Alrighty There People.
I'm quite angry at the moment. I went shopping last night, at my local ASDA, and I had a goal in mind - not just to get my weekly supply of food and necessities, but also to do a comparison.
You see, when we go shopping at places like ASDA, Tesco, Sainsburys and the like, we have a choice of three types of food: Brand name foods, such as Heinz, Wall's, etc; the supermarket's own brand of food, in nicely designed packaging; and the cheap stuff - SmartPrice at ASDA, Value at Tesco, and Basics at Sainsbury’s (I think those are correct) - these are just the food, in plain packaging, with it's description and nutritional information.
Now, the prices we pay for these differing packages varies greatly, but generally, the food is the same. So when I did my shopping last night, I made a comparison - of the branded foods, ASDA's own foods, and ASDA's SmartPrice foods. For the purposes of this 'test', I made a list of 20 food and drink items that may be bought in a typical week. I avoided other items, such as bodycare items - toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel, etc; and things that you can pick up in supermarkets, such as pots and pans, crockery, cutlery etc. I concentrated purely on food.
Here are the shocking results of the price difference between branded foods, ASDA foods, and SmartPrice foods:
I'm quite angry at the moment. I went shopping last night, at my local ASDA, and I had a goal in mind - not just to get my weekly supply of food and necessities, but also to do a comparison.
You see, when we go shopping at places like ASDA, Tesco, Sainsburys and the like, we have a choice of three types of food: Brand name foods, such as Heinz, Wall's, etc; the supermarket's own brand of food, in nicely designed packaging; and the cheap stuff - SmartPrice at ASDA, Value at Tesco, and Basics at Sainsbury’s (I think those are correct) - these are just the food, in plain packaging, with it's description and nutritional information.
Now, the prices we pay for these differing packages varies greatly, but generally, the food is the same. So when I did my shopping last night, I made a comparison - of the branded foods, ASDA's own foods, and ASDA's SmartPrice foods. For the purposes of this 'test', I made a list of 20 food and drink items that may be bought in a typical week. I avoided other items, such as bodycare items - toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel, etc; and things that you can pick up in supermarkets, such as pots and pans, crockery, cutlery etc. I concentrated purely on food.
Here are the shocking results of the price difference between branded foods, ASDA foods, and SmartPrice foods:
If you haven't quite digested that, take a look at this summary:
And if you need any more help working out what this means, these charts may help you:
Now, I know that sometimes only Coca Cola will do, or you'd rather a tub of Ben and Jerry's than ASDA's own offering, but to be honest in the past I've bought branded foods, ASDA's own foods, and SmartPrice foods, and sometimes you just can't taste the difference.
So why, people, do we need to be so fashion conscious, and spend exorbitant amounts of money on brand name foods, when we could be saving hundreds - yes - hundreds - of pounds each year on something so simple as food.
Please feel free to discuss.
The Dieting Man
1 comment:
You may not be getting like for like. Check that the lower priced brands aren't higher in sugar, fat, salt and other enhancers and bulking agents.
Essentially you get what you pay for but equally, buying a branded name doesn't mean you're getting a higher quality product.
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