Checkers vs Pick n Pay vs SPAR vs Woolworths – where to get the cheapest South African breakfast

Daily Investor created a basket of ingredients for a South African breakfast and compared the online prices at the country’s top food retailers – Checkers, SPAR, Pick n Pay, and Woolworths – with Pick n Pay emerging as the clear winner.

Over the past few years, South Africa has seen a boom in online grocery deliveries, with services like Checkers Sixty60 growing rapidly.

This growth in online deliveries and the similarities between many services means that online prices have become important for consumers when choosing between retailers.

Therefore, Daily Investor created a basket of breakfast ingredients and tracked the prices of these products through the food retailers’ websites or apps – with interesting results.

It is important to note that while many of the products included in the basket were on special at certain retailers, the items’ listed prices were taken into account rather than discounted ones.

Many of the top four retailers sell similar products and often the same brands, yet prices can still differ markedly from retailer to retailer.

For example, for a 5 kg bag of Iwisa Super Maize Meal, Checkers currently charges R74.99, SPAR charges R69.99, Pick n Pay charges R74.99, and Woolworths charges R79.99.

Daily Investor also included private-label or store-brand products to give each retailer a fighting chance.

Many of South Africa’s retailers have developed their own home-brand products, particularly for staples like milk, eggs, and fresh fruits and vegetables. These products tend to be less expensive than branded products.

For example, Checkers’ Housebrand full-cream 2-litre milk costs R35.99, while the same product with a Dewfresh, Clover, or Douglasdale label is sold for R36.99.

However, there are exceptions to this, particularly when it comes to Woolworths.

Woolworths, which primarily targets higher-income South Africans, was the most expensive retailer in this and the previous comparison – despite the retailer selling primarily private-label products. 

For example, all the retailers included in this comparison sold home-branded eggs. Daily Investor specifically looked at the 18-pack large eggs. 

For this product, Checkers, Pick n Pay and SPAR charge between R60 and R65, whereas Woolworths charges a whopping R91.99.

This is likely because Woolworths prides itself on “exceptional quality in every product,” which tends to come with a higher price tag. 

Below is an overview of how these retailers’ prices compare. Pick n Pay has the cheapest basket, followed closely by SPAR.

South Africa’s high food prices

A recent Competition Commission report revealed that South African food producers and retailers have been slow to pass on the effects of declining cost pressures to cash-strapped consumers.

The commission found that cost pressures in South Africa are easing due to an end to load-shedding, the rand’s strength against the dollar, and declining fuel costs.

Still, essential food prices “remain high and are increasing at a rate that is unaffordable for low-income households”.

The commission began a probe last year into what it described as an unjustified increase in essential food prices spawned by factors including the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of Russia’s war with Ukraine.

Faced with a large number of people who have limited disposable income, South African food retailers have to compete vigorously on price and inflation.

Nedbank analyst Paul Steegers said these retailers’ price levels have “generally been below official food inflation every year for the last ten years”.

While South Africa’s food inflation is officially measured across a static basket, the retailers measure their internal inflation across a changing basket of goods depending on consumer demand.

That means retailers are also taking into account so-called downtrading as consumers look to cheaper products, Steegers said. 

This is seen in consumers more regularly forgoing brands and buying the store’s own-label items instead.

Still, the probe found some notable exceptions where prices have risen and then failed to adjust lower as production pressures have eased.

For example, a “steep decline” in the cost of producing cooking oil hasn’t translated into lower average retail costs, and egg prices remain “considerably higher” than they were before an outbreak of avian flu, it said. 

The price of brown bread has also increased despite lower farmgate prices for wheat.