How much do you spend on your basic family shop? In this time of austerity most people tend to cut back on the luxuries, but when it comes to the standard pint of milk and loaf of bread, we don’t think twice about nipping down to the nearest shop.
At Islington Now we’ve done your budgeting for you, and compiled a round-up of all the major supermarkets in the borough. You may think that essentials like eggs and bread will cost the same everywhere, but we found huge differences, with some of the pricier shops charging as much as double their cheaper competitors for the very same products.
Iceland in Chapel Market was the clear winner of the eight supermarkets we price-checked, with the cheapest weekly shop coming to a not-so-grand total of £6.84.
The most expensive was Sainsbury’s Local in Upper Street, where the same shop cost almost twice As much as Iceland’s total at a staggering £11.43.
However, if you’re nipping to the shop for a pint of milk, avoid Budgens in Upper Street, which sold the most expensive pint surveyed at 52p. Iceland boasted the cheapest pint of milk which worked out at just 25p, although they only had four-pint bottles available, priced at £1 each.
Lidl and Tesco Metro were tied in the hunt for the cheapest loaf of bread, with 47p for their white loaves. Tesco Metro, only a small shop compared to some of the sprawling supermarkets we trawled around, came in at a close third (only 5p behind Lidl!) for its overall cost, at just £7.50.
The secret to the store’s success was down to the range of Tesco Value products they offered, whereas Sainsbury’s Local offered almost none of its Basics range of products.
To be fair to Sainsbury’s, despite their high price tags for single items, they did have a lot of promotional deals – so if you’re in the market for a bulk buy (or are feeding the 5,000), Sainsbury’s could be your kind of shop.
If you can afford to be a little lavish with your spending, Waitrose proved itself to be a sound option, even undercutting rivals Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer with their total value shopping basket at a respectable £9.52.
Our shopping list
– Six eggs
– A 350g block of cheese
– A white loaf of bread
– A pint of milk
– A 250g block of butter
– A litre of orange juice
– A pack of four toilet rolls
– And a tin of baked beans
How the shops fared:
1. Iceland, Chapel Market – £6.84
2. Lidl, Seven Sisters Road – £7.45
3. Tesco Metro, Upper Street – £7.50
4. Budgens, Upper Street – £9.06
5. Waitrose, St John Street – £9.52
6. Sainsbury’s, Liverpool Road – £9.70
7. Marks & Spencer, Liverpool Road – £10.23
8. Sainsbury’s Local, Upper Street – £11.43
