Supermarket Price Comparison Ireland
Unlike in the UK – the real time comparison of supermarket grocery prices is not possible in Ireland at the moment. The National Consumer Agency carries out two price comparison surveys in Ireland every year – which are fairly detailed but are probably out of date as soon as they are done. The most recent NCA Grocery price comparison was carried out in July 2009 – we had a look at some of the results……….
That NCA survey was done in the middle of Tesco rolling out it’s “Change for Good” price reduction program. The Change For Good (CFG) prices are now in place at all Tesco stores in Ireland.
On 68 branded goods the “basket” price was virtually identical in Dunnes Stores (€214.99) and Tesco CFG (€215.11). If alcohol was excluded the Tesco (CFG) price was just the cheapest of the 3 stores compared.
Tesco CFG: €146.11 ; Dunnes Stores: €146.19 ; Superquinn: €154.38
A comparison of 41 own brand items in Tesco and Dunnes – showed that Tesco (CFG) (€56.81) was the cheapest and Dunnes Stores (€64.75) was the dearest. This represents a difference of 14% .
Another own brand comparison was done between Tesco, Dunnes Stores and SuperValu . On a basket of 32 items there was a difference of €10.34 (24.2%) with Tesco CFG being the cheapest (€42.79) and SuperValu the dearest (€53.13).
The NCA admit it is hard to make direct comparison between own brand products – Lidl and Aldi were the cheapest for non branded items – but the NCA said the “Tesco own brand ranges are closing the gap with Aldi and Lidl.”
The Afternoon Show on RTE did a recent “Trolley Watch” in September 2009 – where they compared prices in Lidl, Dunnes, Tesco , Aldi, Superquinn and Supervalu. They basically had a shopping list and picked the cheapest product in each supermarket.
The survey only covered a basket 20 items – so it was fairly limited. In all four price checks they did – Tesco was the cheapest every time.
Another recent price comparison survey by the National Consumer Agency on over-the-counter medicines and personal care goods was carried out in September 2009.
A basket of 25 items was compared across Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Superquinn and SuperValu. The cost of this basket was cheapest in Tesco at €80.85 and dearest in Superquinn at €95.65. Dunnes Stores came in second place for value at €83.52 a basket, while SuperValu was third at €90.65.
Only Tesco and Superquinn offer online grocery shopping in Ireland – so if you want the cheapest online supermarket – use Tesco.
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