C14 price check: Which supermarket chain is cheapest for baby products?
Supermarket shopping | Credit: Shutterstock C14 price check: Which supermarket chain is cheapest for baby products? Anat Siman Tov 12:25 9 0 A price check reveals gaps between retail chains in the baby products category. Which supermarket chain is the cheapest, and which is the most expensive? How can choosing the right supermarket save you thousands of shekels a year?
Young families with babies are very familiar with the heavy, fixed monthly expense of diapers, wipes, infant formula and various hygiene products. A check we conducted today, Wednesday, using the Pricez website, shows that choosing the right retail chain can significantly affect the final bill at the register, with differences of dozens of shekels on each purchase between the different chains.
The comprehensive check found that the cheapest basket of baby products was at Rami Levy Shivuk Hashikma, where the total basket price stood at 595.40 shekels. Very close behind is Osher Ad, with a basket priced at just 596.50 shekels, a minimal difference of only 1.10 shekels between the two leading chains. At the other end of the table is Universe, where the exact same basket cost 668.30 shekels, making it the most expensive chain in the current check.
The absolute gap between the cheapest basket and the most expensive basket is 72.90 shekels, a substantial amount for families that buy the same basic products on a regular monthly basis. In percentage terms, this is a gap of about 12.2% between Rami Levy and Universe. In other words, a consumer who chooses to make the same purchase at the cheapest chain will save more than 70 shekels compared with buying the exact same items at the most expensive chain.
Among the most notable and unusual gaps we found in the check was Materna Mehadrin Stage 2 milk baby formula in a 700-gram package. This product was sold at a discounted price of 47.50 shekels at Victory, compared with the highest price recorded at Universe, 58.90 shekels, an unusual gap of 24% for the same item.
Another notable gap was found in the Huggies disposable changing pads, 60 by 60 centimeters, pack of 10, which were sold at a discounted price of 18.90 shekels at Osher Ad, Rami Levy and Mahsanei HaShuk, while at Universe they were sold at a higher price of 22.90 shekels, a gap of 21%.
Although a basket of baby products is often seen as a routine expense, in practice it is one of the most sensitive and expensive consumer categories for young families in Israel. When such purchases are made every month on an ongoing basis, and sometimes even several times in one month, a gap of dozens of shekels on a single purchase can easily add up to hundreds or even thousands of shekels over the course of a year. The current check clearly illustrates that even in a period when the cost of living continues to burden the public, making a smart price comparison between retail chains can still generate significant and immediate savings, especially in basic consumer categories where families have almost no ability to forgo the products or cut back on them.
