Castlebar SuperValu challenge results are mind-boggling

NEVER one not to accept a challenge, I was nonetheless a bit apprehensive when asked if I would take on a SuperValu shopping challenge.

This challenge was to experience SuperValu quality and value in their own brands. Not being the main weekly shopper in my own household, my task was that much harder.

While savings on SuperValu own brands was going to be very welcome, it was the taste and quality of the SuperValu own brands that first have to satisify me.

I expect that you, like me, you will find the results of this challenge hard to believe.

So off I went to SuperValu in Castlebar, where manager John Page and his staff had everything in place for my challenge with the very pleasant Veronica McDonagh assigned to assist me around the many aisles in the store.

I was given one trolley to do a weekly shop with branded items, while Veronica followed with a second trolley which she filled with the corresponding SuperValu own brands products.

At the end of the shop the branded items in my trolley were totted up and then the SuperValu own brands in Veronica's trolley were also totted up. The difference in the price of the two trolleys was amazing.

The savings one would make by getting SuperValu owns brand was mind boggling.

However, while I was astonished by the massive savings, the burning question then was would the SuperValu own brands stand up to the value and quality of the branded brands.

To be very honest the answer to this question was a resounding yes. Indeed, the value and quality was in no way inferior to the branded items we were used to getting in our household.

It goes without saying we in the future will be buying SuperValu own brands, which will cut our weekly shopping budget significantly.

As part of my challenge I took the SuperValu own brand items home to consume in order to evaluate the value and quality of the items.

While I am not going to go through every item, I have picked a number at random to show where we in our home found SuperValu own brands to be of the same quality as to what we had been used to with the branded items.

First up was SuperValu own brand tea. Being an avid tea drinker this was always going to be a monster test of Super Valu own brand for me.

Having the corresponding 160 box of a well-known brand, we have always used in our house for the SuperValu SV Gold 160 box, it gave me the opportunity to explore the difference in taste of the tea over a prolonged period of time.

The result was unbelievable as I couldn't taste any difference between the two brands.

And with the taste and quality of the SuperValu brand of tea getting a firm thumbs up, it was the massive difference in price between the two brands that was hard to believe.

The normal price we were paying for the 160 branded tea bags was €6.85. The corresponding 160 SuperValu brand tea bags were €2.49, a whopping €4.36 cheaper. No it is not a misprint.

Item two: firelighters. The branded firelighter box cost €5.19, while the corresponding SuperValu box cost €2.99. Again the SuperValu brand did exactly the same job and at a saving of €2.20 per box.

Third was the pound of butter. The taste and quality proved no different between the branded pound and the SuperValu product. The branded costs €3.75 and the SuperValu own brand €2.19, a saving €1.56.

The same applied to most of the other items I had in my trolley. The quality and value proved no different, which made the massive savings on the SuperValu branded items difficult to believe.

No doubt it will be the SuperValu branded items in my home from now on. The only thing I could say about this SuperValu challenge was that the proof was in the pudding and seeing was believing.

At the end of this whole experience I was left numbed not alone by the massive savings, but also by the quality and value I got.