As South Africans continue to deal with the high cost of living in the country, one of South Africa’s biggest retailers has said that customers managed to save a whopping R7 billion from July to December, 2022 with the use of their loyalty reward programme, Xtra Savings.
Customers swiped their reward card at Shoprite and Checkers supermarkets over 238 million times to benefit from instant cash savings at till points to help make ends meet.
The Xtra Savings programme was named South Africa’s best retail rewards programme by the 2022 South African Loyalty Awards, during this period.
Shoprite shared the following tips to assist cash-strapped South Africans stretch their hard-earned money a little further:
R5 offering
At Shoprite, a 600g loaf of bread, a pack of sanitary pads and a selection of nutritious deli meals retail for R5 each. The price of the subsidised R5 bread has remained unchanged since first introduced in April, 2016.
Private labels
Affordability focused private labels such as the Shoprite Ritebrand and Checkers Housebrand provide customers with access to uncompromising quality through a range of staple products, at the lowest price possible.
In the past year, an additional 676 products were added to the group’s affordability-focused private label range.
Unit pricing
The unit price is the cost of a consumer product according to a standard unit of measure, which could be per kilogram or per litre etc.
When grocery shopping, look at the unit price – included on the PI (Product Indicator) label on the product shelf – in order to make accurate price comparisons between different product sizes.
For example, the unit price of a 750g box of cereal may be higher than the unit price of a 1kg box.
Combo deals
Bulk buys are becoming increasingly popular in South Africa, and the R99 essential combo available in Shoprite supermarkets nationwide typically include staple foods such as maize meal, flour, rice and oil.
According to data from Outlierafrica, Shoprite was ranked the third most affordable supermarket in South Africa in the month of December, 2022.
The food basket was made up of a 700g loaf of white bread, 2l sunflower oil, 2.5kg maize meal, 2.5kg sugar, 2l milk, 2kg rice, 2.5kg flour, 175g bath soap and a nine-pack of toilet paper.
The cheapest store was Food Lovers Market, where the basket cost R385.87, followed surprisingly by Woolworths, which set shoppers back R396.91 and Shoprite costing consumers R406.91.
The next three food baskets cost the following at the respective other supermarkets:
∎ Checkers – R407.91
∎ SPAR – R410.91
∎ Pick n Pay – R417.21.
BUSINESS REPORT