Food Prices in Ireland - is there competition ?

If you related quality to price, is there any real competition in the market?

Quote :

11/09/2008 - 12:40:10
The National Consumer Agency has published its Grocery Price Survey.
The agency says there was a 59.3% price differential between Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Dunnes Stores in December 2007.
This has dropped to 33.9% in August.

It says competition is concentrating on the own brand sector.
And there was a 0.3% difference on a basket of branded goods between Dunnes, Tesco and Superquinn.

cactus flower wrote:

If you related quality to price, is there any real competition in the market?

Quote :

11/09/2008 - 12:40:10
The National Consumer Agency has published its Grocery Price Survey.
The agency says there was a 59.3% price differential between Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Dunnes Stores in December 2007.
This has dropped to 33.9% in August.

It says competition is concentrating on the own brand sector.
And there was a 0.3% difference on a basket of branded goods between Dunnes, Tesco and Superquinn.

What's "Quality" to you ?

How much will you spend per week before you decide it's too dear and look for alternatives? Or is that the way you bargain-hunt? In fact, how do you bargain hunt? It's a general question but I'm looking for tips.

Auditor #9 wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

If you related quality to price, is there any real competition in the market?

Quote :

11/09/2008 - 12:40:10
The National Consumer Agency has published its Grocery Price Survey.
The agency says there was a 59.3% price differential between Aldi, Lidl, Tesco and Dunnes Stores in December 2007.
This has dropped to 33.9% in August.

It says competition is concentrating on the own brand sector.
And there was a 0.3% difference on a basket of branded goods between Dunnes, Tesco and Superquinn.

What's "Quality" to you ?

How much will you spend per week before you decide it's too dear and look for alternatives? Or is that the way you bargain-hunt? In fact, how do you bargain hunt? It's a general question but I'm looking for tips.

A difficult one. I'd say in food it would relate to freshness, to not having a high level of chemicals, and to nutritional value. Say marmalade - a high fruit would be worth more than low fruit one. The only way to make sense of comparisons between the main stream and discounted supermarkets is by comparing a basket of essentials on both price and quality. Aldi might have a very good cheap and cheerful electric screwdriver on offer but that isn't going to feed the babogues.

I would be interested to see that comparison, to see if the difference between discounted and mainstream is as big as in that report.
Perhaps I'll do it myself.

The best way of saving money on food is avoiding waste and avoiding toxic products. Oats I think are very good value and nutricious and a bowl of porridge in the morning can keep the wolf from the door. Eggs are brilliant for protein. Having an apple tree is good value. But at the end of the day, good food doesn't come cheap.

I agree with you on the freshness, nutrition and chemicals. Bent carrots are irrelevant, indeed I'd put quality above other variables like convenience, even price. Trouble is you don't see too much quality easily - especially the absence of chemicals. Organic carrots taste better but how do you know there's a nutritional benefit? It'd be great if there was a direct physiological effect out of eating mainstream food the way there is out of drinking mainstream alcohol. There isn't though so we lapse back into buying the cheaper or more convenient.

I've been buying sliced pan in Lidl recently and freezing it - it's 60 cents a loaf there while in Tesco it's around 1.60 although I couldn't tell you exactly as I don't pay huge attention to prices. And I go to Aldi and Lidl for the screwdrivers too but lately I've been finding their bread a bit salty ... it'd be nice if there was an eco label on food like there is on washing machines...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7604996.stm

Lately I've been thinking should we do a panel on the portal or a thread which becomes a panel about "The Price of Everything" which would give roundabout figures for the best stuff at the best price we can find? From bread to seasonal strawberries to dvds to yes, screwdrivers. The world needs a baseline for prices/quality ... let's start here by extending the "Bargain" thread.

So, 60 cents for a white sliced pan in Lidl for the decadent poor. Bring on your oat prices ! (should we start a seperate thread?)

This one will do. We can post our bargains and any reports that come up that compare prices.

If Gormley allowed the construction of super ultra hyper mega shopping-centre markets outside small towns which would compete with everyone, everywhere then maybe prices would fall but he won't do it, the basturd.

Quote :

MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley is likely to reject a call by the Competition Authority for changes to planning rules to allow the construction of giant, out-of-town grocery outlets.

The authority yesterday published a report calling for the lifting of the cap on the size of retail grocery stores to allow for construction of hypermarkets and to encourage new entrants to the market. The Minister responded by announcing a review of existing retail planning guidelines next year, but said this would take in to account "broader issues".

