Price Differentials at 5 Different Supermarkets…
I floated the idea of doing a price comparison among groceries last January and got an enthusiastic response. Many folks even volunteered to check their neighborhood groceries, which was a pleasant surprise. I finally got around to attempting the idea, and I have to tell you, it was a a royal pain in the rear. I canvassed 10-14 products at 5 different groceries within a 24 hour period and eventually eliminated 4 products due to erratic availability and inconsistent size issues… At any rate, I have rushed to publish the results hours after my last grocery visit so that you can use this as a guide to check your own neighborhood grocery this weekend if you are doing some shopping. I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment with any prices you saw in your neighborhood grocery for the following SPECIFIC ITEMS so that the overall readership of Market Manila can benefit. The bottom line has some rather interesting conclusions (albeit the huge caveats on a small sample, small geographic area, etc.):
1. The cheapest grocery in Makati/Fort area out of 5 visited was Landmark Grocery, with a comparable basket of goods at P420.20, and Shoemart Makati was a very close second, while surprisingly to me, the most expensive grocery was Metro Gaisano at Market!Market! Mall at P458.20 for the same goods, or a stunning 9.0% more! Imagine if you extrapolate that out to your annual grocery spent of say PHP100,000, that would be P9,000 more!!!
2. But if you impute a parking fee of PHP40, for which all of the groceries visited charged EXCEPT Cash & Carry, then Cash & Carry would actually appear to have the lowest overall cost… of course the parking disadvantage diminishes the more you spend.
3. For non-perishables (i.e., exclude onions and garlic), the maximum variance between prices at groceries was a stunning 17.30%, with a Safeguard 90 gram soap being PHP17.95 at Shoemart Makati but a whopping P21.05 at Metro Gaisano! And Del Monte ketchup at Shoemart at P27.50 was 14.10% more than the P24.10 charged at Cash & Carry!
4. Rustan’s was the second most expensive grocery of the 5 visited (not a surprise), but it also had the narrowest selection of goods it seemed, either not carrying common items or they were out of stock…
5. The largest variance amongst prices was seen in garlic and onions, and admittedly there are different levels of qualities and sources, but assuming you bought garlic or onions at any of the five places because you had to, you could be paying up to 89% MORE for the same agricultural product, P47 a kilo for onions at Landmark and a whopping P89.95 a kilo for onions at Metro Gaisano! Yikes!
Here is a rundown by product (I wish I could post a table or a graph but I don’t know how to do that on wordpress):
1. Baguio Oil (1 liter plastic bottle):
Landmark P65.25
Shoemart P63.50
Cash & Carry P64.70
Rustan’s P69.00
Metro Gaisano P65.25
2. Coke Light(12 oz can):
Landmark P18.50
Shoemart P18.00
Cash & Carry P18.00
Rustan’s P18.00
Metro Gaisano P18.30
3. Kleenex facial tissues, one box white plain unscented:
Landmark P71.30
Shoemart P69.50
Cash & Carry P69.95
Rustan’s P70.50
Metro Gaisano P70.25
4. Joy Dishwashing Liquid 190ml refill pack:
Landmark P30.70
Shoemart P29.75
Cash & Carry P31.00
Rustan’s P30.75
Metro Gaisano P31.35
5. Del Monte Ketchup 320 grams plain, classic:
Landmark P24.20
Shoemart P27.50
Cash & Carry P24.10
Rustan’s P27.50
Metro Gaisano P24.90
6. Safeguard 90 grams white box (single, not the double box in picture):
Landmark P18.20
Shoemart P17.95
Cash & Carry P18.40
Rustan’s P19.25
Metro Gaisano P21.05
7. Purefoods Corned Beef 210 grams:
Landmark P49.95
Shoemart P49.50
Cash & Carry P49.75
Rustan’s P49.95
Metro Gaisano P50.95
8. Tide Bar plain:
Landmark P20.10
Shoemart P20.25
Cash & Carry P20.20
Rustan’s P22.95
Metro Gaisano P21.25
9. Onions, white, per kilo:
Landmark P47.00
Shoemart P50.00
Cash & Carry P78.00
Rustan’s P57.75
Metro Gaisano P89.95
10. Garlic, 1 kilo:
Landmark P75.00
Shoemart P77.00
Cash & Carry P66.00
Rustan’s P79.00
Metro Gaisano P64.95
TOTAL COST OF ALL TEN ITEMS:
Landmark P420.20
Shoemart P422.95
Cash & Carry P440.10
Rustan’s P444.65
Metro Gaisano P458.20
Phew!? That was a LOT of work, I kid you not. And I actually purchased almost all of these products at all of the groceries so I wouldn’t get stopped by security. But aren’t the results of this little exercise rather interesting? Now if only we could manage to do this on a bigger scale, say 30 products from 30 different Metro Manila groceries… I bet at least 50,000 consumers in the city would log in to check out the results of THAT expanded survey… AND it would keep the groceries on their toes. Unfortunately, it may also result in cartelized pricing… Hmmm, whaddaya think?
