Price Check | Here's what groceries used to cost & it's a shocker

Imagine paying just R2.75 for two litres of milk, and only about R1 for a loaf of sliced bread — an 850g one at that!

A 34-year-old Pick n Pay Hypermarket till slip, shared on Facebook group The Village by one of its 57,000 members recently, reveals not just the staggering increase in the price of groceries, but how many of the small sample of products are now sold in smaller pack sizes.

The 60 items, ranging from basics such as bread, milk, fruit and veggies to baby food, biscuits, refuse bags and a pet’s tick and flea collar, cost a total of R146.77 on May 29 1990 at the Pick n Pay Hypermarket in Ottery, Cape Town. 

The prices have increased dramatically, as you’d imagine, but many of the pack sizes have shrunk, thanks to a strategy termed “shrinkflation” — manufacturers reduce pack sizes just enough to save on their input costs, but not enough that consumers will notice, though many of us invariably do.

There are only three brand names on the itemised list — Bonnita, Smash and Stork — making a like-for-like then and now comparison impossible. But here’s what’s happened to some of the prices in 34 years, with current prices obtained from PnP online:

• Marie Biscuits (brand not specified): then 200g for 85c, now R19.99 for the Baker’s Maries, still in a 200g pack;
• Fruit juice (brand not specified): 1 litre: was R1.59, now R34.99 for 1l Liquifuit;
• 2l low fat milk (no brand specified): then R2.75, now R19.99 (PnP brand);
• Bonnita butter 500g: Then R3.49, now on special at R69.99 (FirstChoice)
• Fabric softener 2 litres (no brand specified): then R9.45, now R49.99 (Sunlight)
• Stork margarine 500g: then R1,49, now R38.99. But it’s not the same product — “skimpflation” has happened. Now this Stork product only has a fat content of 40%, meaning it can’t be called margarine any more — only a spread — because legally margarine must have a minimum fat content of 80%.
• Tin of tomato and onion mix: then 99c, and the tin was 420g. Now the tins are 410g and PnP's brand sells for R19.99. Back in 1990, that R20 would have bought you 20 tins — and bigger ones too.
• Smash: then sold in 112g packs for R1.28. Now you pay R24.99 for just 104g.
• Smoked mussels: was R2.69 for a 105g tin; now that tin is just 85g and costs R23.99
• Bread, a standard white sandwich loaf: was 850g and sold for R1.03 — now a standard loaf is just 700g and costs R19.99 — 20 times more.

Bottom line: to get a true picture of how our grocery costs have escalated over the past three decades, one has to factor in the impact of the twin sneaky practices of shrinkflation — smaller pack sizes — and skimpflation — a reduction in the quality and cost of the ingredients.

• GET IN TOUCH: You can contact Wendy Knowler for advice with your consumer issues via email: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler.