PLANS TO provide consumers with regularly updated online comparisons of supermarket prices have had to be abandoned after the National Consumer Agency failed to secure the co-operation of the main retailers.
The NCA had planned to replace its regular survey of grocery prices with an online system relying on food price data provided by the main multiples. Such a system would allow shoppers to obtain the best value by comparing prices across thousands of products in different supermarkets.
However, NCA chief executive Ann Fitzgerald said yesterday it was time to adopt a different approach after attempts to secure the co-operation of the supermarket chains failed. “We got plenty of talk but not much action,” she said.
The surveys published by the NCA in the past three years have focused consumer attention on prices and helped to drive the trend towards cross-Border shopping and discounters such as Lidl and Aldi.
However, anecdotal evidence suggests some retailers delayed price increases until after surveys had taken place or concentrated price increases on goods not normally included in the surveys.
NCA budget cuts have also hampered its ability to do the fieldwork for the surveys, while one retailer threatened to go to the High Court over what it claimed was the unfavourable interpretation of data in a recent survey.
In other countries, online shopping comparison websites claim to save consumers hundreds of euro each year.
In Ireland, however, only Tesco and Superquinn currently offer online shopping and would readily be able to supply the data without major investment.
Although SuperValu does not offer web shopping, The Irish Times has learned that the retailer is currently testing online shopping with staff in two of its Cork stores and plans to roll out the facility in all its branches next year.
A spokeswoman said it had no problem with the NCA’s plan but was not in a position now to provide the required level of data.
Dunnes Stores is also understood to be examining the possibility of providing online shopping for its customers. Attempts to contact the company were unsuccessful and the NCA said its attempts to meet Dunnes representatives came to nothing.