(Research Notes: Data collected on Thursday, July 19, 2007 and Friday July 20, 2007. Landmark Makati, SM Makati, Cash & Carry Makati, Rustan’s Makati (+ Rockwell and Forbes for two products not available in Makati Main Store), Metro Gaisano Taguig.)
hi MM, i notice Shopwise wasn’t included in the list.. or did you figure that with it being a subsidiary (or something) of Rustan’s the prices might be more or less the same? As an aside it might be interesting to note whether Shopwise is indeed the less expensive alternative to Rustan’s as it is advertised that way..
i myself tend to go more to Cash and Carry as they have more variety and yes, free parking.. i find it such a hassle to go to the Commercial Center, there’s usually so many people!
July 20th, 2007p.s. oh, and by the way that was a GREAT job of surveying you did!
July 20th, 2007p.s. oh, and by the way that was a GREAT job of surveying you did!
July 20th, 2007Just can’t see the reason why MM has to set up some parameters to do this price comparison study. I think the purpose of the survey was to note the price difference among the stores and not a study on the factors which would affect the pricing of the goods among the different stores.
July 20th, 2007The supermarkets I found to have the cheapest merchandise are; (CSI-Baguio-believe it or not), Makati Supermarket-Alabang(they’re cheaper and the cheapest in the city, so far AND with very good px choices too, considering the number of expats in the area), coming second is South Supermarket-Festival, Shopwise, SM-Southmall (all in that order and yeah, Santi’s is just around the corner too. The first two carry good merchandise but for produce, SM-Sthmall, and Shopwise. They’re all spacious and clean which is also a factor. All have free parking(except for SM if basement parking)with validation. :)
July 20th, 2007That’s South-Supermarket in Filinvest,Alabang…Not in Festival Mall :)
July 20th, 2007elaine pretty much covered the superarkets around my area, but just a minor correction regarding the location of South Supermarket. It’s in Filinvest, not Festival (Mall). My family prefers to do our grocery shopping at South Supermarket because it’s quite spacious and they don’t charge for parking. Actually, parking fees are either cheap or non-existent in the south. If shopping at Makati Supermart, park across [the supermarket], get the parking ticket validated and you don’t pay the P15 parking fee. SM does have cheap items so the place is usually crowded.
July 21st, 2007It’s irony the price of basic household detergent - Tide bar fluctuates like big waves in the ocean which some household is a multitasker from clothes, bathing and dish soaps! Not to mention the quintessential base of two sauteing ingredients garlic and onion which are ubiquitous in our day-to-day food. Obviously two or three cloves of garlic are good enough for a bowlful of sauteed bagoong!
July 21st, 2007try saving the graph as a jpg or gif file. you might be able to post it to this blog, like a photo.
July 21st, 2007Items at Pioneer Center (in Kapitolyo, Pasig) always carry much lower prices. And yes, I agree with Traci, Shopwise is cheaper too.
July 21st, 2007Btw, free parking din sa Pioneer Center, which is better for us living in the vicinity.
July 21st, 2007make a screenshot of your graph and save it as an image file. then you can post it as a regular photo.
just click on alt+print screen and paste it on Paint then save it as jpeg.(for smaller size)
July 21st, 2007Carmina, parking maybe free of charge in Pioneer Center, but park at your own risk, there were lots of carnapping incidents around that area, so you gotta be cautious.
July 21st, 2007we are one of the largest trade promo and merchandising agency in the Phils. deploying refillers at all trade levels for FMCGs - supermarkets, groceries, convenience stores and public markets - on a nationwide scale. We submit regular reports to our principals on a regular basis including price monitoring for competitive survey. CASH & CARRY and PUREGOLD SUPERMARKETS would always yield the lowest prices - they also offer wholesale at a much lower price.
July 21st, 2007I hate to be someone supplying the above goods to the supermarkets right now. Assuming the merchandisers of Rustans and Metro Gaisano have read the above posts, you can expect a lot of angry calls from the merchandisers to their suppliers regarding the price differential. Even SM will be calling up their suppliers for Del Monte Ketchup, Tide Bar, Onions & Garlic to demand that their prices be lowered so they match that of their competitors.
BTW, how come Price Smart wasn’t included? Is it because one has to purchase by volume?
Puregold, anyone? I heard they are cheaper but we don’t shop there. My wife goes to either Unimart in Greenhills or Hi-Top along Quezon Avenue.
July 21st, 2007I just came from Puregold Shaw last night. While I don’t have any items similar to MM’s list, i’ll list a some of what i bought for it to be compared. I was also at Landmark earlier this week and my Mom went to SM Megamall yesterday.
Calamansi
Puregold - 40/k
Landmark - 43.75/k
Puregold
Potatoes - 50/k
Red Bell pepper - 125/k
Carrots = 95/k
Parsely
SM Mega - 87/k (Fresh Harvest)
Puregold - 130k (Dizon)
Garlic
Puregold - 60/k
SM Mega - 52/k
Gain Plus 3 900g - P536.20
I also go to Cherry Shaw which has good prices as well. Anybody shop at Hi-Top?
July 21st, 2007Great job MM…since grocery eats a big chunk out of our household budget. This way you help us be wise shopper. I do my shopping either in Shoemart or Puregold. My brother told me Hi-Top in Quezon Ave a good choice of doing grocery.
July 21st, 2007I for one, agree doing a market survey on different items at different groceries depending on their location. I believe location of the store do affect the price. Just like Puregold in Tayuman…where I find my child milk to be so low as to compare to Puregold QI where I found stocks to be incomplete.
thanks for the survey marketman! i shop at hi-top too.. however,in my experience, all groceries have both items which are comparably cheaper and items which are comparably more expensive to other groceries.. i guess that’s how they profit.. so unless i want to go to 3 groceries every time i go shopping, i stick to the grocery where my priority items are cheapest.
July 21st, 2007i used to work in the fashion retail industry when i was in the phils but i also had some exposure to consumer goods. what i remember is that consumer goods are not bought directly from manufacturers but go through distributors. cost prices are affected by both quantity ordered and the payment terms which are mostly CODs. mark-ups are very minimal because retailers benefit on the higher turn over of consumer goods. shelf space(exposure), of course, is dictated by demand. just to get a square foot of that precious space, sales reps would be willing to offer lots of extra bonuses like bigger discounts, display counters, POPs, etc., especially for new or lesser known brands.
July 21st, 2007Excellent article MM. We live near Cherry supermarket along Shaw Boulevard and I find the prices cheaper tho I can’t compare them now as I’m here in Saudi.
July 21st, 2007I still vouch for Hi-Top. Havent gone to do the grocery yet this weekend but just to compare prices at Hi-Top to SM Megamall prices… There is an average of Php1.00 differential per goods and can go up to Php3-5 (depending on the goods). Most imported stuffs are cheaper there too. Plus free secured parking space.
July 21st, 2007PriceSmart, now S & R (I think this is their new name)does sell some items in sizes appropriate for restaurants, and large families, but the majority of the merchandise is sized for typical families and individuals. Many of their items are sold individually. I’m a loyal member of S & R Congressional branch & I’m happy with the prices & services they offer.
July 21st, 2007I also vouch for the lower prices of Cherry supermarket but at their Congressional Avenue branch. They have more selection than SM supermarket or Hi-Top.
July 21st, 2007…And have you guys noticed that if you do your monthly grocery you have to go to 2-3 supermarkets just to complete your list? It’s a tiring exercise to trek from one place to another because one store is always incomplete with one thing or another.
July 21st, 2007I agree…
July 21st, 2007Thanks for this article. sorry I won’t be of much help, the only products I buy on the list above are Joy and Safeguard. I buy my onions, garlic and veggies from the wet market, I find that it’s cheaper there…
I enjoy doing the weekly grocery shopping, but I hate it when I get there and realize that most of the items in my list are out of stock or not in good condition (I regularly shop in Shopwise Cubao). So instead of saving up on gas and parking fees by minimizing trips to thew grocery, I spend more due to sidetrips to other groceries in the vicinity (like Rustan’s which turns out has almost the same items and prices because they have the same owner).
July 21st, 2007Thanks for the taking the effort putting this together MM. Gathering data is definitely no walk in the park!
July 21st, 2007Our family has been shopping in Landmark for years and yes, most of the items are cheaper here. A heard a lot of enterprising people buy here for their Sari-Sari store items. One thing I notice here is that the check-out counters operate very fast..Cashiers and bag boys are friendly and focused in their job..some small talk here and there pero mabilis mag compute. We sometimes shop in Rustans or SM Makati for some items we think are not available or cheaper than Landmark. My only complaint with Rustans is that, perhaps trying to be posh or something..well it is an upscale supermarket, is that they do not normally put price tags on their goods. Okay, they put a little paper marker indicating the price on the shelves but sometimes the prices are not updated or it isn’t indicated properly making you wonder how much is the real cost! It may be a snutty way of telling you that price does not matter, pero I think even rich people nowadays still mind the high cost of goods happening every month!
