A food writer for the Irish Examiner, who has been tracking the price of a sample basket of groceries over the past six months, says she has observed a ‘marked increase’ in costs across the five biggest supermarkets in Ireland.
Catriona Redmond told Newstalk Breakfast that, on average, the sample basket of items increased in price by €2.
The basket included staple items such as half a pound of butter, a litre of full-fat milk, cheddar cheese, pasta, a slice pan, mince, chicken, a bag of spuds, half a dozen eggs and a bag of carrots.
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Catriona said: “So back on the 23rd of March, I started tracking a key kind of sample shopping basket for the Irish Examiner. So this is not indicative of what the average family would be buying on a week-to-week basis, but it is a grocery basic of staples that most families will be picking up probably more than one of these items.”
The journalist said she has been comparing prices across the five “big player supermarkets in Ireland; Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes Stores, Supervalu and Tesco.
She said: “On average, there has been… an increase of €2 per supermarket on just these items since the 23rd of March.”
Although the €2 increase doesn’t sound like that much, Caitriona emphasised that the sample basket cost, on average €18, which is significantly less than what a typical family would be spending on groceries per week.
She said: “You know most families are going to be spending more than €100 a week on their grocery shopping. So if this is a small sample, so if it’s a €2 increase on a basket that costs somewhere between €17 and €19, you’re talking of at least a €10 increase for families in the last six months.”
After comparing the costs, Caitriona determined that at the moment, Lidl is providing the best value, with the basket coming to a total of €18.12. This was significantly cheaper than the highest costing basket from Tesco, which cost €21.66, a difference of €3.54.
Caitriona said: “The German discounts, so Aldi and Lidl, would be the ones that would be more in the budget range compared to the other supermarkets.
“So their cost seems to be much lower on these staple items. Now that’s not to say that there isn’t value to be had elsewhere, but they are cheaper than the others.”
She added that some stores offer particularly low prices on specific items, but these low prices may mean you could be compromising on quality.
“Dunnes performs particularly well, but that’s down to their very cheap pricing on beef mince which is €2 for a pound of beef mince which is remarkable value. It is extremely cheap. The quality on that, I'd put a slight question mark on it because the fat content of that beef mince would be, on average, 20%, so it’s not the best quality food that you want to be buying for a family, but when you’re on a budget needs must.”
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