Of the eight most popular grocery supermarkets in Windhoek, Choppies offers the cheapest basket of standardised groceries for the second time running.
This is according to our monthly grocery basket comparison conducted each month. We carry out the survey to provide consumers with valuable insights into the price of a basket of 20 standardised grocery products across eight supermarkets.
Our approach involves calculating the cost of a standardised basket of grocery products for a consumer in Windhoek. This is achieved by comparing the prices of 20 items across eight supermarkets. The supermarkets in our survey includes Shoprite (Independence Avenue), Checkers (Klein Windhoek), Pick n Pay (Wernhil), Spar (Klein Windhoek), OK Foods (Independence Avenue), Woermann Brock (Klein Windhoek), Choppies (Hyper Khomasdal), and Food Lover’s Market (Wernhil).
Moreover,it is not feasible to survey the entire population of supermarkets in Windhoek. Therefore, we utilised convenience sampling. To determine the quantity and items included in the survey, we employed a simple random sampling approach, which in turn shaped the composition of the basket.
Grocery basket composition
Loaf of bread
2-litre Nola sunflower oil
5kg Top Score maize meal
2.5kg Marathon sugar (white sugar)
1.5kg Real Good Chicken
1kg Beef stew
2kg Mamas rice
3kg Pasta Polana macaroni
1-litre Nammilk full cream milk
9 Twinsaver toilet paper (350 sheets)
700ml Wellington tomato sauce
2kg Sunlight Washing powder
750ml Sunlight Dishwashing liquid
500g Rama butter
18 Waldschmidt eggs (medium)
150g Protex bar soap
100ml Colgate toothpaste
1kg onions
1kg potatoes
1kg tomatoes
How to read the chart
The chart can be read by looking at the arrangement of the bar graphs. The arrangement of supermarkets on the chart is based on the overall cost of the basket. Supermarkets with higher costs are situated at the upper end, whereas those with lower costs are positioned toward the lower end of the chart.
After analysing the data for the month of August, Choppies basket surfaced as having the cheapest basket composition costing N$894.80, which also displayed a decrease of -8% month-on-month. The decrease can be noticed in the price of its cooking oil from N$77.99 to N$69.99, Beef stew per kilogramme from N$89.99 to N$69.99, and 2kg washing powder from N$64.99 to N$59.99 which remains the most economical amongst the eight Supermarkets month-on-month.
OK Food’s emerged as having a highly expensive overall basket composition for the third month running. Though having a highly expensive basket composition it exhibited a decrease of -0.27%. Additionally, OK Foods’ displayed an economical price per kilogram of potatoes second only to Choppies’, with both shops charging N$19.00 for each item.
All 8 supermarkets exhibited a decrease in their overall basket Composition for the month of August, with Spar decreasing by -1.28%, FoodLovers Market by -2.05%, Woermann Brock by -2.20%, Checkers by -3.09%, Shoprite by -0.52% and Pick n Pay by -7.83% month on month.
To assess the most economical vegetable combination amongst the eight supermarkets, we combined the prices of p/kg potatoes, p/kg tomatoes, and p/kg onions. We determined that Choppies offered the cheapest p/kg veggies composition total of N$60.97 which remained the same month-on-month. While, the other 7 supermarkets all exhibited a decrease noticeable from Woermann Brock from N$99.97 to N$87.97 and Pick n Pay from N$103.97 to N$82.97.
Note: We do not take specials or loyalty card discounts into consideration. When we do find certain goods on special, for example, “Get N$10.00 off when buying 18 (medium) eggs and pay N$55.00”, we will log the price as N$65.00 to exclude the special.
August 2023 alternatives
Food Lover’s Market – 2kg Nice Rice, 1.5 kg Chicken (an average was calculated because they do not stock 1.5kg of chicken), 9s toilet papers (Baby soft)
Spar – 2L Cooking Oil (Spar Brand), 2kg Rice (Spar Brand), 2kg (Marathon Sugar), Choppies – 2kg Rice (Nice Rice)
