A basket of groceries is much cheaper at Makro compared to other local retailers (Getty Images)
Jacobs Stock Photography Ltd
- Makro has the cheapest grocery basket compared to seven other retailers, including Woolworths, Checkers, Pick n Pay, Spar, Food Lover’s Market, Shoprite, and Boxer.
- This is according to a survey by The Outlier which compared the prices of 12 grocery items from June 2022 to June 2023.
- Makro’s basket was the cheapest, costing R450.99 per basket, while Pick n Pay was the most expensive at R505.88.
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A basket of 12 essential grocery items is the cheapest at Makro – for the third year in a row – compared to seven other local retailers as of 29 June 2023.
This is according to The Outlier, which collected 12 months’ worth of prices for basic goods at a selection of South Africa’s major retailers.
These include Woolworths, Checkers, Pick n Pay, andSpar. The Outlier later added four other retailers: Food Lover’s Market, Shoprite, Boxer, and Makro.
“We have been doing our monthly grocery comparison for a year, and since June 2022, a lot has changed. We started out comparing the prices of nine basic goods across four retailers,” said the report.
The basket of goods moved from comparing nine items to 12. As of June 2023, the survey stopped comparing prices for a nine-pack of two-ply toilet paper but instead added four new items to the basket.
The basket includes:
- 700g loaf of Albany Superior sliced white bread, or store brand
- 2-litre sunflower oil (cheapest option)
- 2.5kg Iwisa maize meal
- 2.5kg Selati white sugar
- 2-litre milk (cheapest option)
- 2kg Tastic rice
- 2.5kg Snowflake cake flour
- 175g bar of Dettol herbal soap
- 500g Fatti’s & Moni’s spaghetti, or store brand
- 400g smooth Black Cat peanut butter
- 1kg Jungle Oats
- 100 Joko tagless teabags
In June this year, Outlier found that with the new basket of 12 items, Pick n Pay was the most expensive, costing R505.88 per basket, while Makro remained the cheapest for three consecutive months, at R450.99 for its basket.
The second cheapest basket was from Shoprite at R463.88, followed by Food Lover’s Market at R474.30.
Price changes in 12 months
According to the survey, some prices have changed drastically over the 12 months since the data-collection project started.
In June 2022, for example, consumers paid an average price of R52.74 for a 2kg bag of Selati white sugar, which has increased by 18%. The average price now is R62.23.
The report also recorded some significant price increases between May and June. This includes the same brand of sugar, which was most expensive at Checkers and Shoprite, costing R69.99 for the 2.5kg bag.
“The price surge stems from substantial increases that were passed on by the South African Sugar Association to all producers and customers due to cost pressures, according to an email reply from the Woolworths press office. The association said it could not respond to our questions,” the report stated.
In the last 12 months alone, customers have also had to deal with the significant price increase of a 2kg packet of Tastic rice, which went from R35.74 between four retailers to R41.36 between eight retailers.
One item that has seen a significant price decrease amid a 6.3% inflation rate is store-brand sunflower oil. In July 2022, the average price of a 2-litre bottle of sunflower oil was R115.74 at Woolworths, Checkers, Pick n Pay, and Spar. Now, it costs about R83.24 on average, a decrease of over 28%.
“Last year’s poor climate conditions meant poor harvests, which resulted in retailers having to source vegetable oil internationally, leading to price hikes,” said the report.
