The Price War: Pick 'n Pay vs Woolworths

It all starts with a Facebook comment

On 12 October 2010 Pick n Pay proudly published an article declaring that they were the cheapest grocery store, according to an independent website study. Recently I have heard more and more comments stating how expensive they are, and when I saw this comment on Facebook:

It made me think about how much I had been spending on our monthly grocery shops. It also made me think about how I was not even looking at the weekly broadsheets comparing Checkers and Pick ‘n Pay because I had a Smart Shopper card and a Vitality Healthy Foods Benefits™ card. Essentially I thought that Pick ‘n Pay and Vitality were giving me money back for shopping and making good choices… My perception was that, not only was Pick ‘n Pay was significantly cheaper than Woolworths, but I was also getting money back - I. WAS. WINNING.

Etienne’s comment made me stop short and question what the perception is out there. I did some research, in an attempt to challenge that perception. This what I found:

66.7% of my survey population do the bulk of their shopping at Pick ‘n Pay. They perceive Pick ‘n Pay to be value for money (58.2%). When I asked them to give their feedback on how expensive they found certain items to be, relative to Woolworths – a store that 50% of the surveyed sample considers to be expensive, yet value for money and appropriate to shop at for special occasions. The majority had this to say about this shopping list:

So here is a reality check. According to the online stores at Woolworths and Pick ‘n Pay, here are the prices for the following items:

 

One of the perks of shopping at Woolworths is that if you have a WRewards card. You instantly receive 10% off of the price you pay on certain items on a weekly basis. So let’s have a look at what this means for the above, assuming these items have been flagged for this special.

So clearly, everyday can be a special occasion because suddenly Woolworths is a whole lot cheaper and savings are immediate. True, Pick ‘n Pay has their Smart shopper programme and the rate of savings is the same as Woolworths, but the real difference lies in the instant gratification, and the fact that you can use your savings where you choose to use them. Pick ‘n Pay on the other hand requires that you collect points each month and when you have enough to redeem for cash, you get a Pick ‘n Pay voucher that you can only use at Pick ‘n Pay.

So what does this tell me? First of all, I really should get a WRewards card. It also tells me that I should be taking note of the weekly adverts in the local paper and that it is probably worth my while to shop around, but, honestly who has the time and patience when it comes to navigating your way around the busy isles of a grocery store at month end?

A friend of mine has this concept – what if we had the ability to have an online store that had the pricelists of all the items of all the different stores. When you were selecting items to fulfil your grocery needs, it would always give you the most competitively priced item. Upon completing your purchase (and for a small administration fee) the items were delivered to you, the same day. Hmmmm… If only.

My best choice is to choose the store that gives me that gives me the best prices, instantly and consistantly... I may be doing a lot more shopping at Woolworths...

UPDATE 15/06/2012: A friend pointed out that there is a website that does compare prices called Retail Price Watch. Maybe it can help you "shop around" for the best prices.

Party Party Broke... Or not

Today I am looking for the best birthday party arrangement at the best price. I compare Hedgehog Lane, Jimmy Jungles, Kinglets and Queenies, Build-A-Bear Workshop as well as a home party with Crazy Chameleon.

How my head works

I have just become a mom... well 5 months ago and already I am trying to investigate birthday party options, you know, so that I am prepared for the next 6 years.

I can already see this scenario: It is coming up to her sixth birthday and she will request to have a party – just like all her friends. She wants to spend the day with her best friends and now I have to find the best way to have this party, without breaking the the bank or messing up my house.

I ask her to tell me what she would like to do for her birthday and she says she wants it to be “fashionable” and pink. I also ask if she would prefer it inside or outside, and she says she does not mind as long as it doesn’t rain.

So given that this birthday party will happen in summer and in Johannesburg, we are never guaranteed that the weather will be perfect, so my objective is to find a venue where we’ll be protected from the elements.

So, being the person that I am, I have done my due diligence and I received quotes for 5 different parties, and being a working mom – I needed to ensure that everything could be taken care of, without me being around.

Here is what I found:

Hedgehog Lane

This is an outside venue that has themed areas so that it can accommodate various parties. The website looks quite festive and safe and so I had to determine what price we were looking at. I could only book the venue for 2.5 hours, and I had to pay a non refundable booking fee of R450. To hire the venue for 2.5 hours was R1250 plus an additional R60 per child.

