Every month, The Brief will survey in-store prices of the same basket of building materials across four different hardware wholesalers in Windhoek namely, Build It, Buco, Pupkewitz Megabuild, and Ark Trading.
The survey aims to provide shoppers with guidance on which hardware wholesaler offers the cheapest basket of building materials for that particular month.
The Following items are in our basket:
- Roofing Galvanised IBR
- Copper Tube 460 Class 0
- Aluminium Window (Bronze)
- Aluminium Sliding Door (Bronze)
- Brick 7MPA
- Brickforce 150 MM 15M ROLL
- Brickforce 75MM 15M ROLL
- Lintol concrete 1200X110X75MM
- Lintol concrete 1800X110X75MM
- Lintol concrete 900X110X75MM
- Ceiling Board 1200X3000X6.4MM
- Door Frame Steel 813X2032X115X1MM
- Lockset 2 lever
- Door Hardboard Interior 813X2032MM
- 32.5 Cement Ohorongo
- 42.5 Cement Ohorongo
- Paint 20 litres
After analysing our data for the Month of July, BUCO’s overall basket costs N$7,101.88 surfacing as the cheapest hardware store compared to Ark Trading whose basket costs N$8,511.96.
We found that the difference between the basket for BUCO and Ark Trading increased from N$726.89 to N$1,410 between the months of June and July.
An increase of 0.9% in the overall basket for BUCO from June to July also emerged. With its increase noticeably coming from its Door Hardboard Interior item price change from N$277.3 to N$346.96.
The price of paint for BUCO remained the same at the price of N$999.13 month-on-month. However, the price of paint from Build It increased from N$817.38 to N$1,396.30. We found it to be the second most economical to BUCO.
Pupkewitz showed a slight decrease of -5.72% in its overall basket month-on-month, with a noticeable change in door frame steel from N$473.91 to N$399.13, Roofing Galvanised N$621.73 to N$ 599.13, Cooper tube 460 class O from N$630.43 to N$464. 34, and Aluminium Window bronze from N$839.13 to N$730.42.
Similarly, Build It showed a decrease of -7.53% in its overall basket from June to July.
*Note: The list of products we collect is limited and not intended to be an absolute measure of affordability. We aim for products to be broadly comparable. The basket also does not factor in overall VAT.
In almost all cases it is possible to find any of these products at a cheaper price or to find cheaper alternatives, depending on location or time of month. Our sample is intended to simply reflect the total price of the cart in a single visit on a particular day.
