Netto lacks an organic selection, Willys is the cheapest and Coop Konsum is the most expensive. But differences in price are relatively small between many of the stores.
That’s what Lundagård’s investigation of grocery prices has shown.
Lundagård compared the prices of 11 common foods in five different stores to
investigate where students can buy the cheapest provisions in Lund.
Willys was the store that could offer the lowest prices on brand-name items.
Furthermore, they are the best of the best when it comes to lower-priced
alternatives and cheap organic alternatives.
– It’s our business plan to be the cheapest. We can do that through having small price margins and earning a little on each item, says Andreas Fondell, Willys store manager.
Coop has a large organic assortment
Coop Konsum had the most expensive products in Lundagård’s student shopping bag, both in brand-name items and lower-priced alternatives.
At the same time, Coop Konsum was the only one that could offer an organic alternative for all of the chosen items.
Coop’s store manager Ken Nilsson says he isn’t surprised that they came after Netto and Willys in price comparison.
– We compare ourselves primarily with ICA Malmborgs, and then the prices don’t describe anything, as seen over the whole assortment. Five years ago we were outstanding with a large organic supply. Now others have started to offer organic items, and the distance between us has shrunk, he says.
Organic selections don’t pay off
Netto at Vildanden, who according to their own statement have a primary goal of holding prices down, could offer the second-cheapest brand-name items.
– The concept is to have mainly staple foods, and hold prices down in that way, says Johan Borghol, assistant store manager at Netto Vildanden.
Those who want to buy organic foods, however, should not go to Netto, because
their supply only included two of the 11 chosen foods.
– We have tried organic items occasionally, but the demand is not so high as we thought. If we are forced to throw away more than we sell, it doesn’t pay off, Johan Borghol says.
Text: Erik Ottosson and Jacob Hederos
Translation: Samantha Sunne
1 Comment
eldino
I don’t think there is that much difference between the four biggest supermarket chains in Sweden. Koop is the most expensive yes, but the other three ones are kinda similar, imho. In my opinion, ICA is the best because of the ICA Basic stuff, that is cheap and good!