Retailing should remain a core function in town and village centres, he emphasised, and access to public transport should be a key factor in deciding the preferred locations for retail development.

"I wouldn't hold my breath for any changes that allowed major out-of-town development sucking business out of existing town centres," said one source.

In contrast, the authority favours removal of planning restrictions to allow construction of large stores. It says ending restrictions on the size of grocery stores would help drive prices down without costing the Government any money.

The Irish Times


John Gormley smiling insanely.

That's a good idea, Audi - would we need to tabulate it some way, so that the information is easily accessible and easy to compare?

Kate P wrote:

That's a good idea, Audi - would we need to tabulate it some way, so that the information is easily accessible and easy to compare?

I was picturing a big lisht on the portal somewhere broke down by items, like this.

Food
Bread - Aldi 55cents
Milk - Aldi 80 cents litre
Butter - Aldi - 90 cents a pound
An Apple - 40 cents, Lidl

Toiletries
Soap 40 cents Aldi
Toothpaste - 50 cents, The €2 Chinese Shop
//various other stuff people need to clean themselves//

Clothes
This
that
the other

Mechanics - what I'd pay for a half service/ full service/tyres/tyre change
Ears in Mallow - there is no other

Top Three Best Bicycles
one wheeled bike - €40 in O'Flaherty's Clonmacglenballyardmore
two wheeled bike - €50 in Finnegan's Killardglenballylisbeg

etc.

What about a new website called "Top3" - people could vote in their top three restaurants, mechanics, plumbers, TDs etc. Everyone would be bribing us to get into the Top3

Top3 Yachts ...

Auditor #9 wrote:

I agree with you on the freshness, nutrition and chemicals. Bent carrots are irrelevant, indeed I'd put quality above other variables like convenience, even price. Trouble is you don't see too much quality easily - especially the absence of chemicals. Organic carrots taste better but how do you know there's a nutritional benefit? It'd be great if there was a direct physiological effect out of eating mainstream food the way there is out of drinking mainstream alcohol. There isn't though so we lapse back into buying the cheaper or more convenient.

I've been buying sliced pan in Lidl recently and freezing it - it's 60 cents a loaf there while in Tesco it's around 1.60 although I couldn't tell you exactly as I don't pay huge attention to prices. And I go to Aldi and Lidl for the screwdrivers too but lately I've been finding their bread a bit salty ... it'd be nice if there was an eco label on food like there is on washing machines...


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7604996.stm

Lately I've been thinking should we do a panel on the portal or a thread which becomes a panel about "The Price of Everything" which would give roundabout figures for the best stuff at the best price we can find? From bread to seasonal strawberries to dvds to yes, screwdrivers. The world needs a baseline for prices/quality ... let's start here by extending the "Bargain" thread.

So, 60 cents for a white sliced pan in Lidl for the decadent poor. Bring on your oat prices ! (should we start a seperate thread?)

My friend's mother suffers from high blood pressure. He brought her to the doctor recently who measured her sodium levels which turned out to be dangerously high. The doctor enquired where she did the majority of her shopping.On hearing her answer of ALDI, he advised her to read the labels very carefully as they have very high salt content in their food. He warned that salt is not necessarily called salt. They have a habit of listing salt and sodium as two different things in the nutritional information while in reality they are more or less one and the same.

My recent shoparounds have led me to the conclusion that Lidl is cheaper than the 3 main stores (we don't have an Aldi near us). But you can't beat the Cornelscourt Dunnes for variety... and it's a lot cheaper than the local Spar. Some of the Lidl stuff is also better quality... try the icecream!

10% off your groceries at the till at Dunnes this weekend.

Auditor #9 wrote:

And I go to Aldi and Lidl for the screwdrivers too but lately I've been finding their bread a bit salty ...

Figures... nearly all the butter in Germany is unsalted.

It seems to me that food in Ireland is considerably more expensive than in continental Europe. Aldi & Lidl seem to have made a difference to the competition, but they're not everywhere.

Why is coffee so much more expensive in Ireland? For example, on any street in Madrid you can walk into a bar and get a coffee (a good café con leche, from the espresso machine, with hot milk added) for €1.20. Outside Madrid it might be even cheaper. Coffee in German and French supermarkets seems to be half the Irish price...

And don't get me started on beer!

soubresauts wrote:

Auditor #9 wrote:

And I go to Aldi and Lidl for the screwdrivers too but lately I've been finding their bread a bit salty ...

