A price survey of supermarkets confirms what consumers already know, that people must shop around to find the best bargains.
Nicosia showed the biggest difference in price range for the same trolley of goods with the dearest 17.60% more than the cheapest supermarket.
The Consumer Protection Service of the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday listed the island’s cheapest and most expensive supermarkets in Cyprus based on a common basket of goods.
According to the survey, the cheapest supermarket in Nicosia is Athienitis, with the 104 common products found to cost €302.26, followed by Ioannides in Anthoupolis, where one can buy the same basket paying an extra €20.
The most expensive in the capital was Debenhams with the same basket costing €355.47 – making a price difference of 17.60% for same items.
In Limassol the cheapest basket of common goods was found at Metro supermarket at €356.83, followed by Sklavenitis which costs €8 more.
Limassol’s most expensive supermarket was Papas at €397.68 – 11.45% dearer than the cheapest basket.
In Larnaca, the cheapest shopping basket was found at Stelios supermarket in Livadia, with 103 common products costing €324.83, followed by that of Sklavenitis costing €36 more.
The costliest shopping basket in Larnaca was at Alpha Mega €374.53 with a 15.30% mark-up.
Sklavenitis was found the be the cheapest supermarket both in Paphos and Famagusta.
In the Paphos are the cheapest basket of 148 common products cost €561.13 in Sklavenitis, and almost €30 more in Metro, which was found to be the second cheapest. The most expensive was Papantoniou at €596.98 – a hike of 6.39%.
In the Famagusta district, Sklavenitis’ basket (146 common products) cost €502.93, while Kokkinos’ basket costs €507.67. The costliest basket was found at Metro €511.34 – showing a difference of only 1.67%.
The survey, conducted by the newly set up Price Observatory, based its findings on data for 300 key consumer same-brands ranging from coffee to breakfast cereals.
The service found common products sold by all supermarkets chosen for the survey for each district. As these products were not the same in all districts, the ‘common products basket’ is different for each district.
The survey serves only as a guideline to prices.
Lidl was not included in the survey as it falls into to a different category because it sells different brands to the other supermarkets.
And MAS was not considered as a big enough supermarket chain to be included.
