Assumptions that could cost you at the till
When it comes to supermarkets, many of us make assumptions about prices that don’t serve us well.
For starters, we assume things about which supermarkets are the cheapest or the most expensive, based on the various supermarket’s advertising, the look of their stores (the store with the cheapest, wobbliest trolleys and the most industrial looking shop fixtures doesn’t necessarily have the cheapest prices.
Our assumptions and perceptions aren’t always based on fact.
In fact, our assumptions are often taken advantage of by the food industry.
Sally Scott of Morningside, for example, always assumed that Woolworths was the posh, most expensive of the supermarkets, so she did her shopping at Checkers in Windermere Centre.
Until one day a few months ago when she needed window cleaner Windolene.
"“I went to Woolies and then I went to Checkers because I try to check prices; I am a pensioner living on a fixed income. The Windolene was R39,99 at Woolies and R44,95 at Checkers. So I thought I’d have a look at some other things like Handy Andy and Sunlight dishwasher, the stuff that most people tend to use, and those three were also cheaper. So I went back again, and I checked the prices of milk, and Flora and butter and sugar and they were all cheaper at Woolworths...”
Clearly supermarkets will be always be cheaper than their competitors on some products and more expensive on others, but Sally’s price examples, noted on Wednesday, July 6, are an eye opening:
Potatoes - R9,99 per kg at Woolworths versus R11,99 at Checkers
Sunlight dishwashing liquid 750g - R19,95 at WW, R24,99 at Checkers - about R5 difference.
Milk - 2l WW own brand R25.99, Clover at Checkers, R28.90
Flora Light 1kg, R42,99 at WW, and R56,99 at Checkers - R14 difference
Butter - 500g, WW own brand R45, 95 - Mooi River at Checkers R49.99
I was interested to know what’s going on with the price of butter - it’s around R100 a kilogram now! In fact I saw a 500g block of Springbok butter selling in Checkers this week for R53 a 500g block - R106 a kilo.
Mooi River and Springbok are both Clover butter brands, so I asked Jacques van Heerden, Clover’s legal executive, about what’s causing the price of butter to increase so alarmingly.
The long, intense drought was the main reason, he said, as the cost of feed had risen dramatically, which led to milk price rises, plus the drop in the value of the rand had led to huge increases in the price of imported packaging, and then there was the hike in diesel and petrol prices.
And then, get this, butter prices have been driven up even more by the shift from lower fat dairy to high fat - perhaps, van Heerden said, due to the Banting diet and more consumers going back to butter from margarine.
The drought has also seen huge increases in the price of spinach, potatoes, sunflower oil, carrots, onions and beef.
Other assumptions work against us as consumers when it comes to grocery prices:
Don’t assume that it pays to buy in bulk. Very often it does not. So check the unit price on the shelf price label - that’s the per 100g or per kg price. It’s very revealing.
Don’t assume that the supermarket plastic bags are too cheap to bother taking your own and that, anyway, that “environmental levy” that’s part of the price goes to recycling projects. You’re now paying about 50c per bag- that adds up, fast - and not a cent goes towards anything green. It’s just a general government tax.
And once you’ve bought the food, don’t assume that you can’t consume something after its best-before date. Best before dates on shelf-stable goods such as biscuits, canned goods and are an indication of quality not safety. So if it still looks and tastes okay, don’t waste your money by throwing it away.