Comparing prices in our Basket of Essentials

With the latest RPI being revealed this week, showing us that prices have gone up by 2.5% compared to this time last year, we thought we would take a deeper look at our Basket of Essentials.

For those that aren’t familiar with what we do, our Council members visit the Island’s major supermarkets each fortnight to record price data across more than 100 items and publish them on prices.je. As part of that we look very closely at ten items, called our Basket of Essentials, which we feel you would find in most shopping baskets.

If we take out the cost of the cheapest four apples (as we used to look at six apples this time last year, but these aren’t available in all supermarkets) then, despite the latest RPI figure indicating prices are going up, the cost for nine of our Basket of Essential items has fallen at two of our supermarkets and risen at the other four. However, of the other four, the increase across 12 months has been less than 40p per basket in three of the supermarkets.

Year-on-year, the biggest faller is the Co-op, whose prices have dropped by £2.01 from £19.05 to £17.04, followed by Waitrose, whose prices for the same Essentials have dropped by 60p from £16.42 to £15.82.

Iceland’s prices have gone up by just 9p from £18.63 to £18.72, Alliance’s by 22p from £18.68 to £18.90, Morrisons by 39p from £17.74 to £19.13, and finally M&S by £4.59p from £16.85p to £21.44. M&S was a big surprise for us, as they have been working hard to bring down the cost of a lot of their essentials, like fruit, veg and bread. But they fall down on their chickens, which are more than double the price of those on sale at Waitrose, who offer the cheapest.

But, with last week’s prices showing £15.82 (£18.01 including apples) as the cheapest Basket of Essentials (found at Waitrose) compared to £21.44 (£23.64 including apples) for the most expensive (M&S), it just shows the importance of shopping around.

In the meantime, credit must also go to the Co-op and Alliance, who have both taken the decision to absorb the recent 4p increase on a litre of milk. Hopefully they can both keep this up, despite other cost pressures, as it will be helping consumers as every penny counts in this day and age. A big pat on the back to both of those retailers.