Writes Vincent O’Donovan
As we all settle back into school and routine and start to feel the impact of price inflation and energy prices, the household budget is the topic of conversation at home and in the news. Money saving tips are on everyone’s mind at the moment, and what better way to save money than on your weekly grocery shop!
SuperValu have launched their ‘It’s as Easy as 1,2,3 campaign’ which focuses on ways that shoppers can save money when shopping. So, one fine Friday recently I headed along to Collins’s SuperValu to check it out. As a regular shopper in the store, I thought I knew their products well. However, I was really surprised by the quantity of own brand and local products that they carry, much more than other stores.
As I made my way around doing my weekly shop, I realised that there was a whole range of products that weren’t previously on my radar! Staff member Melanie O’Sullivan shadow-shopped me, popping in an own brand equivalent where possible in her trolley, to match my purchases. The fruit and veg and the meat were the same in both trolleys, but while I chose branded tinned goods, butter, pizza and ice-cream for instance, she chose the own brand version.
I did my usual shop to feed our family of four for the week, got a few cleaning products. At the end, we put them through the till and I couldn’t believe the savings. My usual trolley came to €138.43 while the own brand trolley came to €112.78. I did save €10 on both as I used my €10 off €50 voucher. I also used some other vouchers on my Real Rewards app. The own brand products also passed the toughest test of all - the family taste test and we’re definitely converted.
The power of advertising can often lead us to a certain brand, without us stopping to look at alternatives. Now that we are all more price conscious, it’s worth looking at how we can get better value in our weekly shop. While some may be slow to change a certain food, or cleaning product, it’s worth looking at the price, the taste or quality and seeing if branded really is better? And SuperValu’s range of Great Taste Awards 2022 show that quality isn’t compromised in products, just price!
Glenn Leacy, store manager said, “We are all watching our spending now and our customers are shopping smarter. We want to help them with this by giving them simple ways to save on their weekly shop. We have over 5,000 own brand products here in store, all great quality and at great value prices. And every week we have over 2,000 products on promotion, including some fantastic Flash Deals. They are easy to spot as they are marked with a yellow sticker. And of course, customers get new money off vouchers and weekly coupons in the Real Rewards app every week. We really value our customers and we want to do everything we can to help them to get the best value that they can in their weekly shop”.