A new year, but only in February the first overview! Doing ithe updates monthly is just too much effort, alas. Still the results do give a good overview, let's start with the overview of the respective supermarkets with the lowest possible price available.
Table 1.: Price level in comparison to minimum price available
Table 1.: Price level in comparison to minimum price available
| Nov 07 | Ranking | Dec 07 | Ranking | Feb 08 | Ranking | |
| Lucky | 107,7 | 3 | 107,7 | 5 | 109,6 | 6 |
| Pencil | 109,9 | 5 | 109,8 | 6 | 107,2 | 3 |
| Bayon | 106,7 | 2 | 106,9 | 4 | 107,7 | 5 |
| Thai Huot | 105,5 | 1 | 105,8 | 2 | 106,0 | 2 |
| Big A | 109,5 | 4 | 106,7 | 3 | 107,3 | 4 |
| Paragon Marketplace | 105 | 1 | 105,6 | 1 |
As you can see Paragon Marketplace remains to have the best average price in comparison to the minimum price. Pencil's improved considerable, going from 6 to 3. Another worthwhile point is consistency: Thai Huot manages for the third time running to keep their prices between 105 and 106% of the lowest possible price available.
Table 2.: Price level in comparison to average price
| Nov 07 | Ranking | Dec 07 | Ranking | Feb 08 | Ranking | |
| Lucky | 100,4 | 3 | 100,6 | 5 | 103,7 | 6 |
| Pencil | 101,1 | 4 | 102,7 | 6 | 100,2 | 5 |
| Bayon | 98,9 | 2 | 99,9 | 4 | 96,3 | 2 |
| Thai Huot | 93,2 | 1 | 98,1 | 1 | 94,7 | 1 |
| Big A | 101,5 | 5 | 99,5 | 3 | 100,0 | 4 |
| Paragon Marketplace | 98,5 | 2 | 99,0 | 3 |
The same supermarket, Thai Huot, remains to retain it's no.1 position: it's prices being below 95% of the average prices.
Table 3.: Percentage of products with lowest price
| Nov 07 | Ranking | Dec 07 | Ranking | Feb 08 | Ranking | |
| Lucky | 32,3 | 3 | 34,2 | 4 | 35,4 | 5 |
| Pencil | 21,2 | 5 | 21,2 | 6 | 29,9 | 6 |
| Bayon | 52,0 | 1 | 30,6 | 5 | 38,7 | 3 |
| Thai Huot | 50,0 | 2 | 59,6 | 1 | 49,1 | 1 |
| Big A | 21,7 | 4 | 39,0 | 3 | 35,5 | 4 |
| Paragon Marketplace | 50,0 | 2 | 48,1 | 2 |
In the battle for overall products with the lowest price, the gap between no. 1 (Thai Huot) and Paragon Market place is getting smaller, while Pencil's remains last for the third time running.
Table 4.: Price change between December 15 2007 and February 2008
| Dec 07 - Feb 08 | ||
| Lucky | 3,84% | |
| Pencil | 1,20% | |
| Bayon | 2,18% | |
| Thai Huot | 2,29% | |
| Big A | 1,50% | |
| Paragon | 0,60% | |
Inflation: between 15 December 2007 and 5 February 2008 prices continued to rise. Lucky's with 3,84% (which would point to an inflation rate of nearly 25% on an annual basis!), while at Paragon Marketplace the prices only rose with 0,6%. From experience it seems that products in both Paragon Marketplace and Pencil's spend more time on the shelf, that means that the products remain the same price for a longer period, until the new batch arrives; the consequence is that some bargains are to obtained here. But when the new batches will arrive the price rises will be steep. In other supermarkets therises are usually just nudges here and there.
One thing which was very prominent is the fact that Lucky's raised the price of Nutella by over 50% from a price comparable to the competition (~3,50$US) to more than five dollars. I spent some time double checking this, but it is the reality. Why? A sudden rush on hazelnuts?
Other products which went up by hefty rises were Sunflower oil, 3 supermarkets registering rises of 30% or more. Locally produced Peanut Butter, at both Pencils as well as Paragon Marketplace recorded rises of 20 and 40% respectively.
Table 5.: Number of products on which the results are based
| Nov 07 | Dec 07 | Feb 08 | |
| Lucky | 31 | 73 | 82 |
| Pencil | 33 | 71 | 87 |
| Bayon | 25 | 49 | 62 |
| Thai Huot | 22 | 47 | 57 |
| Big A | 23 | 59 | 65 |
| Paragon Marketplace | - | 58 | 77 |
