Supermarket shop around

THIS month Magill begins a new Consumer Affair's department. Each month we will examine some aspect of the consumer market in Ireland. We begin this month by examining the kind of choice and value for money the shopper can expect when buying groceries in Dublin.

Supermarkets afford greater value and choice for most packaged items. Foods such as tea, cereals, peas, tinned fruit and cream crackers are always cheaper at the supermarket. There is the added advantage of their brand name, which supermarkets, especially the Dunnes Stores chain, carry for most items. Most superrmarkets front their brands at very competitive prices.

Wheatabix, one of the most popular cereals, is sold at most supermarkets for 30p to 3Sp per pound. Dunnes Stores Henry St. sells their brand of cereal for 24p.

It would be wrong, however to confuse the cheapest with the best value. Dunnes Stores sells the cheapest tea in town, but it is also the worst.

Where meat and vegetables are concerned, the best value is to be found in the greenngrocers rather than the superr'markets. They excel the superrmarkets in quality and price. They tent to provide a more flexible choice in terms of quantity. Supermarkets are addicted to packaging at their vegetable counters. Anything from oranges to onions comes complete with green cardboard bases and plastic covers. If God really intended oranges to have plastic covers he wouldn't have given them peels. The consumer pays.
Quinnsworth in Blanchardsstown recently sold cauliflowers at 28p a head while the greenngrocer down the road, Justin Ward, was selling his cauliiflowers at 20p. It is also imporrtant to note that in the superrmarket the customer is restricted to a set quanitity of pre-packaged food.

The latest Prices Commisssion Report examines the situation. It accuses the super-"'I markets of making excessive profits on fruit and vegetables. Not only are the supermarkets selling fruit and vegetables at higher prices, they are bulkkbuying at a lower wholesale price than the smaller shop.

The Prices Commission Report also found that the profit mark-up was higher on the fruit and vegetables counter than on any other item, including wine and spirits. The mark-up ranged from 21. S per cent to 2S. 7 per cent. The Prices Commission also found that storage facillities for fruit and vegetables left a lot to be desired. Consequently, money was lost due to excessive waste.

At the moment the Agriculltural Institute is studying the whole process by which fruit and vegetables are marketed. In the meantime, it is better by far to shop at the smaller greengrocer than at the superrmarket. To a lesser extent this is also true for meat items.

Supermarkets tend to cater for a passing trade in meat whereas the local butcher affords a more personalised service and a greater degree of choice. For instance, H. Williams in Sandymount was selling sirloin steak at their meat counter at £1.93 a pound... Streckers butcher across the road was selling its sirloin stj::ak at £1.73 a pound And at the butcher one can choose exactly how much one wants while in the superrmarkets most meat items come pre-packaged.

It is commonly believed that each supermarket chain has regulated prices, i.e. Superrquinn in Sutton will have the same prices as Superquinn in Walkinstown. But Dermot Kelly of the Irish Times recently discovered that the Walkinstown store was cheaper than the one in Sutton. Because of intensive competition in Walkinstown (there are two other superrmarkets) the Superquinn goods are cheaper there. For example, the Superquinn in Walkinstown sold Zip Fire Lighters at 34p per box while in Sutton the same box was selling at 44p a box.

IT is interesting to note that four of the best known cat food brands are all manufactured by one firm, a British company called Pedigrees Pet Foods. The brands are Kite-Kat, Whiskas, Choosy, and Munchies. Their labels carry a guarantee of "Good Nutririous Food." Nevertheless, Pedigree brand Katkins costs only 19p while their Whiskas is 35p a tin and their Munchies 39p. If they are all such good value and all so nutritious why should there exist such a great price difference between them?