Tuesday, June 23, 2009

The Grand Experiment Concludes

This week was the fourth and final for shopping at Asda, and also marked the first at which I actually made it to the Asda in Falkirk, as opposed to making the trek to Grangemouth. I managed to get all but one item from my list (no chicory, which will impact in this week's salad), but otherwise did okay. I did buy a couple of things that weren't on the list, but these are deducted below.

Unfortunately, the receipt for this week is almost illegible. Consequently, I only think these prices are correct. I know the total is correct, but since I'm discounting a couple of items, there isn't a guarantee that the total is 100% accurate.

The list is as follows:


  • Sandwich meat, £2.47
  • Smoked Salmon, £2.64
  • Yoghurts (12), £5
  • Poppadums (20), £2
  • Mouthwash (2, blue), £3
  • Milk (4), £1.53
  • Almonds (300g), £2.96
  • Ice Creams (8), £3
  • Carrot (1), £0.08
  • Dill, £0.68
  • Fennel (1 bulb), £0.78
  • Bananas (8), £1.26
  • Tomatoes (6), £0.88
  • Radishes, £0.57
  • Gem Lettuces (2), £0.88

From this, I am discounting the ice creams, half the mouthwash, and half the poppadums. The latter two items were on 2-for-£X offers, and so I bought twice the quantity that was on the list. The total was £27.73, but the deductions come to £5.50, which reduces this to £22.23.

Plugging this total in my spreadsheet (which has neatly highlighted all the failures in my math thus far), Asda gets a revised figure of £147.21 for four weeks, which actually comes out as the most expensive of the three supermarkets.


The revised totals for the three supermarkets are as follows: Tesco £133.63, Morrisons £142.30, and Asda £147.21. Given that Asda have been "Lowest Price Supermarket" for twelve years, this is something of a shock.


So, what happened?


Well, a large part of the difference is to do with specific quantities and specific purchases. For example, I had to purchase washing liquid from Asda, which I didn't deduct as it was a 'standard' expense, but it turns out my previous purchase had been just before the Grand Experiment started (or, perhaps, in the week between Tesco and Morrisons). Conversely, I had to buy dishwasher tablets from both Tesco and Morrisons, but not Asda. And, similarly, I bought 48 cans of Irn Bru each from Asda and Morrisons, but only 24 from Tesco - this represents a difference of £6 or so.


But it is probably lunch that does the most damage to Asda (and, to a much lesser extent, Morrisons). Two items that I purchase every week are on a continuous offer from Tesco, but are much more expensive at the other supermarkets. The yoghurts I buy are always £5 for 12 from Tesco, but it was only this week that Asda matched that price. Similarly, a week's worth of sandwich meat is £1.80 from Tesco, but much much more expensive elsewhere. (This week's sandwich meat is only half a week, and is £2.47!)


But ultimately, this exercise has shown that each supermarket is the cheapest on some things and the most expensive on others (and also that the amounts may well vary with time). A loaf of bread from Tesco averaged £1.30, while at Morrisons it came to £0.85 and Asda was £0.78. A can of Irn Bru was 28.25 pence at Tesco, 20.17 pence at Morrisons and 26.625 pence at Asda. And a banana averaged 12.4 pence, 14.3 pence or 14.76 pence respectively.


(By the way, bananas turned out to be cheaper than apples, at 12.4 pence vs 33.625 pence at Tesco. This was something of a surprise, as my previous recollection had been that they were more expensive. Of course, said recollection was forged two summers ago, when the crop failed.)

The end result of all of this is that I'm off back to Tesco, which means that in twelve weeks I have determined that the best thing to do is "what I was doing anyway". However, it is at least now based on numbers, rather than just random guesswork.


Some other conclusions:

1) I am using the wrong brand of toothpaste. It seems that MacLeans costs £1.95 per tube, while Colgate is a mere £0.95.

2) I suspect that there are significant benefits from going to the biggest local supermarket, rather than looking for a specific chain. I say this because of my experience with buying soap from Asda recently. At Tesco, I paid 19 pence for a bar of soap. At Asda, it was 40 pence. (I didn't buy soap at Morrisons.) That's a massive difference. However, it's not a like-for-like comparison: at Tesco I bought own-brand soap, while at Asda I bought Imperial Leather, purely because it was the only soap they had and I had reached the point where I couldn't really delay any longer. Bigger stores would seem to have better stock levels, and certainly have a greater range of options, which means that cheaper options are available.

3) Buy (non-perishable) things when they're on offer, and buy in bulk where possible. That's not exactly a revelation, of course.

4) Always buy the cheap option where you won't notice any difference, but consider spending more where you will. The afore-mentioned soap is a good example - in the shower in the morning I'm rarely conscious enough to spot the difference between no-name soap and the premium brand. Likewise with rice, tinned tomatoes, and the like. However, the same is not true of cuts of meat, for example, where a more expensive cut is likely to be considerably better.

And that's about it, really. I hope it hasn't been too boring these last three months.

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