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An analysis of the monthly prices of a basket of essential items reveals that Food Lover’s Market is the cheapest grocery retailer in South Africa – but not by much.
BusinessTech looked at The Outlier’s monthly grocery basket prices since the beginning of the year from six of South Africa’s most popular grocery retailers, revealing the average monthly price of a basket of nine to twelve essential items between January and July 2023.
The Outlier’s monthly grocery basket comparison is conducted at the end of every month, compiling the prices of the same items from six major retailers – Woolworths, Checkers, Pick n Pay, Food Lover’s Market, Spar, and Shoprite.
In the last couple of months, The Outlier added Boxer and Makro to its comparison. However, because there is no data for these retailers from the start of the year, they have been excluded from our analysis.
From January until May 2023, The Outlier compared nine essential items, consisting of:
- 700g loaf of Albany Superior sliced white bread, or store-brand
- 2-litre sunflower oil (cheapest option)
- 2.5kg Iwisa maize meal
- 2.5kg Selati white sugar
- 2-litre milk (cheapest option)
- 2kg Tastic rice
- 2.5kg Snowflake cake flour
- 175g bar of Dettol herbal soap
Additionally, as more retailers were added to the survey, they’ve had to tweak the shopping list as it has become difficult to find comparable products across the different stores. As of June 2023, for example, The Outlier no longer compares the price of a 9-pack of two-ply toilet paper. Instead, they added four new items to the basket, bringing it to a total of 12 items – which explains the jump in prices from May to June.
These new items were:
- 500g Fatti’s & Moni’s spaghetti, or store brand
- 400g smooth Black Cat peanut butter
- 1kg Jungle Oats
- 100 Joko tagless teabags
The Outlier also noted that, in some cases, store brand alternatives are used because some stores only keep the store brand versions of those items. When some items aren’t available in-store, the online prices were considered. The comparison covers the various retailers in several areas within Gauteng.
Cheapest retailer
According to the data, the cheapest grocery retailer, on average, in 2023 so far is Food Lover’s Market, with the basket costing an average of R417.75 per month. This is R16.82 less than the second cheapest retailer – Shoprite (R434.57).
In contrast, Spar had the most expensive basket, costing R447.25 on average per month since the start of the year, which is R29.50 more than Food Lover’s Market. It must be noted that Spar is franchised, meaning prices and items can vary from store to store.
Interestingly, our analysis shows that the prices of Checkers, Woolworths, and Pick n Pay – which are competing for much of the same consumer base – are very similar, with little differences.
Pick n Pay, surprisingly, is the most expensive out of the three, with its basket costing R442.08 on average, which is only R5.67 more than Checkers and R3.18 more than Woolworths.
The graph below shows the average price of The Outlier’s grocery basket per month across the six retailers from January to July 2023. The table shows the actually monthly prices recorded each month.
| Month | Woolworths | Checkers | Pick n Pay | Food Lover’s | Spar | Shoprite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | R406.91 | R408.91 | R418.91 | R389.37 | R440.91 | R392.91 |
| Feb | R404.91 | R406.24 | R416.21 | R393.87 | R441.91 | R408.91 |
| Mar | R413.91 | R415.16 | R414.31 | R399.70 | R412.91 | R413.41 |
| Apr | R413.91 | R421.91 | R428.01 | R404.87 | R433.41 | R411.07 |
| May | R418.91 | R401.91 | R413.41 | R394.87 | R419.91 | R485.91 |
| Jun* | R502.88 | R504.88 | R505.88 | R474.30 | R483.88 | R463.88 |
| Jul* | R510.88 | R495.88 | R497.88 | R467.30 | R497.88 | R465.88 |
| Average price: | R438.90 | R436.41 | R442.08 | R417.75 | R447.25 | R434.57 |
Read: I ate a R4,000 meal at the best restaurant in South Africa – this is what it’s really like
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