Saturday, September 13, 2008

Comparison Shopping

I've always wanted to do a comparison between Mustafa (my shopping venue of choice) and some other grocery store in town. There are several other popular chains, including Cold Storage, Giant and Fairprice. Of those, Cold Storage is generally the most expensive, but also the most likely to carry imported products. So I decided to start my comparison there.

I had a notebook with me at Cold Storage, so I just wrote down 20 or so random items that I typically buy, and their prices. Then this morning I wrote down the prices for the same products at Mustafa. I found that on these 20 items, I would save $17.65 by buying them at Mustafa. Hello! The price differences ranged from 15 cents less to $4.70 less (for maple syrup). There was only one thing that cost more at Mustafa (light cottage cheese - 15 cents more). 6 of the products were more than $1 less at Mustafa. Can you imagine over the long haul how much money I've saved by shopping at Mustafa?

I swear, I'm ready to be their international spokesperson. If you live in Singapore, and you don't shop at Mustafa, you might want to rethink that, at least once in awhile.

3 comments:

Pam said...

Wow! that is huge! I don't shop there as much as I probably should. I usually go to Giant, but I think I'll give Mustafa a try for the next trip. I'll just have to get up at the crack of dawn to beat the crowds. Thanks for doing the legwork!

Anonymous said...

Wow, that's truly a surprise. Makes the misery of a Mustafa visit perhaps bearable... perhaps.

Thanks for documenting your efforts and sharing... I guess if I could find 1 time a week (small fridge) to visit Mustafa very early... it would at least pay for the taxi back with everything.

Gina Marie said...

The key to shopping at Mustafa is to go there before 10 a.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. on weekends. Don't even go there at night. EVER. If you're by an MRT you could always take it there at least. It's right by the Farrer Park stop.

Erik realized a few years ago that all of my Christmas presents he could have purchased at Mustafa, and they would have been cheaper than where he bought them. So it's not just groceries we're talking about here.