Basic Items Cost More Than You Think, Depending on the Store

With grocery bills climbing, shoppers aren’t just cutting back, they’re getting strategic. So, we flipped the question: instead of what you buy, does where you shop really stretch your dollar further? In Dangriga, we hit the aisles, tracking the prices of everyday essentials across several stores. The difference? It’s not small, and it could cost you more than you think, all things considered, including freight. News Five’s Paul Lopez breaks it down.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

“How much different are the prices at items from store to store. Today we are in Dangriga Town equipped with a grocery list and we are going to be answering that very question. We are going to different stores and compare prices.”

 

Tonight, we put everyday shopping to the test. We compared the prices of ten basic household items across five grocery stores, and what we found might just change the way you shop.

 

These items include dish washing liquid, laundry detergent, Fab soap powder, garbage bags, chopped ham, canned tuna, aluminum foil, kitchen towel, baked beans and Huggies diapers. Item by Item, we begin with one of the go-to dishwashing liquid, Axion. This is a four hundred milliliter bottle. At Family City Imports the price is $2.50 a bottle. At the neighboring store Huang Chen Supermarket, the price increased by fifty-cents to $2.95. J Mart, a much smaller grocery store, also carried the product for $2.95. The Price is Right Supermarket sells the same bottle for $2.75, while New Hong Store carried it at a whopping $3.50, the highest of the five stores. Of the five stores, two stores, Huang Chen and J Mart carried the small tin of Dak chopped ham for $4.50, the highest of them all. Notably, New Hong recorded the lowest price on this product, at $4.25.

 

The price of canned tuna, specifically the Mazatun brand, remained the same across all stores, two dollars and seventy-five cents. Four of the five stores carried the one point nine-liter bottle of Suavitel laundry detergent. Huang Chen was priced the highest at $7.50 while, Family City followed closely behind at $7.25. Coming in at $6.75, the same product at J Mart was $0.75 cheaper than Huang Chen and fifty cents cheaper than Family City.

 

We also looked at the cost of a can of Heinz baked beans across all five stores. We recorded the highest price at New Hong Store, $4.50, seventy-five cents above the lowest price, $3.75, recorded at J Mart. All other grocery stores remained below $4.00 per can. And based on what store you shop at, you will either pay $6.75 for a box of Fans Corn Flakes at Family City, or $6.25 at New Hong Store. The same applies to a pack of double XL Huggies baby diapers. At Family City it will cost you $23.75. The same product at The Price is Right comes in at $1.25 cheaper. Our price comparison shows that while some items remain consistent across stores, others vary significantly, meaning a careful choice of where you shop could lead to real savings. For families stretching every dollar, those differences matter. Reporting for News Five, I’m Paul Lopez.

 

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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