For that I got some basic sweets and snacks for the kids, a balloon for each child, and a visit from the mascot . The challenge with this is that, because of the short time frame, the other kids moms or dads had to come along, because it was not worth their while dropping off their children, only to come back shortly afterwards. The children also needed to eat and even though they don’t eat as much as their parents, they definitely want options.

I was concerned that the children may get a little bored, so I saw that there were a variety of entertainment options available to me. I would definitely need someone to help me on the day – I wanted to take photos and make idle chit chat with the other parents... and as I looked down the list, I had the option of a hostess, at an extra cost... of course.

The cake was another consideration, and guaranteed it will have to be a 3D princess cake.

All in all the greatest 2.5 hours of my child’s birthday weekend would end up costing me in the region of R6150. Eish...

Jimmy Jungles

A friend of mine has a 3 year old and she suggested that we go to Jimmy Jungles because at R95 per child, I would get a cake, party packs, balloons, and a 2 hour gift card for my child to use at a later date. I read on... Jimmy Jungles is not suitable for children older than 3 years old.

Oh well.

Kinglets & Queenies

This is an outdoor venue based in Ruimsig. They have various areas and multiple parties can take place at the same time. My concern is losing children in a venue like this.

The venue is very beautiful, but because it is outdoors, they have created thatched bomas so that if the weather is bad the party can at least have some shelter. In my world, nasty weather generally puts a dampener on the day. The more I research this, the more I think I moving away from the idea of having the party outdoors.

The cool thing about this venue is that they will decorate it for you for an additional R700 over and above the hire fee of R1100. Again this venue is only available for 3 hours at a time but this venue has jungle gyms, jumping castles and trampolines. This is pretty fantastic, no additional entertainment required – however, I think I will organise a waterslide, just in case.

And event organiser (ensuring I stress less) costs R400. So it is just the food that I need to consider.

All in all, R5830 is what I am looking at providing okay so this is 5% cheaper...

The Home Party with Crazy Chameleon

All of this is beginning to look a little expensive, and so I am beginning to consider a home party once again. However, my garden really isn’t conducive to having 10 little girls running a mock. My aunt has gladly agreed to letting me use her garden (what if they break something – I could never replace some of those relics)...

I called Crazy Chameleon to see what they could organise. It turns out, they could provide food, entertainment (jumping castle) and party favours for R3560. I would have to provide juices and refreshments for the adults; I could give my 15 year old niece R300 to supervise the children. If this was the way I was going to go, I would have to pay for a cleaning company to clean up my aunt’s house and garden. That was at least another R400.

Total cost: R4260 - 27% better but still not ideal.

It seems that the extra parent cost is a huge factor. The ideal thing for me would be to do a party where parents were not involved.

Build-A-Bear Workshop

Child Mag often runs adverts for Build-A-Bear Workshop’s Build-A-Party concept. My immediate reaction was that there is no way I can afford to do this for my daughter and her friends. I hear of parent been begged to take their kids there and I have heard stories of how much it cost. I phoned for a quote anyway.

The party happens inside the store, they clear an area for the children – this means, rain or shine the party will be awesome. I was pleasantly surprised when the “Party Bear” told me that all have to pay for is the merchandise that the children take home with them. My booking will get a dedicated party leader, Bella will receive an “autograph” bear for free and every child will receive a bear and a balloon at the end of the experience. One of the two mascots will visit the party and give the children hugs.

She sent me a few options in terms of the merchandise. Bears start at R89 including the stuffing and the heart the birth certificate and the "house" that the bear goes home in. T-shirts are around R60 and a full outfit starts at R110. Shoes are about R80. My concern was, if I let 10 6 year old girls run wild in the shop dressing their bears, I may have a heart attack when I see the bill. The party bear assured me that I could give them a budget, and they would pre-select items within the budget and manage it that way.

I sat and did my sums... for 10 children, this meant:

10 bears = R890

10 outfits = R1100

10 shoes = R890

Total Bear Cost: R2880

I phoned back and I asked, what about the food. The party bear explained that they did not allow food in the stores but if I wanted to, I could bring party packs and cupcakes into the store, and they would hand it out as the children leave the store. FAB-U-LOUS idea... and the best part... No parents to entertain! They can go walk around Sandton City for 2 hours while the children are entertained by making “princess” bears. And they have an endless array of pink fashionable clothing.

Total cost: R3160 – which is completely reasonable and more than 25% cheaper than any other option available.

To party or not to party

So if you are planning a party - this will probably help you make a decision. For me - Build-A-Bear Workshop makes the most sense. It is a 40 minute party where the kids have a ball  making their own best friend. My job? Taking photographs and enjoying the smiles...

