Claims that Sainsburys are more expensive than Waitrose

Eat your heart out, Sainsbury's😂

M0nica

Since every supermarket has own brands, I really do not understand why they cannot take into account the cheapest version of a product in a supermarket at the time of the survey

If there is a special offer on Heinz then take that, but if the own brand is cheaper, use that.

I think it's for comparison purposes - so you know that you are comparing exactly the same thing. In principle, you are not comparing a cheap 'bulked out' version of something with a better quality one.
I see the value in doing both - which is why they do the 'basket' (and which didn't get the same publicity)

Waitrose has a basics promotion how long that will last I don’t know, it hasn’t changed what customers actually buy, which is a lot of premium products plus a lot of alchohol.

Most own brands are as good as branded. if you are comparing the cost of a list of food items, you should be buying the cheapest available on the given day, even if it is a special offer.

Sainsbury prices are getting ridiculous 60p added on items since last week getting more and more expensive every week.

A lot of people I know say “Sainsbugs” Rosiesmaw, I don’t really know why! Morrisons is our neared store, it has an excellent pharmacy and I sometimes stop in for bits and pieces when collecting prescriptions. We shop in Lidl and a couple of small independent shops. Asda, Sainsbury and Waitrose are much further away so we don’t bother.

I have tried and still occasionally shop at Lidl, just for a few things.
My 31 Yr old daughter shops there for her young family weekly, but she has stopped buying her Fruit and veg from them.
I gave up buying Fruit and veg from them too, it goes off so quickly, so I don't bother with the shop anymore .

I go each week to M&S to buy mine, she too gets hers there as well . It just appears fresher and lasts longer tad more expensive but at least , 50% doesn't go in the bin.

I also have a biweekly shop from Waitrose tbh I don't find them any more expensive than other other supermarkets that deliver and their F&V is always fine too.

I know what you mean Visgirl. Some Lidl veg I only buy to to use within 2-3 days. But I find some, e.g. Bobby Beans, Pak Choi or Celery last over a week.

I remember Sainsbugs, Maw. I loves Sarah!

I wasted half an hour of my life a few months back by filling a basket (online grocery shopping) from Waitrose, Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco. To my surprise Tesco was the most expensive, Sainsbury's the second most expensive, then Waitrose, then Asda. No doubt these prices fluctuate week by week; the difference between the least and most expensive was less than three pounds.

I have no loyalty to any supermarket, but as I don’t drive and Tesco’s is a five minute walk away I use Tesco’s

Heaven knows how you would get a trolley so full of shopping through our local Sainsburys nowadays.
There is only one check out now, ( which when I went into the shop last week was closed) the rest are all self serve, nowhere to put your trolley whilst you unpack it and then nowhere to put your shopping except onto the floor in the bags until the trolley is empty, all the while others are trying to get past your trolley to get into the small spaces to pay for their shopping, then wave your receipt around to get out through the barrier. 4 staff there helping people whose items refused to go through.
That will be fun at Christmas won’t it?
I’ll stick to my online shopping, it seems I’m not missing out.

Katie59 You clearly shop in a different Waitrose to the one I use. The only difference I notice is that it stocks far fewer readymeals than other supermarkets, but at the till, other baskets and trolleys are like mine, full of their own brands. As for alcohol, I would say less not more. No trolley loads of cans of beer.

Mind you I did have a £99 bottle of wine turn up on my till slip recently. It seemed that there was a miscoding on a bottle of washing machine cleaner

The reason I started shopping in Waitrose is that its stores are in town centres, so that I can do a whole lot of other shopping in other shops at the same time, plus get my hair done, go to the Building Society, buy fruit and veg in the market. The stores are also a reasonable size so that I can get round to do the shopping in a short time.

The only alternative is a huge Tesco or a Lidl, both a mile out of town and with no other services I can use while I am there.

Long after posting, I remember how D1 “berated” me once for complaining about the price of my weekly shop. It was in the days when Ocado and Waitrose were in partnership before Ocado teamed up with M&S.
She said it was my own fault for shopping with expensive suppliers so I took my printed Ocado receipt and used it as a shopping list in Sainsburys.
As I recall, a handful of items were cheaper, a handful dearer , occasionally I had to go for a close equivalent as there was no exact match and in the end there was a difference of only a couple of pounds. . These days petrol costs would add on a
£ or two plus my time. I remained happy with Ocado but am a little less so because their M&S link means some of my “favourites” aren’t available.

Horses for courses?

There is only a Waitrose where I live so no choice, though I suppose families with cars drive to Aldi or Lidl.
Waitrose is not a local Fortnum & Mason, selling only gourmet foods at ridiculous prices. Their Essential range and Special Offers are cheaper options and I spend only what I can afford.
If you buy mostly basic ingredients and ignore the luxuries you won’t starve even at Waitrose prices.

£300+ for weekly shop? Is that ‘typical’?

Interesting LovesBach, I do the same every now and then when we are entertaining large numbers and I have found that Tesco works out cheaper than Asda! Our local Asda frequently has empty shelves so I tend to go to Tesco or Sainsbury’s. I have found that the discount supermarkets are not as cheap as they used to be, usually only a couple of pence difference so I don’t bother with them anymore.

I think the £300 is for 4, but even so!

I am interested in the 'own brand' issue. We have a large food factory near here, and I am amused at the different 'brands' that end up at the local food bank / homeless shelter when there is a production blip (Harrods coffee with lop-sided labels!)

Although I see that stuff like baked beans / mincemeat / jam etc. may be much of a muchness ( I don't really know myself) and may depend on personal taste.
But if I ever buy cheap tinned tomatoes, I have to reduce them so much I can't see much saving. Does anyone have any examples?

Of course I know that some folk have little choice, but I think this thread has been more about 'value for money' than absolute cheapness.

Nowhere on the Which site does it say anything about the figures they produce being a family shopping list. It isn't.

It is, and I quote
We track the prices of up to 200 branded and own-label products every day over the course of a month to work out the average cost per item. We then add those averages up to get a trolley total for each retailer. We include special offers, but not multibuys.

The contents vary from month to month and might include anything from Andrex toilet paper and Lurpak butter to own-label bread and Heinz baked beans.

We rotate the products in the trolley to ensure we're comparing as many branded products as possible. This means the totals aren't comparable between months or years.

So: Quokka, Nannarose this price comparison has nothing to do with what a family spends each week.

The full reference to the Which site can be found in my post on the first page of this thread. This contains much more detail about the sample.

Yes, I did have a look.
I thought it said '4' which isn't necessarily a typical family. However it's arrived at, it's only a guide - and I can't help feeling that they should exclude alcohol anyway.
But it has been an interesting thread.

Thank you M0nica. I’m thinking of cancelling my subscription to Which. I bought a new TV recently after looking at their Best Buy guide. It’s not all they cracked it up to be and looking at other reviews (which I ought to have done I know) the problems were highlighted on other sites but not on Which.

And something else I bought on their recommendation last year but damned if I can remember what (memory thread!) was also not that good.

Mollygo

Lidl have offers if you have their card. Sainsburys definitely do, although when I was there yesterday, their Lurpack was £2.50, price matched with Aldi whether you had a card or not.

The problem with Lurpak is that they have reduced the size of a packet from 250 grams to 200 grams.
Price rises by stealth, wherever you buy it.
I like Lurpak but have refused to buy it since this happened.

Thanks for that maddyone. I hadn’t noticed. What’s even worse, our local supermarket is still charging £3.75!

It’s possible they’re still selling older stock, but I’d check the size if I were you Molly.

I tend to divide my shopping between Lidl & Sainsbury's but I am finding quite often that Sainsbury's is no dearer. The price rises by stealth have really taken off in a big way post Covid, two examples that immediately spring to mind are tissues, 3ply at Lidl during Covid, 79p for 100, now £1.29 for 72, Sainsbury's Double pack of 3p £2 (£1 per box), Activia small fruit yogurts that I buy for Mr T used to contain 125g, now contain 115g. Prices rising for far less product. I feel really sorry for busy mums who realistically don't have the time (or energy) to read every label, not just for price but for size & content quantities.