Out of Windhoek’s seven popular grocery supermarkets, Choppies consistently offers the most affordable basket of standard groceries. However, in the hypermarket category, Metro stands out for offering the best prices.
The surveyed retailers are OK Foods (Independence Avenue), Spar (Grove Mall), Woermann Brock (Hocland), Shoprite (Independence Avenue), Pick ‘n Pay (Grove Mall), Choppies (Khomasdal) and Checkers (Grove Mall).
For hypermarkets, we analyse Woermann Brock Hyper (Khomasdal), Metro Hyper (Kliene Kuppe), and Checkers Hyper (Maerua Mall). Hypermarkets, being a fusion of department stores and supermarkets, offer a wide range of products, from groceries to clothing and appliances. Despite this diversity, we maintain the same basket composition across all surveyed stores to accurately assess pricing differences.
Every month since May 2023, we’ve been conducting a comparison of grocery prices in Windhoek. The goal is to help consumers by assessing the cost of a standard basket of 20 grocery items across various supermarkets. As of June 2023, we adjusted our basket, and in February 2024, we introduced a new category: hypermarkets.
Our grocery basket comprises:
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
1kg 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
In April 2024, Choppies emerged as the most cost-effective option with their basket composition seeing an 11.39% increase compared to March 2024. This increase was driven by price hikes in items like Washing Powder (N$59.99 to N$68.99), Macaroni Pasta Polana (N$73.99 to N$79.99), and Real Good Chicken (N$77.99 to N$86.99).
Conversely, Pick ‘n Pay had the highest basket cost at N$1,024.80, with notable increases in items like Real Good Chicken (N$89.99 to N$99.99) and Beef Stew per kilogramme (N$68.99 to N$89.99).
In terms of affordability, Checkers ranked second, followed by Woermann Brock, Shoprite, Spar, and OK Foods, with basket costs of N$988.30, N$995.80, N$1,001.79, N$1,003.74, and N$1,014.21 respectively.
In the hypermarket category, Metro had the most affordable basket at N$977.8, representing a 1.35% increase from the previous month. Checkers followed with a 2.26% increase, costing N$996.8. Woermann Brock had the least affordable basket at N$1,067.3, with a slight increase from N$1,050.8.
The commodity spotlight for the month focused on onions. Choppies consistently offered the cheapest average price per kilogram over the survey period, ranging from N$9.95 to N$29.95. In contrast, Spar had a higher average price of N$25.94, fluctuating between N$18.99 and N$38.99.
OK Foods had the second most affordable average price for onions at N$20.90, followed by Checkers at N$22.44. Woermann Brock and Shoprite averaged N$23.44, with Pick ‘n Pay being the most expensive at N$24.26 per kilogramme.
During November and December 2023, onion prices decreased across all retail stores.
Note: We do not take specials or loyalty card discounts into consideration. When we 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.
April’s 2024 alternatives
Spar – 2L oil (Spar brand), Nice Rice
OK Foods: Nice Rice
Pick ‘n Pay: Nice Rice
Choppies – 2kg rice (Nice Rice)
