Thu Jan 16 12:09:00 UTC 2020
In a survey conducted earlier this week by an influential news website Shoprite and Checkers offered the cheapest and second cheapest basket of grocery essentials, bringing some relief for South African consumers currently under intense financial pressure in a depressed economy.
First placed Shoprite’s basket was 20% cheaper than that of the most expensive supermarket, while a mere R3 differentiated the prices in its basket from that of its sister supermarket, Checkers.
Essential items being compared included brown bread, 1 litre house brand UHT milk, house brand baked beans in tomato sauce, 750 ml house brand cooking oil and 2kg Tastic rice.
These findings come on the heels of a comparison of back to school specials, in which Shoprite and Checkers jointly came out on top.
A selection of back to school supplies, which included pencils, white paper and ballpoint pens, were compared by the same news site and Shoprite and Checkers’ baskets were found to be R33 cheaper than the most expensive one.
Beleaguered consumers further benefit from Shoprite’s 20-day subsidy on specific food items like 600g in-store baked brown bread (R4.99), 500g Kellogg’s Corn Flakes (R29.99), 5kg Iwisa/Supersun/Nyala Maize Meal (R29.99) and 2kg Bokkie French Polony (R34.99). The subsidies have been in place since the beginning of the year and will come to an end on 19 January 2020.