CASE survey lists cheapest supermarkets
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Channel NewsAsia - 1 hour 57 minutes ago
CASE survey lists cheapest supermarkets, 160 budget items
SINGAPORE : A survey by the Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) has found significant price rises for some essential items.
The price of one popular brand of rice rose 44 percent in a two—month period, between March and April this year. The price of another brand of cooking oil jumped 56 percent in the same period.
On the flip side, the survey also highlighted over 160 low—priced or budget items.
The CASE grocery survey covered 21 essential items in seven supermarket chains across Singapore.
Making up the basket of items were bread, canned pork luncheon meat, canned sardines, canned baked beans, canned mushrooms, cooking oil, eggs, instant noodles, rice, salt, sugar, condensed milk, milk powder, baby diapers, toothpaste, shower foam, soap, shampoo, dishwashing detergent, clothes detergent and toilet rolls.
Based on the supermarkets surveyed by CASE officials and volunteers on April 30, NTUC FairPrice had the greatest number of lowest priced items — 10.
This was followed by Sheng Siong at Tekka Mall with seven, and Giant and Shop N Save with four.
Except for FairPrice, which has a standard pricing policy across all its outlets, CASE found that prices for the same item could vary from branch to branch within the same supermarket chain.
Not surprisingly, housebrands form the bulk of these cheapest brands. Thus CASE has advised consumers to switch to housebrands.
It said housebrands and other low—priced labels can be substantially cheaper than their branded counterparts, which could cost twice as much.
Due to rapid price changes, CASE intends to conduct regular surveys, and supermarkets will not be informed in advance.
Yeo Guat Kwang, President, Consumers Association of Singapore, explained: "If we say that we are going to do it monthly, then they may be aware that this is the time that we are checking.
"So they may just adjust the price for that one day or two. And after the information is released, the consumers may not be able to — based on our tips — go get the best value on their money."
The survey’s results will be available on CASE’s website from next week. — CNA/ms
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NTUC?
shouldn't it be sheng siong?
kelong!!!
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NTUC some things really more ex ar
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Cold Storage also quite ex too..
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ya lor NTUC cheapest?? haha kelong lor.. no way!!
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Its all bull shit. Case dare to send their ppl go chinatown or residental area do survey? One bottle of Loreal shampoo cost S$10 plus at NTUC. In chinatown I can get it for as low as S$4.50. Damn. F*** them lah. Cheap my head.
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same drinks yet NTUC price diff is like 20% to 25% more ex than I find outside
needless to say sugar
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Pls update in my thread where to find cheapest cooking oil, cheapest instant mee etc etc.
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Sheng siong stuffs are much cheaper than NTUC.
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Originally posted by Crackerlim:
Sheng siong stuffs are much cheaper than NTUC.
that's why i say kelong. -
hmm.. still think sheng siong cheaper lo.
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maybe all the products are specially selected for survey.
they only take the products from NTUC which are cheaper than Sheng Siong.
kelong!!!
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Originally posted by maurizio13:
maybe all the products are specially selected for survey.
they only take the products from NTUC which are cheaper than Sheng Siong.
kelong!!!
could be Ntuc is under the government?
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MEDIA RELEASE
2 May 2008
CASE REVEALS GROCERY SURVEY RESULTS: more than 160 budget items in SuperMarketS
The Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) conducted a ‘Grocery Survey’ during the first and last week of April and found more than 160 low priced or budget items in the various supermarkets surveyed. Most consumers could benefit from buying such budget items to augment their daily groceries consumption. Such items which are mostly housebrands, will enable consumers to save a considerable amount in these days of high inflation. CASE found that such budget items can be substantially cheaper than the branded varieties and in some instances the difference could be as high as 100%. .
By carrying out this “budget items” survey, CASE aims to highlight to consumers that there are low priced options available in the market place. We also want consumers to know what these items are and where they can be found. Based on consumers’ feedback, we have also included 12 well-known brands in our survey so that consumers could also compare prices of brand besides the budget items. The survey will facilitate consumers to make better informed choices.
In the long run, we hope our survey will generate more interest among consumers to look for such items and that the supermarkets will increase the number of such items in their various outlets. In fact, supermarkets which CASE are in contact with, have expressed support for such display of budget items so that consumers, in particular the lower income consumers, can benefit.
