Price Comparisons...

After the comment after my latest menu post from Mum, I thought it might be interesting to do a like-for-like comparison shop of what I bought this week in the UK, with what I'd buy if I were in NZ. I was shocked at how expensive everything seemed to be in NZ when I was home last year (and it seemed an increase on what things had been like when I'd been home the time before that, about 2 years prior). So, I went to the website of Countdown - my former main-stay supermarket in NZ and tried to get a similar shopping basket to the one I ordered here via Ocado. I tried to be as fair as possible with Countdown, buying the versions of products I'd buy if I were there (so picking the cheapest options and budget ranges were possible, but keeping the same higher welfare meat standards) or matching items to weight where there wasn't a like for like (eg. the white chocolate eggs I plan to use in a raspberry white chocolate slice). There were a few things I couldn't get - chickpeas (dried or canned) which seems odd, but we can assume the tinned version wouldn't be too pricey (and I know the dried ones are hard to come by in NZ). Also fresh raspberries weren't available, so I had to go with frozen.

This is my Ocado receipt for today's weekly shop:

And this is the Countdown list (I couldn't get a screenshot of their shopping cart)

Quite a big difference in cost because I think typically you spend dollar for pound and vice versa, rather than seeing a difference based on exchange rates, but not perhaps as huge a difference as I had thought. In saying that, spending $134 a week on a fairly basic shop (one which has very few vege, no pasta or rice, no milk because I forgot to order it and only a couple of small toiletry items) does seem expensive to me. Maybe wages have gone up substantially in NZ since I left?!

Reflections on the process:

• The Countdown interface is hellishly annoying and has miles to go before it'd be even half as lovely to use as Ocado 
• There is a BIG difference in what's available in different parts of NZ. I don't think this is the case in the UK. If you live somewhere obscure you can't always get stuff delivered, but the general food stuffs would be the same. When I did the Countdown thing, I initially put Mum's address in Clyde in, and I couldn't get ANY fresh items at all (meat, fish, vege, fruit - nada). Seems geared towards Auckland which isn't terribly user friendly for the rest of the country
• Dairy products are obnoxiously expensive and hugely price fixed in NZ. All the yoghurts were the same price regardless of brand. Surely this is highly anti-competitive behaviour on the part of (one assumes) Fonterra? I'm genuinely surprised that the WTO hasn't slapped them and the NZ government on the wrist. 

While there are many things which are expensive in the UK, I will say that I think the food is really good quality and very good value. I know that's in part because of EU subsidies etc, and I will also say that we have high inflation here at the moment (or, relatively high inflation) so prices have gone up noticeably. But still, we eat damned well for not terribly much money. And we spend well above the norm.

Interesting food for thought...