Figures... nearly all the butter in Germany is unsalted.

It seems to me that food in Ireland is considerably more expensive than in continental Europe. Aldi & Lidl seem to have made a difference to the competition, but they're not everywhere.

Why is coffee so much more expensive in Ireland? For example, on any street in Madrid you can walk into a bar and get a coffee (a good café con leche, from the espresso machine, with hot milk added) for €1.20. Outside Madrid it might be even cheaper. Coffee in German and French supermarkets seems to be half the Irish price...

And don't get me started on beer!

It's a nice fact that the German butter is unsalted - is that butter for sale in Aldi and Lidl I wonder as I try to avoid salt for some reason.

I've been looking at salt in stuff now and on a loaf of Lidl bread it said the recommended daily allowance was 6 grams. What's 6 grams look like? I don't smoke.

Well your recommended daily intake is something like 1.5g so don't eat the whole loaf in a day . I would suspect over 80% of the population have a greater salt intake than that though.

johnfás wrote:

Well your recommended daily intake is something like 1.5g so don't eat the whole loaf in a day . I would suspect over 80% of the population have a greater salt intake than that though.

They say 4000 - 5000 mg per day here johnfás. How many skittles is that?

Sorry I totally got that wrong they say 2400 mg and they say it's a teaspoonfull.

Where? It says 1,600mg on there for the UK allowance, that's 1.6g.

Quote :

UK Sodium RDA


The US sodium RDA of less than 2,400 mg
is higher than the UK Recommended Nutritional Intake (RNI) whose upper
limit for sodium is 1,600 mg.

johnfás wrote:

Where? It says 1,600mg on there for the UK allowance, that's 1.6g.

Quote :

UK Sodium RDA


The US sodium RDA of less than 2,400 mg
is higher than the UK Recommended Nutritional Intake (RNI) whose upper
limit for sodium is 1,600 mg.

Sorry yeah I corrected myself above about that. The average daily consumption in the U.S. is 4000-5000 mg. They're very salty over there. The English aren't as salty .... How do all those RDAs differ? Isn't the human body the same all over the world or does it depend on climate? Don't we need more salt for the dehydration?

Perhaps the Americans are just working their's out on the basis that they know people will never achieve a healthy limit? They are a very unhealthy society.

johnfás wrote:

Perhaps the Americans are just working their's out on the basis that they know people will never achieve a healthy limit? They are a very unhealthy society.

Sorry johnfás I'm confusing everything. The RDA is 2300 mg for Americans but their average intake is 3000 mg (according to the different doctor below)

Quote :

How much salt should I consume each day?

The average American consumes over 3,000 milligrams of sodium every day -- far more than the body actually needs. The Food and Nutrition Board recommends a daily intake of no more than 2,300 mg. And as one recent study shows, reducing salt to 1,500 mg a day may be even better.

I'll read that Salt book yet.

Anyway, there's about 20 mg of sodium in my Lidl water - does that count as salt ?

Auditor #9 wrote:

I've been looking at salt in stuff now and on a loaf of Lidl bread it said the recommended daily allowance was 6 grams. What's 6 grams look like? I don't smoke.

6 grams looks like 6,000 mg. Recommended? That's silly. Though it might actually represent an improvement for Irish people, because I have seen a figure of 10 g average daily intake for each Irish person. That was from some medical authority, though I can't find the quote. There's no doubt we eat an awful lot of salt.

And for heaven's sake be careful about buying salt in Lidl. It might be fluoridated -- in contravention of Irish law, among other things. See:
http://sonic.net/kryptox/nutri/saltGermany.htm

Edit: The Irish Times now confirms the 10 g figure for Irish average salt intake:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2008/0916/1221430249175.html

It also explains the salt-sodium thing.

Was just down at Superquinn, got 1 packet of mince, 1 packet of McVitie's Caramel Digestives, 4 rolls of Andrex Toilet Roll, 1 box of Lyons Tea bags and 2 tubs of Ben and Jerrys in the back to the 70's price promotion - total cost 10 bob.

Sounds great JohnFas.
But don't let me catch you buying non-FairTrade teabags again!

Indeed, I am a naughty boy.

It never ceases to amaze me that those of the left would welcome large supermarkets on the basis that they are cheaper without giving due consideration as to how they are cheaper, the abuse of their dominance in the market, how they have unfair trading advantages over others, how they abuse their suppliers and how they influence political parties.

Who are you aiming that at?