July 21st, 2007the wife says here in our neck of the woods in qc, cherry and hi-top have the lowest prices among supermarkets.
July 22nd, 2007“Grocery” shopping is like a hobby of mine even if i don’t have any particular items i need to purchase. Every store has something different and i enjoy the rare (and hopefully bargain!) finds. From my general experience, the cheapest groceries are in this order: Cherry Foodarama, Puregold and SM are competitive with one another, Robinson’s then Rustan’s last. I’ve lived near Shaw all my life so Cherry is very convenient with the free ample parking and cheaper basics. Nobody can match the cat food at 191.25 for Friskies. All the others are at 198. But don’t expect gourmet finds. Mercury Drugstores and 24/7 convenience stores are just highway robbery! MM,let me echo the others in asking your readers to survey certain items that you pick out. That’ll be really something!
July 22nd, 2007First, thanks MM for the effort. Totally appreciated and no need for a 5 year study or some deeper analysis. very thoughtful of you to provide us some baseline data.
Secondly, through the years and after shopping in so many groceries/supermarkets, I would have to say that overall, Cash & Carry seems to have not only lower prices but also a wider selection. But for wet market purchases like meats and fish, I find that South Supermarket in Filinvest has a wide and very convenient variety of goods. Stuff like “estosinsal” (sp.?) for embotido is available there already cleaned and frozen! (Hehe, even Kermit legs are on offer there - cleaned and frozen)
July 23rd, 2007Wow! And I have been going to Metro Gaisano since it opened! =(
July 23rd, 2007Cherry Foodarama is the best. Cheaper than SM and huge selection. And, parking is free!! I go to the Congressional Avenue branch.
July 23rd, 2007para sa taga Bacolod…. Groceries at Consuelo’s at Luzuriaga Street and Libra Mart Libertad are cheaper than Gaisano, SM, and Robinsons…
July 23rd, 2007Very helpful post! Thanks :)
Landmark also has lots of promo booths ;) Usually part of citi promos (free Nestle milk until end of July per 1k receipt), and generally lots of merchandiser booths with free stuff.
July 23rd, 2007My officemate told me that MEtro Gaisano’s grocery items are expensive compared to other stores. Anyway, we buy our goods at Puregold Pasig, it’s cheaper but sometimes not complete but parking is free. Landmark is ok, too, not just the groceries but also the household wares. For those residing near District 2 of Makati, they will agree that a small grocery store at Pateros (NESABEL) is a lot more cheaper (BUT sans aircon and gourmet items). Diapers & infant milk, mura!
July 23rd, 2007hi! thanks so much MM, i certainly appreciate the effort. i personally do my groceries in sm bicutan because of its location. i noticed that shopwise sucat (fairly new) does not have all the brands i prefer. my brother shops in landmark and mentioned that it was indeed cheaper. . i still do my shopping in sm because they have an “advantage” card so that each time you shop you earn points which you can then later use to purchase goods/items. like after maybe 8-10 months of just saving up my points, i earn about 400-500 pesos value which i can use with my purchases. landmark doesn’t have this “points/card” system. . maybe that is why they can afford to lower their prices?
July 23rd, 20071. Baguio Oil (1 liter plastic bottle):
Hi-Top 64.65
2. Coke Light(12 oz can):
Hi-Top 18.25
3. Kleenex facial tissues, one box white plain unscented:
Hi-Top 69.25
4. Joy Dishwashing Liquid 190ml refill pack:
Hi-Top 30.10
5. Del Monte Ketchup 320 grams plain, classic:
Hi-Top 23.95
6. Safeguard 90 grams white box:
Hi-Top 18.20
7. Purefoods Corned Beef 210 grams:
Hi-Top 49.50
8. Tide Bar plain:
Hi-Top 21.55
9. Onions, white, per kilo:
Hi-Top 52.00
10. Garlic, 1 kilo:
Hi-Top 48.00
TOTAL COST OF ALL TEN ITEMS:
July 23rd, 2007395.45
Thank you MarketMan for the hard work you did in compiling the list of comparative prices. It confirms what I have thought for a long time about supermarket shopping here, and in Singapore where I lived and worked for 4 years and in my home country, the UK; that is, to get the cheapest shopping you have to spend a lot of time moving between various stores, but at the end of the day the saving is not worth the time, gasoline and stress. My practice and advice is find a supermarket not too far from where you live, which has approximately the brands you prefer, sign up for their points card and stick with it.You can always look in local wet markets, as I do, for anything unusual or really fresh. Life is too short to spend hours hunting around to save 50 pesos.
