Price wars: How you can find the best deal

Where do you do your weekly shop, and are you getting the best deal?

There’s no denying that our shopping habits have changed in the last 50 years. Gone are the days when the housewife would spend her morning walking from butcher to greengrocer, fishmonger to baker selecting the catch of the day, the fruit and veg of the season. Nowadays it’s a quick dash around the supermarket after work buying what Tescopoly have decided we should be eating. But are we getting the best value for money?

Tesco announced its ‘Big Price Drop’ back in September, Asda is pumping up its advertising of its ‘Price Guarantee’ and even Sainsbury’s and Waitrose who previously kept out of such price wars have got in on the act. But with such a homogenous market place, how do we know where’s best to spend our money? Well, we at Lovefood.com have done all the hard work for you. Here is a price comparison of four supermarkets, four farmers’ markets and four online veg and meat box delivery sites. 

The supermarkets

The aim of this task was to discover the real cost (as of October 2011) of five basic staples – milk, meat, potatoes, a seasonal veg and eggs. The price difference between the four supermarkets, even ‘posh’ Waitrose, is actually really small. Two pints of organic whole milk is the same, £1.10, at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Asda; six free-range medium eggs are similarly £1.30 across the board. Two breasts of organic chicken range from £5.79 for the cheapest at Asda and £7.20 at Waitrose (both based on average 400g packs). For seasonal veg I looked at savoy cabbages. Sainsbury’s and Waitrose matched at 80p, while Tesco came up cheapest at 60p. Asda didn’t sell savoy cabbage.

The onliners

But of course, supermarkets aren’t the only retailers on the block. Doorstop delivery is back and there are several really good vegetable and meat box schemes out there. Riverford Organic is one of the founding organic vegetable box suppliers and started out in Devon nearly 25 years ago. Now you can get its range of boxes (veg, fruit, meat or bespoke) across the South West, Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire and Hampshire. Abel & Cole has a similar set up, and has organic vegetable boxes starting at just £9 a box. Field&Flower is a premium meat box delivery service that works from a farm in Somerset. These guys deliver good meat nationally. Then there is Howbarrow Organic Farm, which delivers its organic boxes across the North West. It seems the north/south divide really is in effect here, with Howbarrow coming up cheapest on the veg, milk and eggs. Meat really isn’t that much more expensive than the supermarkets – Abel & Cole and Field&Flower coming in at only pennies more than Waitrose. It’s the same with potatoes. But, if you’re after eggs or vegetables you could be looking at double the price; however, remember with a box scheme you are buying local and in most cases organic, the same cannot be said for supermarkets. 

The farmers’ markets

Johnny Rotten might not be bothered about supporting the British farmer, well it’s their career choice after all, but the majority of us folk are. In comes the traditional British farmers’ market. There are markets across the country nowadays and you can get the best of local produce at them. Eggs from the four farmers’ markets I researched (Bath, Cardiff, St Andrews, Durham) were cheaper than the supermarkets and online retailers. The savoys and potatoes were also some of the cheapest. But here is where one of the problems with farmers’ markets lies – they aren’t comprehensive. So, if you are wedded to getting your two organic chicken breasts, you’re in trouble. If you are happy to shop as you find, and instead buy a whole chicken from a local farm, then you’ll be fine. Milk isn’t readily available either. Gareth Simpson, enterprise development manager at the Cardiff Riverside Community Market Association said: “It seems [milk is] a difficult product to bring to farmers’ markets – it’s bulky, needs extensive chilling requirements, and perhaps produces low margins”. Kimber Farm Produce, who sells non-organic milk for 95p a litre at Bath Farmers’ Market, was the only producer I could find in our sample to do so.

One thing is clear. Supermarkets might be competing with each other, but they can’t always compete with your local farmers on price or the online retailers for convenience and peace of mind. So, where will you be doing your shop this Saturday?

Got your ingredients, why not try these recipes:

Marco Pierre White's chicken with lemon and thyme

Raymond Blanc's chicken with mushrooms

Richard Corrigan's chicken chasseur

Gizzi Erksine's egg, ham and chips

Donal Skehan's egg parcels