Since we started working on CheapEats last year, we’ve tried to bring you details of bargains and special offers in supermarkets, along with news and features on local shops and smaller producers.
But, as Conor Pope points out in today’s Pricewatch, there are serious practical difficulties. In the UK, the enormously popular mysupermarket.co.uk provides real time price comparisons, allowing consumers to pre-plan their shopping to get the best prices. Nothing comparable exists here, and it’s costing shoppers. Now even the National Consumer Agency’s bi-annual price survey has been knocked on the head.
The article mentions that any independent third party would need “deep pockets” to offer something comparable to mysupermarket.co.uk. Indeed, we’ve looked into this but found it would be too much of an enormous project for these part-time bloggers.
So for now consumers will have to scramble through based on their own knowledge and experiences. Hopefully sites like this can help, but I’m first to admit that highlighting bargains and specials is far from a comprehensive solution for shoppers.
So, over to you. In the absence of in-depth price comparisons, which supermarkets do you find the cheapest?