More tables for comparison are included in the enclosed Annexes. Prices in the survey are net of all discounts and include promotion price if the promotion falls within the period. For instance Fairprice offer on going 5% discount for all housebrands.
Following are CASE’s findings:
- Most supermarkets have their own housebrands which are generally lower in price compared to the branded ones at the same supermarket. Such examples can be seen in bread, rice, instant noodles, eggs and toilet rolls. We also observed that the same product can be differently priced in different supermarket’s outlets, except Fairprice which maintains consistent pricing for all products in all their outlets.
- NTUC Fairprice was found to have the most number of “budget items” priced competitively as compared to the budget items of the other 7 supermarket surveyed on 30th April 2008.
- We note that the welknown “branded” items are much more expensive than the budget items that we have surveyed. Among the supermarkets surveyed on 12 welknown brands, Fairprice was found to offer the most products at the lowest price.
- Budget products ranges in pricing in the various supermarkets. For instance, we noted that the cheapest brand of rice in the supermarkets ranges from $4.35 to $6.80 for a packet of 5kg rice (surveyed during 1st week of April).
- Branded items could be expensive and could cost twice as much as the budget items. Take rice for example, the Royal Umbrella’s 10kg packet is selling at $26.80
- We observe that consumers do not just buy such budget products alone. We note that such products are purchased side by side branded products of different items.
- Most house brands are
available for most of the essential consumables such as rice, cooking oil,
sugar, toilet rolls etc.
Some supermarkets have less low priced items. We believe this could be due to different market strategy as such supermarkets may cater more to the needs of middle or upper income group.
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Table below shows the total number of lowest priced budget products found in the various supermarkets surveyed on 30 April 2008.
1) NTUC Fairprice - 10 (no. of items) - Canned Pork Luncheon Meat, Eggs, Instant Noodles, Rice, Salt, Sugar, Baby Diapers, Shower Foam, Dishwashing Detergent, Clothes Detergent
2) Sheng Siong - 7 (no. of items) - Canned Sardines, Canned Baked Beans, Canned Mushroom, Cooking Oil, Eggs, Sugar, Milk Powder
3) Giant - 4 (no. of items) - Salt, Condensed Milk, Toothpaste, Toilet Rolls
4) Shop N Save - 4 (no. of items) - Bread, Salt, Soap, Shampoo
5) Cold Storage - 3 (no. of items) - Bread, Canned Sardines, Salt
6) Prime - 3 (no. of items) - Soap, Dishwashing Detergent, Toilet Rolls
7) Carrefour - 2 (no. of items) - Soap, Dishwashing Detergent
8) Jasons Marketplace - 2 (no. of items) - Bread, Salt
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i shop at fp only because of convenience and linkpoints.. nothing else otherwise
lmao
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now letters at ST forum coming out liao wo
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Wat letters? Can share? I didnt buy ST for the past few days...
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lucky my neighborhood provision shop not inside... if ppl know how cheap they are, i think the crowds will be horrible...
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today's Shin Ming
Price uniformity is not even applicable at Fairprice
Toa Payoh New Town Centre has 2 NTUC outlets
1 can of Mushroom can cost 40c diff, one tin of 900g Anlene Gold can cost $1.50 diff among e 2 NTUC
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Originally posted by pigsticker:
lucky my neighborhood provision shop not inside... if ppl know how cheap they are, i think the crowds will be horrible...
cos chap huey tiam dun have those supplier hidden costyou know wanna sell things at NTUC got to pay them for shelving fee leh
if not how can they make profits -
Originally posted by Manager433:
Wat letters? Can share? I didnt buy ST for the past few days...
simply say not everything NTUC cheapest -
Originally posted by sbst275:
cos chap huey tiam dun have those supplier hidden costyou know wanna sell things at NTUC got to pay them for shelving fee leh
if not how can they make profits
not to forget monthly or etc pallet / gondola / side stands displays, tentage and other lelong sales space and etc lol -
Originally posted by Phoebie:
not to forget monthly or etc pallet / gondola / side stands displays, tentage and other lelong sales space and etc lol
those gondola some chap huey tiam also got as incentive... those nvm... but the listing fee one is really -
Originally posted by sbst275:
those gondola some chap huey tiam also got as incentive... those nvm... but the listing fee one is really
i was told .. the grocery item each stock code listing is $xxxx , 3 months trial .. if cannot sell.. bye bye to that stock code (deactivate or deleted) i think lol