Main findings of NCA grocery price survey - February 2009
11 February 2009
The National Consumer Agency has published the findings of its latest survey comparing grocery prices between major outlets. Links to download the full report and data from the survey are at the bottom of this page.
The biannual price check survey was carried out on 8 and 9 January 2009.
In all, 13 stores were visited (one each from Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Superquinn, Aldi, Lidl and two each from Supervalu, Eurospar, Spar and Centra).
Eight stores were in Dublin, and the other five were in Counties Meath (Dunnes Stores) Roscommon (Supervalu), Louth (Eurospar), Kilkenny (Centra) and Carlow (Spar).
The survey covered branded and own brand products.
Main results - branded goods:
- There is increased price competition between the multiples in the market for branded goods. Evidence of this is the widening gap between the three multiples and the reduction in the number of goods which have identical prices.
- On a basket of 83 common items, the survey shows that Dunnes Stores is the cheapest at €292.48. Superquinn is within a cent of Dunnes Stores at €292.49. Tesco is now the most expensive multiple with the basket of 83 items costing €296.08.
- Prices for separate baskets from Tesco, Dunnes and Superquinn all recorded an increase in the period from December 2007 to January 2009. Tesco recorded the largest increase, Superquinn the smallest.
Main results - own brand goods:
- The price gap between Aldi and Lidl has narrowed since the August 2008 survey. On a basket of 49 items, Lidl is 1.4% cheaper, a difference of €0.97
- The gap between Dunnes Stores and Tesco also decreased between August 2008 and January 2009. On a basket of 36 items, Tesco is 2.6% cheaper, a difference of €1.42
- The own brand results also indicate that the gap between Aldi/Lidl and Dunnes/Tesco has significantly decreased since the August 2008 survey.
- Over the period December 2007 to January 2009 separate baskets for Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes Stores and Tesco all became more expensive. The basket of goods from Tesco recorded the largest increase, Dunnes Stores the smallest increase.
Downloads
Download the National Consumer Agency Price Comparison Survey February 2009 - full report (MS Word, 496KB)
The following survey data is also available to download: