Price comparison of baby care products
19 October 2010
This National Consumer Agency survey of the prices of branded and own brand baby care products in Ireland is the latest in our rolling series of price comparisons targeting a broad range of products and services relevant to consumers' everyday needs.
Shelfwatch Limited on behalf of the NCA conducted the fieldwork for the survey, which was carried out on 21 September in seven locations.
Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Superquinn, Aldi and Lidl operate a policy of national pricing; therefore representative pricing is available from any single store.
SuperValu does not operate a policy of national pricing, so two stores were visited in order to get a fairer representation of the prices offered.
Branded products
On a basket of 105 common products surveyed in Tesco, Dunnes Stores, and Superquinn the price difference between the cheapest and the most expensive was found to be €26.42, or 5.1%.
- The basket of 105 items was cheapest in Dunnes Stores (€520.24)
- It was most expensive in Tesco (€546.66)
- The cost of the basket in Superquinn was €523.50.
- The majority (83%) of the overall difference between cheapest and dearest retailer is accounted for by nappies
Own brand baby care products
When looking at "own brand" ranges across the stores only a limited number of products were considered to be objectively comparable.
The comparisons were based on a per unit price (i.e. per nappy or per wipe) analysis.
The comparison of six common products reveals:
- An identical total in Aldi and Lidl at €30.20
- Tesco was slightly more expensive costing €31.07, a difference of 2.9% (€0.87).
- Three of the products were price matched across all three stores
- All six products price matched between Aldi and Lidl
Further information
Download the report as MS Word (165 KB) or PDF (633 KB)
Download the full survey data (MS Excel, 195 KB)