July 24th, 2007If you really have the time, patience and guts… killion in quiapo offers the best bargain. as in… super. they also have a most reliable source of nuts and dried fruits. so far, i’ve never bought old stock from them. but it is quite a killer of an experience in terms of frustration tolerance.
hi-top tops my list of supermarkets. they offer an almost complete variety of brands to choose from– from both local and imported ones. yup, although it is quite small in size compared to other supersized supermarkets…they maximize the shelf space by limiting it to only a few pieces of the same brand to have more brands/kinds available. they also have a super collection of snacks. only one flaw is they have… i think… the biggest shopping carts. bamperrr to bamperrr ang trapik if you go on suweldo day inside. : )
July 24th, 2007aince, THANK YOU!!! Geez, Hi-Top really does sound much cheaper!!! :)
July 24th, 2007in Guadalupe, (inside Guadalupe Market) there is a grocery called UNIMEC where prices are low as some of the nearby stores are buying items that they sold.
July 25th, 2007Hi-Top also puts products on sale long before the expiry date. There are good deals here for all kinds of products that you plan to consume soon - 1-2 weeks for dairy, 1-3 months for others.
The downside is that the groceries are in traffic-congested residential areas in Quezon City. I guess you can drop by after going to Farmer’s. There’s one along Aurora Blvd.
July 25th, 2007i agree with you that rustan’s supermarket has the narrowest
July 25th, 2007selection of goods and their prices are much higher.i think
SM supermarket at megamall has an extensive selction of goods
and their arconditioning system is great. unimart supermarket
in greenhills has many imported items but they should renovate
the supermarket and improve the meat section because the smell
is not very pleasing.cash and carry has also an extensive selection of goods especially goods for baking.
i love landmark. simply because i think it is one of the bigger stores that dont practice category management yet. meaning you really will get 15 brands of say cooking oil for example - from the most expensive to the cheapest vs. rustans and shoemart - where you will only get like 5 or 6 cooking oil brands. =)
July 26th, 2007absolutely amazing job, ang tiyaga!
would love to have information like this, makes you think twice on where to shop. i often buy at shopwise, because it’s not as crowded and has a fairly reasonable price. maybe you can include shopwise in your next survey?
July 26th, 2007do supermarkets in the Philippines have special offer for different products every week? In the UK you can buy a litre of coke for 0.59p when it’s on special offer but they usually cost more than £1… A 450g cadbury chocolate bar costs £1.50 but if you buy 2 they cost £1 each so you pay £2. That’s why when I go to supermarkets apart from my usual list (of things to buy) I also check other stuff. I think supermarkets in the UK are great. They also have generic products (own by the shop) which are really cheap but usually of low quality but some are as good as the high priced products.
July 29th, 2007i recently had my grocery on market@x! & i almost fumed to see the bill! their tropicana twister apple flavor is 69.10 per liter whereas in any sm groceries it just costs 44! i think they have a problem with regards to their pricing & price labeling coz i wouldn’t get that juice if it cost that much, it just so happened that in the price label it was indicated 45.75. i’m not going to shop there anymore, believe me, you’ll save a lot when you shop on other groceries. puregold is the best!
August 19th, 2007I shop in Pioneer Center regularly, and don’t have a problem with parking security. If you park nearer the supermarket building as opposed to nearer the food outlets on the opposite side of the parking lot, you can see your vehicle the moment you get out, and there’s usually a couple of security guards in the area. I shop at Pioneer because it’s way cheaper than SM Megamall or Hypermart near Tiendesitas, and than Rustans. Next time I’ll check out the prices like aince did. I did, however, get an SM Advantage card and a Rustans Fresh card because sometimes SM and Rustans do have good promos for specific items.
August 29th, 2007Hi,
you did a great Job of surveying. I’m just wondering if you know of a distributors of all grocery products? please contact me at mvpadul@yahoo.com.
truly appreciate your help,
Ven
November 12th, 2007Venus, sorry, I don’t know any distributors.
November 12th, 2007hi, im baby, i always go and buy at jans in buting pasig. i guarantee you, they have the lowest price there. they even have a tarpauline that says, MURA PO DITO
October 3rd, 2008congratulations to all of you for responding to MM. Each of us at least go to a grocery once a week…and we are more aware, if we all get together, we may put the grocery business to consider the consumers more. kasi in this country the consumer is not a strong group.
continue to be a watch dog…..
November 13th, 2008