Food price comparisons: the good news could be better

Bread, milk, oil and toilet paper, Checkers, Spar and Woolworths — basic grocery shopping involves a fair selection, but where is the best deal?

For two months in a row retailer Shoprite has come out at the cheapest, while more upmarket outlet Woolworths has emerged as middle-of-the-road in competitive pricing on basic items.

Every month independent outfit The Outlier, an organisation specialising in using data to create public service stories and visualisation, publishes data collected on a set of standard household groceries bought from popular grocery chains.

The good news is that the September basket comes in slightly cheaper than the August shop, thanks to a dip in the cost of sunflower oil.

A basket of items costs less in September than it did in August. (The Outlier)

And once again Shoprite turned out to be the cheapest grocery store, followed by Checkers. Spar was the most expensive store in September after having come in slightly lower priced than Pick n Pay in August.

This is what was in the trolley:

one 700g Albany Superior sliced white bread (or store brand);
2-litre store brand sunflower oil;
2.5kg Iwisa maize meal;
2.5kg Selati white sugar;
one store-brand two-litre milk;
2kg Tastic rice;
2.5kg Snowflake cake flour;
one 175g bar of Dettol Herbal soap; and
a nine-pack of two-ply Baby Soft toilet paper (or store brand).

The price comparisons were done at Pick n Pay, Spar, Woolworths, Checkers and Shoprite.

In August retailers sold two litres of oil for an average of R110. But when the data was collected again at the end of September, the price had dropped by R15 in many places. The cheapest place to buy house brand sunflower oil? Shoprite at R79.99, followed by Checkers at R89.99.

And how did the retailers shape up against each other overall? Shoprite turned out to be the most affordable option at R373.81 for the basket — R32,10 cheaper than last month’s shop, which cost R405.91 for the same items.

Next best was Checkers, down from R407,91 to R390.91. Woolworths remained middle of the road, while Pick n Pay's price went down slightly from R422,21 to R411,21. Spar’s price did not change at all, sitting steady at R421,91. This makes for a R48 price difference between the cheapest and most expensive retailer on the same items.

Price data from major supermarket chains collected by The Outlier shows that a basket of basic goods cost lest in September than it did in August. (The Outlier)

In other good consumer news, the petrol price went down in with another drop anticipated for October, and inflation decreased by 0.2% between July and August.

This comes after the latest Household Affordability Index report release last Thursday found that South Africans are paying nearly 14% more for basic food items than they did a year ago.

The report, released by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group (PMBEJD) on Thursday, found that the drop in fuel prices and global food commodity prices had not resulted in a corresponding drop in food prices at retail level, pointing to a possibility that industry is not passing lower costs on to the consumer.