Thursday, September 15, 2011

Shocking Shopping .. SA versus UK

Well, consider me shocked!

Friend of ours has just returned from SA and said that grocery shopping was so expensive there now...must admit I was a bit skeptical, even though I do know the prices have gone up since we left.

So, today , I did my online Tesco shop, and a virtual shop on the Pick 'n pay online site.
Tesco is comparable to Pick 'n Pay. Asda is like Checkers, and Sainsburys more like Woolies.
 I always look for the bargains and the offers, so I have compared them to Pick 'n Pay own brands, and tried to be as fair as I can. It is easy to work on R10 to the £, but actually it is R11ish, to be fair.


This is the shopping list.


Product                                          

                                                              SA price                                  UK Price

Marmite 125g                                       R18.49                                           £1.51

4x soap                                                 R28.00                                          £1.69

Nescafe original                                    R54.89 (200g)                              £4.00 (300g)

mushrooms 250g                                  R6.00                                                 50p

spaghetti 500g                                      R7.99                                                  18p

Light Marg Spread 500g                       R25.99                                           £1.25

Baby tomatoes                                      R7.99                                                  69p

Blueberry Juice 1litre (is good for
preventing alzheimers!)                          R20.99                                              £1.00

Aquafresh 3 way toothbrush                  R38.99                                              £2.00

3 bean salad 400g                                 R16.99                                                   65p

Dishwasher tabs                                    R55 (for 18)                                      £5.09 (for 33)

Spring Onions bunch                             R8.99                                                       60p

Pork chops                                           R60 /kg                                               £3.99/kg

Mature cheddar                                     R89.97/kg                                          £9.00/kg

Stuffed Whole chicken                           R46.99/kg                                          £3.13/kg

sparkling water                                      R5.99 1 liter                                            17p 2 liter

eggs                                                       R1.31each                                              8p each

'Best of both' bread                                  R10.99 (700g)                                 £1.15 (800g)

Sweetcorn                                              R4 each                                                 50p each

Diet coke cans                                       R36.99 (for 6)                                     £4.89 (for 12)

Loo Roll   (9/2 ply)                                R49.99                                                £4.00

Lurpack butter 250g                              R27.99                                                 £1.60

Tampax 20                                            R31.99                                                 £1.88


Must add Fillet steak....I didn't buy any, everything else on this list I did buy (yes, and the tampax, do you mind??)

Fillet Steak                                              R171.99                                                        £24.99

Ha ha ha ha ha ...we never eat Fillet steak!!

There was more, but I am now exhausted from looking everything up on the Pick 'n pay site which is hard to work with. To be fair, a LOT of stuff is unavailable, but only because they only have online shopping for 6 cities in SA. Also, most prices are quoted in per/kg, and also, you don't get the price on the site, you get the price on the day in the store.

Tesco charges anything from £3.50 to £6 for delivery, depending on the time of day , and how far in advance you book. I usually pay £4.50.
Pick 'n Pay charges a flat rate of R60 for delivery.

This has been a very interesting exercise indeed.














4 comments:

  1. Am shocked by this research. You are obivously very diligent and went to great lengths to publish this info. His highness and I are considering a move to Pomerania ourselves but have been shaken by people by saying how costly food is. Well, bugger that, we are obviously being shafted and happily paying the bill.

    Will def keep this in mind when doing our Pound Sterling sums in future.

    PS. We dont eat meat either. Just too fecking dear if you ask me. Then again his highness does argue that going veggie means we are just eating all of the cow's food and we're not actually helping them are we? (He's a pure carnivore!)

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