Supermarket Groceries: Are We Paying Too Much?
This week our Food Tech students were tasked with researching how much food costs us and what they thought of each supermarket they sampled products from. Here are two examples of students' findings.
From Linus Pomroy (Upper Fourth)
New food research reveals that we might not need to pay as much as we thought for quality food.
Researchers at the Sidcot School Food Department have found that you may be paying more for your weekly shop than you actually need to. They discovered that out of four supermarkets, the most expensive items are not necessarily the best quality. The items were blind taste tested and marked out of ten for quality. It was revealed that the top scoring supermarkets on quality were Lidl and Waitrose, both of which scored top in their category for two products each. Sainsbury’s won one category, and Tesco won none. Obviously, Lidl is vastly cheaper than Waitrose but, since it has been found that the quality of some of their items is the same, if not better than Waitrose, it would make sense to shop for some items at Lidl. The difference in price may not seem huge now, but over the course of a year it would be considerable. You could also buy your branded products at Lidl, where they are cheaper than Waitrose. The overall results speak for themselves:
Over the course of a year, the difference between Waitrose and Lidl for this basket would be £249.60, money that would be much better spent elsewhere.
From Mia Hann (Upper Fourth)
This week 9ASM did an experiment to find out which supermarket had the best products for the value of money that they cost. The total value of all of the shopping baskets were as follows:
- Waitrose £9.11
- Tesco £6.35
- Sainsbury's £7.00
- Lidl £4.31
However, not once did I think that the Waitrose products were the best value. Not only were they the most expensive, but they weren't even very nice. I rated Waitrose's products 2/7/4/2. With prices higher than all of the other shops, this makes them, in my opinion, a total rip-off and definitely not worth the money at all. I believe that Waitrose was a disappointment and while some of their food might taste nice, they sell less products for more money. It was not at all worth it.
Next, I think are Tesco and Lidl together because they both have quite a good value for money. Tesco have many products that contain a lot, are cheap and are also good value. The quality of their products is to a high standard and, although not 100% of the time their products are great, they have managed to produce some great ones too, which makes up for that. I rated Tesco's products 8/9/7/7, as they were pretty good value and tasted very nice. Lidl's products were sometimes to a good standard, however, I did prefer Tesco's food a few times, so I rated Lidl's products 9/8/6/5. Between the two shops I liked them equally. Even though I slightly preferred the taste of Tesco's food, the price of my Lidl shop was so cheap, so it actually did work out that they were on an equal value of money.
Finally, the best supermarket, in my opinion, is Sainsbury's, as it has great value for money and the food tastes great as well. Although the packaging isn't eco-friendly, like Waitrose's is, you get a lot of product for the price and good quality too. I rated Sainsbury's products 8/7/9/7, which scored the highest twice out of four. I would recommend shopping at Sainsbury's, as you really will get your money's worth!