{"id":178203,"date":"2017-06-11T19:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-06-11T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=178203"},"modified":"2017-06-09T17:23:36","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T15:23:36","slug":"price-war-2017-woolworths-vs-spar-vs-pick-n-pay-vs-checkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/178203\/price-war-2017-woolworths-vs-spar-vs-pick-n-pay-vs-checkers\/","title":{"rendered":"Price war 2017: Woolworths vs Spar vs Pick n Pay vs Checkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

South African consumers have hit hard times over the past few years as a creeping GDP growth, high unemployment and many political shocks continued to weigh on the economy.<\/p>\n

This week, GDP data from Stats SA showed that South Africa has officially entered into a recession, with economists predicting tough times ahead for consumers, as more ratings downgrades are in the pipeline, which will ultimately put further pressure on the pocket.<\/p>\n

One of the key components of South Africa’s slide into recession was a cut in consumer spending, in everything from recreation, clothing and transport, to even basic needs categories like food.<\/p>\n

And South Africa’s biggest food retailers are feeling the pinch.<\/p>\n

In April, Pick n Pay missed expectations for\u00a0its full year earnings citing strained consumer spending as shoppers sought out cheaper options – which appeared to drive them to Shoprite’s doors, who reported a 14% growth in turnover in its latest financial year.<\/p>\n

Woolworths, which has consistently positioned itself as a ‘premium’ food store, has seemed to weather the storm, with its latest results for FY2016 showing a 24% growth in profit from its food segment – which makes up 37% of the group’s total turnover.<\/p>\n

A weakening economy and drought conditions hit South African food prices hard in 2016, with food inflation hitting close to 12% throughout the year. With a record yield from crops expected in 2017, some relief is on the cards – but the recession and other expected economic woes are likely to keep the pressure on consumers.<\/p>\n

In the latest assessment of prices across South African retailers, we found that there has not been much a shift among South Africa’s food retailers.<\/p>\n

When shopping for the BusinessTech basket of goods, Woolworths still checks out at the highest price – though it is apparent that, with the exception of Shoprite, competitors have struggled to keep prices low.<\/p>\n

The BusinessTech Basket of Goods<\/strong><\/p>\n

For our basket, we look at some essential and non-essential food products. The basket contains 12 items, with store-brands priced for each item where available. The table below shows the pricing:<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Product<\/th>\nDescription<\/th>\nWoolworths<\/th>\nSpar<\/th>\nPick n Pay<\/th>\nCheckers<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Apples<\/td>\n1.5kg<\/td>\nR22.99<\/td>\nR22.99<\/td>\nR19.99<\/td>\nR19.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Bread<\/td>\nBrown, one loaf<\/td>\nR13.99<\/td>\nR7.99<\/td>\nR7.99<\/td>\nR8.69<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cabbage<\/td>\nOne head<\/td>\nR15.99<\/td>\nR17.99<\/td>\nR13.99<\/td>\nR11.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Coca Cola<\/td>\n2 litres<\/td>\nR16.95<\/td>\nR15.99<\/td>\nR14.99<\/td>\nR16.49<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Eggs<\/td>\n6 extra-large<\/td>\nR25.99<\/td>\nR11.99<\/td>\nR18.99<\/td>\nR14.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Flour<\/td>\nSelf-raising, 2.5kg<\/td>\nR37.40<\/td>\nR39.99<\/td>\nR38.99<\/td>\nR29.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Maize<\/td>\nAce, 2.5kg<\/td>\nR27.95<\/td>\nR25.99<\/td>\nR23.99<\/td>\nR23.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Margarine<\/td>\nRama, 500g<\/td>\nR25.99<\/td>\nR25.99<\/td>\nR25.99<\/td>\nR17.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Milk<\/td>\nFull cream, 2 litres<\/td>\nR27.95<\/td>\nR26.99<\/td>\nR23.99<\/td>\nR21.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Rice<\/td>\nWhite, 2kg<\/td>\nR27.95<\/td>\nR24.99<\/td>\nR31.99<\/td>\nR17.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sugar<\/td>\nWhite, 2.5kg<\/td>\nR40.95<\/td>\nR39.99<\/td>\nR35.00<\/td>\nR34.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tea<\/td>\n100 bags<\/td>\nR24.95<\/td>\nR14.99<\/td>\nR17.49<\/td>\nR24.95<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/td>\nR309.05<\/strong><\/td>\nR275.88<\/strong><\/td>\nR273.39<\/strong><\/td>\nR244.04<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Prices were sourced in-store from stores around Centurion and cross-checked online, where applicable. Promotional prices, where marked, were not taken into account<\/strong>. Woolworths self-raising flour prices were determined on a per kg basis. In-store prices are subject to change depending on individual regions and promotions.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

Prices have increased significantly in some cases, compared to the mid-2015 review. This is most notable in sugar and maize, which were impacted by drought conditions in the country during the interim period.<\/p>\n

The most striking difference between the 2015 and 2017 reviews is that Pick n Pay, which was ranked as the cheapest basket in 2015, is now extremely close to being the second-most expensive, a few rands under Spar.<\/p>\n

Checkers, which has positioned itself as the more affordable option, has lived up to that reputation, with many of its prices actually decreasing between 2015 and 2017.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0South Africa\u2019s economy is officially in recession<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African consumers have hit hard times over the past few years as a creeping GDP growth, high unemployment and many political shocks continued to weigh on the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":97173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-178203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178219,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178203\/revisions\/178219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}