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The Consumer Council wishes to issue the following to put the record straight in view of recent comments with regard to its supermarket price surveys

  • 2003.08.22

The Consumer Council wishes to issue the following to put the record straight in view of recent comments with regard to its supermarket price surveys:

Price Surveys

  • The Consumer Council carries out surveys, on a regular and longitudinal basis, to collect prices on a wide range of selected consumer products and services.
  • The prime objective of these surveys is to monitor price movement of the selected commodities, inform consumers of the price variations over a period of time and provide data to the relevant government departments.
  • Notable examples are the price surveys on school textbooks, rice, petroleum and supermarket goods.

Supermarket Price Survey

  • The Council has been conducting regularly price surveys, since its inception in April 1974, on essential foodstuffs including those sold in supermarkets.
  • Our data collection is constantly reviewed to keep pace with the ever-changing market and consumer needs, i.e. development of supermarket chains/outlets, changes in consumer taste and shopping habits.
  • With the emergence of new products in the market and to keep up with the current market trend, the basket of goods included in our survey is reviewed every 2 to 3 years with the assistance of supermarket chains. The latest revision was conducted in November 2002.
  • It must be stressed that a major function of our supermarket price survey is to monitor price movement of the selected commodities over time. Its function is therefore different from price information of supermarket discounts and promotional offers advertised in newspapers.

Current Methodology

  • At present, we collect price information of a basket of over 200 fast-moving-consumer-goods, directly from the 3 major supermarket chains, namely CRC Shop, Park'N Shop and Wellcome Supermarket, twice every month. Results are compiled and published in our magazine 'CHOICE'.
  • Our surveys are not intended to single out the price movement of a particular product or supermarket chain, but rather we focus on the average price movement of a basket of goods of all the supermarket chains over a period of time.
  • To further ensure a representative sample and give a fair view, the half-yearly average prices published in our report, are weighted against the total number of supermarket outlets of each supermarket chain.