Grandiosa’s huge price experiment: Tremendous variations in pricing

(The online newspaper) Nettavisen has price-tested six popular Grandiosa variants. The difference is huge, we found the cheapest one for only 39.90. The most expensive variant we tested had a price tag of 144.90.

Usually it is the chains Extra, Kiwi and Rema 1000 that run away with the victory in the battle to have the lowest prices.

This time it was a challenger who had the very cheapest pizza.

See all results below.

Tests six variants

Grandiosa is by far Norway’s most popular pizza, and an incredible 600 million Grandiosas have been sold since the first one was launched on 11 February 1980.

Since the beginning, there have been a large number of varieties of Grandiosa.

Vote for your favorite at the bottom of the case.

Nettavisen has price tested these:

• Great Original
• 4 X Ost
• Delux Skinke & Mozarella
• Meat dough & Onion
• Pepperoni
• Homemade with minced meat

Sold everywhere

Grandiosa is not only sold in regular grocery stores, but also in kiosks and petrol stations. It is no coincidence, says expert Trond Blindheim.

– Location is extremely important. Research has shown that it is actually three times more important than price when it comes to people’s shopping patterns, says Blindheim, who is a lecturer at Kristiania University College and teaches marketing communication and consumer behaviour.

– If you’ve forgotten to buy something, it’s easier to stop by the kiosk on the corner or bring a pizza from the gas station when you still fill up the tank on the way home, he says.

Nettavisen has collected prices from no less than 17 different retail chains, kiosks and petrol stations:

• The low-price chains: Extra, Kiwi, Rema 1000
• Supermarkets: Menu, Coop Mega, Coop OBS
• The local ones: Coop Prix, Joker, Spar, Bunnpris
• The small shops: Food corner, Nærbutikken
• Kiosks: 7-Eleven, Deli de Luca
• Petrol stations: Esso, Shell, Circle K

But even though these are many different brand names, the vast majority are owned by three major players:

• Norgesgruppen owns Kiwi, Meny, Joker, Spar, Nærbutikken and Deli de Luca.
• Reitan owns Rema 1000 and 7-Eleven.
• Coop owns Extra, Coop Prix, Coop Mega, Coop OBS and Matkroken.

Strong brand

In the shops, the Grandiosa pizzas get plenty of space in the freezer.

– There are few things that have taken Norwegian dinner tables by storm like Grandiosa. It is a strong brand name. It has almost become a matter of habit to pick up a Grandiosa when you are in the store, says professor at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), Tor Wallin Andreassen.

– People like the taste, it fits in a busy everyday life or at a nachspiel. It is a so-called high-frequency product that the shops have to have, says Andreassen.

When the Grandiosa was launched in 1980, there was only one type. Today there are 14 varieties. Trond Blindheim believes there are several reasons why the Grandiosa has gained such a solid place in Norwegian shopping baskets.

– They were alone for quite a long time. Then the pizza takes up a lot of space on the counter and is in itself an advertising poster, says Blindheim.

He believes the pizza’s simplicity hits the Norwegian audience well.

– It is easy to prepare. There is no mockery with it. So it’s cheap. It has almost become a habit for us to take a Grandiosa with us, says Blindheim.

The best price

The very cheapest Grandiosa price Nettavisen found was at Coop Obs. There, Grandiosa 4 X Cheese costs only 39.90. This is the offer price, and the previous price is 66.30. This gives a price reduction of as much as 40 percent.

It is by no means a coincidence that Coop OBS has an offer on Grandiosa, Blindheim believes.

– Good offers at Grandiosa are a way of luring customers into the store. And Coop knows that customers will also add other goods to the basket on which the store makes a better profit, says Blindheim.

The so-called low-price chains Extra, Kiwi and Rema 1000 sell the same pizza for 64.40. It is only a scant two kroner cheaper than the regular price at Coop Obs.

– We are not surprised that Obs has the cheapest Grandiosa variant. Ready pizza is very popular with our customers, says Coop’s communications manager, Harald Kristiansen.

He says they have noticed a trend throughout the winter where customers make greater use of offers and campaigns.

– You can say what you want about ready-made pizza, but there is no doubt that it is popular with customers. We recently had a member bargain at Grandiosa for Coop members, and sold 1.5 million pizzas in one week, says Kristiansen.

Watch out for the pepperoni

All six variants that Nettavisen has price tested are available in all 12 grocery chains.

But there are two exceptions. We did not find 4 X Cheese at any of the Bottom Price stores we checked.

We also couldn’t find Pepperoni in any of the Rema 1000 stores we visited. At Rema we only found Pepperoni special. It is far more expensive than regular pepperoni, and costs 71.40 compared to the regular pepperoni which costs 59.90 at Extra and Kiwi.

– Since 2017, we have only sold Grandiosa Special pepperoni. One of the reasons for this was to be able to offer customers variety in the category. This variant is 30 grams larger and has 35 grams more pepperoni, says category and purchasing director at Rema 1000, Line Aarnes to Nettavisen.

Surprises

Coop OBS not only has the lowest price for 4 X Cheese, OBS is among the very cheapest for all the variants we checked. For the original variant, the price is only three percent higher at OBS than at the three low-price chains.

– It surprises me that Coop OBS is generally close to the cheapest. Coop OBS is a chain with a large selection of products, and one could therefore expect a price more in line with Meny, says NHH professor Andreassen.

There are several results in the test that are surprising.

– I notice chains such as Prix, Joker, Bunnpris and Spar. These are all established large chains that can sail a bit under the radar, says Andreassen.

For most of the variants in the test, the prices at these are between 15 and 35 per cent higher than at the low-price chains.

– While there is a lot of focus and many price tests on the low-price chains, these other chains can live a bit in the background. I think they can have higher margins than the low-price chains, says Andreassen.

Prices at Grandiosa

Nettavisen checked prices in stores on 20 March. The prices may be changed after this.

Grandiosa Original (575 g)

4 X Ost (505 g)

Delux skinke & Mozarella (450 g)

Meat dough & onion (520 g)

Pepperoni (500 g)

Homemade with minced meat (1000 g)