(Nettavisen): Easter is just around the corner, and we have tested where the Easter coziness is cheapest. The online newspaper’s shopping basket consists of 30 items with barbecue food, cold cuts, Easter marzipan, and of course the classics Solo, Quick Lunch and Oranges.
You get the Easter treat the cheapest at Kiwi – just over a kroner cheaper than Extra, writes The online newspaper.
– This is the usual picture. Again, it is a single product that is decisive, and decides who wins, who gets silver, bronze and the sour fourth place. Øystein Foros, professor of economics at the Norwegian School of Management, tells Nettavisen.
If the product range had been different, for example that Solo had not been included in the test, the location could have looked different, the economics professor points out
Read the whole test further down in the case.
Oda went on a price-bang with Solo
The price result shows that Oda and Rema 1000 are the losers of the test. The shopping cart is almost 60 kroner cheaper at Kiwi.
About the price test
- Prices are checked 05.04 in Oslo.
- The online newspaper has checked both shelf and cash prices.
- At different prices, it is the price at checkout that is included in the test.
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– We are the ones who have pushed prices down to Easter. We were the first to cut Easter prices on Monday 21 March. In recent weeks, we have pushed down the prices of hundreds of items. Kiwi’s prices in March are significantly lower than in March last year, and we expect this to have an effect on the Consumer Price Index for food and drink coming on Monday.
Kristine Aakvaag Arvin, communications manager at Kiwi, tells Nettavisen.
Kiwi, Rema 1000 and Extra have a promotional price for a four-pack with 1.5 liters Solo. Oda is the only one that does not run the same promotional price – it gives Norway’s only low-price chain online jumbo placement.
– If one disregards Nettavisen’s comparison of four single bottles of Solo at Oda with a four-pack at the competitor, Oda would have had the lowest price on the shopping cart, says Tor Erik Aag, commercial director at Oda.
– Comeback for the Extra chain
Oda admits that it is boring to lose the price test, and promises that they will have a four-pack with Solo on Easter offer next year.
– Oda has come out best in VG’s food exchange of Easter goods, and we recently won the price comparison of Easter goodies at Nettavisen earlier this week. Now there is a comparison of the price of two different products we lose on, we have learned from this, Oda assures.
Until now, Oda has mainly delivered to Eastern Norway towards the Swedish border, Hafjell and Kongsberg. Aag states that they will expand south towards Kristiansand.
– Who is the biggest competitor of the traditional low-price chains?
– We are a challenger and compete with everyone, both in price with the low-price chains, and in selection with supermarkets such as Meny. Only the largest Meny stores have a larger selection than Oda, he says.
Despite the defeat, economics professor Foros believes that Oda has become a strong challenger to the traditional low-price chains. He also points out that Oda won Nettavisen’s price test earlier this week and VG’s food exchange. The economics professor believes that Nettavisen’s result is crucial for Extra to continue to be perceived as being among the low-price chains.
– This test shows a small comeback for the Extra chain. It is important for them to show that they are also fighting for the customers. The price difference between Kiwi and Extra is insignificant, Foros believes, and points out:
– Extra has previously come out poorly over time. In this test, they show that they are in the prize race again, he says.
– I can assure both our customers, who are the ones who own us, and Professor Foros that the Extra gang is up in the morning and hanging in the rings to keep prices as low as possible. This is confirmed by this price test, says a satisfied Harald Kristiansen in Coop, to Nettavisen.
The economics professor believes that the victory for Kiwi is important in order to maintain credibility that they are the price squeezer in the market.
He emphasizes that Kiwi and Rema 1000 only profile themselves on price. Then it is important to keep what you promise.
– If you say that you are the cheapest, the credibility is that you actually deliver on it, he says.
As for Oda as a challenger, Foros believes that they still cover too little of the country for the traditional low-price chains to fear.
After Nettavisen wrote this case, several of the chains have changed their prices. Kiwi has, among other things, lowered the prices of Easter chocolate and Easter foam. The ongoing price war over popular Easter items is far from over – here it’s just to keep up.
All prices in italics have been converted.
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