In 2011, Irish Country Living started its supermarket price check. Shopping basket in hand, we visited the country’s busiest retailers to find the cheapest price for items many families buy weekly: bread, butter, yogurts, rashers, some toiletries and even dog food.

To finish our May series, during which we looked at how the price of living has increased for readers, we visited the supermarkets once again to track price changes.

On our travels, we compared the same items and always obtained prices across the country. Hitting all four provinces, we now report on the shops you visit and reflect the prices you are faced with.

Cheapest Retailer

Once again, Dunnes Stores proved itself to be the cheapest retailer. Assessing all identical items in the shopping basket, Dunnes Stores came in at €30.51, a significant €6.08 cheaper than the most expensive retailer, Eurospar.

It is worth noting that Dunnes Stores and SuperValu were running a very good special offer on Pedigree Chum, retailing at €6. The same packet was €8.49 in Eurospar, which obviously impacted on its rating. However, the dog food isn’t all to blame. Tesco, for example, was charging €9.29 for it, making it €3.29 more expensive than the price charged by its competitors. However, despite this price difference, Tesco came in third place, with its shopping basket costing €32.94.

SuperValu did quite well in this shop, coming in second place, the highest rating for the retailer since we started our price check. As usual, Centra and Eurospar worked out the most expensive, so be careful about doing big shops with these retailers. Many are convenience stores and as a result they price accordingly.

Branded Goods

Irish Country Living did not include Aldi in our price check, because of its limited selection of branded products. On this occasion, we also did not include Lidl and for a good reason.

Back in 2011, Lidl’s selection of branded goods was quite significant. In our shopping basket of 25 items, Lidl stocked 22 of these products.

However, the situation now is very different, with only 12 items on display – less than half.

We contacted Lidl for a comment and it’s not stocking as many branded labels as it used to.

“At Lidl, our dedicated buying team is focused on developing high-quality own-brand ranges. We believe that our own-brand products are as good as, or better, than many leading brands.”

Obviously, as consumers become more comfortable with own-brand labels, such as Glensallagh meat products, they have eliminated labels such as Denny from their fridges.

Interestingly, many own-brand retailers develop products that are somewhat familiar to consumers. For example, instead of stocking McVitie’s Penguins, they have been replaced by Artic chocolate bars, depicting an image of a polar bear.

Is the decrease in branded goods effecting other supermarket prices? Certainly in our 2011 price check, we noticed that many of the branded items stocked in Lidl were coincidentally on special offer in retailers such as Dunnes Stores and Tesco. This wasn’t the case this time round.

Hard to Compare

Finally, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again – finding the cheapest shopping basket is no mean feat (think detailed price lists, excel sheets and calculators). So for families pushing a trolley and keeping an eye on a few kids, it can be near impossible.

That’s because quantities vary massively within each retailer. We were looking for the standard nine-pack of Penguin bars, not a big ask you could say, however, we could only find a packet of six in Dunnes, while Tesco sold a 27-pack.

Similarly, the options for Fairy liquid are baffling. Our shopping list was looking for a 650ml bottle, but in Centra we could only find 630ml or 530ml, Dunnes sold 433ml, while SuperValu and Lidl had 530ml. Therefore, when you compare receipts across different retailers, it can be very confusing for families to see which store is the best value.

2011 versus 2015

So how do shopping baskets at each retailer compare?

Tesco

Tesco came in third place in our price comparison and this retailer had the biggest price jump in our shopping basket survey. While a comparable basket of 17 items cost €51.41 in 2011, that same basket now costs €56.20, a difference of €4.79. A 2kg bag of Odlums flour now sets you back 50c more, jumping from €2.49 to €2.99, while a six-pack of Müller Fruit Corner is nearly €2 more expensive, although it was on special offer when we priced it in 2011.

Dunnes Stores

Prices have also increased significantly in Dunnes Stores. While a basket of 16 comparable items would have cost you €44.89 in 2011, you are now forking out €48.47, a difference of €3.58.

Most notably, the price of your toothpaste has jumped up by €1.84. While it was €2 in 2011, it is now €3.84 and according to our records it was not on special offer at the lower price. Your Denny rashers are now 29c more expensive and prepare to fork out €1.69 more for Müller yoghurts.

SuperValu

SuperValu is now scoring well in our supermarket basket survey and its price jump hasn’t been as significant.

A basket of 17 comparable goods is now €44.91, while previously that basket would have cost €42, a difference of €2.91. Special offers on pizza, decreasing from €3.29 to €2 certainly helped.

Pat the Baker Toasty white bread is also 20c cheaper. However, Colgate toothpaste is again over €1 more expensive, while the price of Lyons tea bags has nearly doubled.

Lidl

Lidl hasn’t seen much of a jump, but as mentioned earlier we didn’t have that many items to compare. In a basket of 10 comparable items, the price difference was €1.72, increasing from €22.48 to €24.20. Again, Lyons tea made a big jump from €1.49 to €3.19.

Eurospar

Interestingly, both Eurospar and Centra worked out cheaper than they did in 2011. Although both retailers consistently work out the most expensive in our price checks, it is refreshing to know that competition is obviously helping to push the prices down.

We were able to compare 13 items in Eurospar and the basket worked out 96c cheaper. Six items worked out less expensive than in 2011, with the most significant drop being BirdsEye fish fingers, which dropped from €3.51 to €2.

Centra

Centra worked out even better, with a basket of 16 comparable items working out €1.22 cheaper than four years ago.

Significantly, half of these items were cheaper than figures obtained in 2011. Although special offers helped the cause (pizza was reduced to €2), John West tinned red salmon dropped 72c and there wasn’t a special offer sign in sight.