The Nappie Analysis

This time last year - I was blissfully unaware that I was about 8 weeks pregnant. I found out around the 25th of May when I was 10 weeks along. Naturally when you hear that you are pregnant - you start to think (and my father reminded me)... How am I going to cope with all of the costs associated with a baby? Here are some tips...

Know what you are shopping for

What I tried to do was research how many nappies my child would need from birth to toilet trained. In this way I could start to incorporate the cost of the nappies by buying a bag of nappies with every grocery shop, while ensuring I was getting enough of each size. My research also showed me which nappies were the cheapest.

I looked at what the average weight milestones are (for girls) at each month. The average daily consumption I found by looking at forums and asking moms. I then worked out how many nappies I would need for the month and then worked back to how many packs of nappies it would be as well as the cost per pack. I could also establish how many packs of each size I would need.

Below are the tables for 3 top brands in South Africa:

 Can you guess which brand was cheaper, overall? Look at the graphs below:

Interestingly - many "mommy forums" have a topic "Which brand of diaper do you prefer" 9 out 10 moms said Pampers... for the following reasons:

• They fit better
• They don't leak
• My baby never gets a nappy rash

I think that it is because they are the cheapest brand on the market.

I hear you asking me - so how accurate has your analysis been? Well - the number of nappies you go through at the various milestones is accurate but my baby grew at a rate of 500g per week. (Breast fed baby). I knew she was going to be a big baby - but I had no clue that she would literally grow out of the size 2 nappies in under a month... so although the theory is sound, in reality - keep all of your slips. I had to enter into major negotiations with in-ept managers to exchange my nappies for bigger sizes.

The other challenge with this analysis is that I enrolled my daughter into a school where for the school fee of R2450 per month, they supply all the toiletries for Peyton. This means that I do not go through my stock of nappies as quickly as anticipated in the analysis... so I had to negotiate to get shopping vouchers in exchange for the nappies so that I could buy the required size as needed.

You can use this or not - but it opened my eyes to terms of how much nappies cost! But there are ways to ensure that you absorb the cost:

1. If you know your baby is growing at an average rate during your pregnancy you can use this analysis as a guide to purchase nappies each month to create a stockpile (but keep your shopping slips - the store has to exchange the items according to the CPA if you have a slip)
2. Ask people to provide nappies as gifts at your baby shower - specify sizes (also ask for a slip)
3. Find a creche like mine...

Cost Concious Mom in Israel

09 January 2011

So - I have embarked on a very last minute journey to Tel Aviv. Weirdly, contrary to how last minute trips go, all the details and planning fell into place... R30 000 later.

I arrived at OR Tambo airport at 18h30 on 08 January, in order to check in and relax before a 9 hour flight... I joined the queue at El Al Israeli Airlines - and I had to endure a 60 minute security interview, where they asked me if I was a terrorist or if my husband had planted a bomb in my luggage when I wasn't looking... This was a business trip so, I then had to produce a business card (which I do not have because I do not deal with anyone outside of the business), I then had to provide the presentations from my computer to them. Now I work for a paranoid company, so my laptop that I had, had remote access into our network via 3 passwords and the internet, before I could access any of the documents. I explain to the very thorough representative that that would be impossible, I then had to provide her with cell phone numbers for the people I was about to visit. Understand, that Saturday is the sabbath in Israel, no works, let alone turns on their phone, so after much trying, we eventually managed to get hold of the people I was due to see, and I was evenually allowed to check in... hmmm... R7000 to be treated like a criminal... Eish.

The flight itself was relatively harmless... I was in the middle bank of 3 seats. Thankfully the middle seat was empty so I had a little more room to move - and I managed to get some sleep in that awkward semi upright position, with my legs across the middle seat.

Sleep in that environment is all relative. There were those ad hoc interruptions, what with babies crying and paniced dreams that the plane was spiralling out of control.

Tel Aviv airport is pretty cool, newer than some of the ones I have been in. I go through passport control, this time unscathed, though the chick behind the glass was more interested in her cell phone, than me, the brown locked terrorist.

So heading towards my hotel I discovered the following things:
1. My taxi driver farts like Great Dane
2. Tel Aviv in Winter is similar to Cape Town in winter --> not too cold but very wet
3. Taxi drivers drive badly all over the world
4. I was about to pay R50 for a cup of coffee
5. Even the fanciest hotels have gross guests i.e. they can't flush their pooh down the toilet

We'll see how it goes. I look forward to the food, apparently it is amazing.