Price Comparison

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that grocery shopping in Singapore is ridiculously expensive. This morning I was after palm sugar (aka gula melakka) and as I rarely see it in any of the supermarkets here I headed to Tekka Market. Unbeknown to me a lot of the stalls at Tekka are closed on a Monday but there are still a few open and this worked in my favour as it was less overwhelming!

I also picked up  few items of fresh produce that we needed and was dumbfounded at the price. Everything in the photo below cost $11.

I decided to do a price comparison with the two big Singapore supermarkets chains using their online shopping sites and was stunned at the price differences.

Tomatoes (600 grams)  Cold Storage – $4.65 Fairprice – $1.45
Cucumber (2) Cold Storage – $3.50 Fairprice – $1.60
Ginger Cold Storage – $1.95 Fairprice – $1.80
Mint Cold Storage – $1.65 Fairprice – $1.80
Coriander Cold Storage – $1.95 Fairprice – $1.00
Lemongrass Cold Storage – $1.80 Fairprice – $1.70
Small onions Cold Storage – $4.00 Fairprice – $1.40
Chilli flakes (Masterfoods) Cold Storage – $4.70 Fairprice – $4.65
Palm sugar Cold Storage – n/a Fairprice – $3.35
Total Cold Storage – $24.20 Fairprice – $17.95

I normally shop at Fairprice Finest so I saved about $7 by heading to the wet market this morning but if you’re a Cold Storage shopper you’ll pay more than double than you will at the market. Cold Storage also don’t stock palm sugar in their online store.

The wet market can be intimidating (and smelly) but the savings seem to be worth it!