Will we pay less? The French Carrefour chain, which includes 50 branches, was launched earlier this month in three different formats. Three branches were established under the name "Carrefour Hyper", which are the cheapest discount branches, and ten branches are under the name "Carrefour Market", which are also discount branches.
Most of the branches, 37 in number, are neighborhood branches and are more expensive than the chain's discount branches.
About three weeks after the launch, we compared the prices of the same basket of products in Carrefour branches against the competing chains, and even against the other chains of the Carrefour Group in Israel, which also includes Bitan Wines and Mega in the city, chains that will be written off. For comparison, we tested a basket using Price's that includes 35 products from identical brands. This basket was tested last Sunday in discount chains and neighborhood chains.
The basket shows that the cheapest chain is Rami Levy's discount chain, with a basket costing NIS 466.1, while the most expensive chain among the chains examined is Tiv Taam's neighborhood chain, Tiv Taam in the City, with a basket that costs NIS 641.3. The gap between them is NIS 175.2, i.e., 37.59%.
Rami Levy Shivuk Hashikma branch, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
As mentioned, the cheapest discount chain is Rami Levy. However, Carrefour Hyper, which is Carrefour's cheapest chain, presented an identical basket that day, at a price almost similar to that at Rami Levy - NIS 467.33. Carrefour Market is in third place, with a basket of NIS 485.43.
The survey we conducted through Price's shows that between Carrefour's two discount chains there is a price gap of 3.7%. Next are the Yochananoff basket, which costs NIS 499.6, and the Victory basket, which costs NIS 508.05.
Where will you pay less?
The Bitan Market and Bitan Wines chains, which also belong to the Carrefour Group, presented more expensive baskets than Carrefour. In the Bitan Market chain, the basket was NIS 508.78, and in Bitan Wines it was NIS 510.78. As already mentioned, these networks will be deleted later. In the market's warehouses there is a basket of NIS 516.8, and a free half of NIS 519.71.
The price at Shufersal Deal, which is Shufersal's discount chain, was NIS 520.66. This price is higher than Rami Levy's neighborhood chain. The basket in the Rami Levy chain in the neighborhood was NIS 506.53.
Shufersal branch, photo: Yehoshua Yosef
As for the neighborhood chains, the City Market Warehouses chain, which is the neighborhood chain of market warehouses, is in second place, with a basket of NIS 539.25. In the field of neighborhood stores, Carrefour City is located after Rami Levy in the neighborhood and after the market warehouses in the city, with a basket of NIS 543.63. If you compare Carrefour Hyper to Carrefour City, the basket in Carrefour City is 16.3% more expensive.
The price at Tiv Taam was NIS 556.46, Victory City at NIS 573.9 and at Shufersal Shelly at NIS 579.93. Mega Ba'ir, which also belongs to the Carrefour Group, presents almost the most expensive basket, which stood at NIS 580.03. We note that this network will also be deleted during 2024.
Large price differences
If we compare the price in the mega chain in the city to Carrefour's cheapest discount chain, Carrefour Hyper, this is a difference of 24.1%. Compared to neighborhood Carrefour City, that's a gap of 6.6%. At the Tiv Taam chain in City, Tiv Taam's neighborhood format, the price of the basket was the highest at NIS 641.3.
When you dive into the products themselves, you can find price differences in that product. Thus, for example, the price of 28% Emek cheese in a 400-gram package was NIS 27.9 at the Rami Levy chain, compared to NIS 33.9 at the Victory and Tiv Taam chains in Citi – a difference of 21.5%.
A box of Coca-Cola Zero containing six bottles was offered for NIS 29.9 at Victory and NIS 45.9 at Victory City – a difference of 53.51% at two of the same chains. Strauss Ice Cream 60 units were offered for NIS 39.9 in the market's warehouses and NIS 52.9 in the Shufersal Shelly chain – a difference of 32.58%.
Taster's Choice instant coffee was offered for NIS 19.9 at Victory City and NIS 33.9 at Bitan Wines and Mega in the city – a difference of 70.35%. A squeeze bottle of Osem ketchup was offered for NIS 6.9 at the Rami Levy chain, and NIS 13.9 at the Tiv Taam chain in the City – a difference of 101.45%. Red pepper sells for NIS 4.9 at Carrefour Hyper compared to NIS 16.9 at Tiv Taam in Citi – a difference of 244.9%.
Here's how to make it cheaper
The bottom line is that you should go to the discount chains in order to reduce the price of the basket. It should be noted that we tested an identical product basket of identical brands. In many cases, the cost of the basket can be reduced by choosing private labels or cheaper brands.
In the private label segment, Carrefour branches offer a range of more than a thousand products. However, this range is relatively limited, as it includes food and non-food products. Also, some products are not basic products, like organic products. Organic olive oil is now offered for NIS 34.9.
However, there are quite a few products at attractive prices, including pastas, cereals, coffee capsules, tea and milk substitutes. In the field of pasta, for example, some Carrefour chains offer an attractive offer of 4 packages of whole wheat pasta for NIS 8, instead of NIS 3.5 per package.
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