The supermarket does not offer a delivery option, but a $5 click and collect and a $1 bag fee brought the total to $34.09.

Countdown froze the price of more than 600 essential items on May 9.

Some items included in our cart were not included in the price freeze, but the cart still came in at not much more than New World and Pak’n Save at $28.90.

The delivery fee was also $14, bringing the total order to $42.90, while click and collect was $34.90.