"I'm sorry, but you are not allowed to write down prices or photograph the food."
"But I'm trying to make a budget. How else am I supposed to figure out where to shop?"
(Shuffling feet, uncomfortable pause...)
"Are you asking me to leave?"
Yes, dear readers (hi Mom!), I am possibly the first tai-tai ever to have been more or less kicked out of HK's local temple of imported food, CitySuper.
Now I understand that grocery retailing is a competitive business and that innovative store design and pricing strategy add up to big bucks, but I was not there to steal CitySuper's secrets. Nerd that I am, I was simply shopping my regular grocery list at four stores to figure out once and for all which has the best value for the mixed basket of Western and Chinese goods we buy.
It will come as no surprise to any Hong Konger that CitySuper didn't win the contest ;-)
In NYC people will talk passionately about subway routes for hours on end. In Hong Kong, ask any expat where they shop for groceries and get ready for agony, frustration, and confusion -- but also scheming and triumph!
You may have heard that the real estate in Hong Kong is a bit expensive. Every postage stamp of buildable space in this city has a multi-story building sitting on it generating bazillions of HKDs. Agriculture just can't compete.
This creates a unique shopping climate where:
- The most "local" meat and produce comes from mainland China;
- Everything not from China is shipped in from a bewildering list of countries, including far far away South Africa (grapes) and Brazil (chicken);
- Warehouse space is limited so products disappear and reappear unpredictably;
- Prices vary wildly for foods eaten by the masses (spring onions for US$0.33/bunch) to those eaten by the minority (yogurt for US $10.31/container);
- Retailers *seem* to set their prices with a cynical eye toward overpricing items their particular clientele won't be able to guess the local cost of.
My friend D-- has stopped cooking at home more or less. She covers her face with her hands, "I just can't go in Wellcome. It's so awful."
Our Wellcome *is* awful. I feel angry just thinking about it.
But down to brass tacks -- the price off.
On a single day -- February 17, 2011 -- I priced a list of 52 items that we typically buy at least once every two weeks. This included dairy, meat, produce, prepared foods, dried goods, cans/bottles, paper goods, bread, beverages, and frozen food. I wrote down our preferred brands and acceptable substitutes. Then I did my very best to get everything on the list, or the closest thing to it, at four stores:
- Wellcome on Robinson Road, Mid-Levels
- ThreeSixty in the Landmark Building, Central
- CitySuper in IFC
- TASTE at Hopewell Center, Wanchai
Drumroll please....
First, there's the issue of availability. NONE of the stores carried all of the items I was looking for -- or even a workable substitute. Out of 52 items, six were unavailable at ThreeSixty. This included *peanut oil* if you can believe it. They had bran oil, soy bean oil, a gazillion kinds of olive oil, but the most common oil for cooking Chinese food? Ixnay! At Wellcome, four items were unavailable, the most irritating of which was vanilla yogurt, a staple in our household. Grrr. At TASTE, three items were unavailable: a certain type of tomato soup E likes, cut up melon or a half melon, and Kellogg's Low Fat Granola With Raisins. Actually none of these is a crisis item except the granola, but none of the stores carries it anymore, so I can't fault TASTE specifically. The disappearance of the granola from the entire HK SAR has been a great drama in our household and I continue to look for it, but that's another story. But, to sum up: TASTE wins the availability content. ThreeSixty fails on Chinese staples, while Wellcome fails on Western staples. CitySuper excused itself from this contest, but not from the next one...
Next up, prices! I compared all four stores on fifteen items they stocked and didn't bar me from pricing. This happened to be mostly produce, dairy, and prepared foods. The winner? TASTE at 273 HKD (about US$ 35). I could get the same approximate basket of goods at Wellcome for 288 HKD (6% more expensive). At ThreeSixty, I could pay 312 HKD (14% more expensive). If I really wanted to throw my money around, I could pay 445 HKDs for the same approximate basket of goods at CitySuper (63% more expensive!).
Where does CitySuper pack on the pounds? Besides *only* carrying super-specialized Japanese strawberries or weird amounts of American ones, CitySuper takes ordinary Australian carrots and plastic wraps them two at a time (about 526g worth) onto little styrofoam trays. So instead of paying 11.9 HKDs for a 1kg bag of Australian carrots at TASTE or even 8.9 for FirstChoice brand carrots at Wellcome, I would have to buy two trays of CitySuper carrots for a total of 36.8 HKDs (209%-313% more expensive).
Besides produce, CitySuper also overpriced locally-made Habibi hummus, charging 52 HKD compared with 39.8 HKD at both TASTE and Wellcome (31% more expensive). I also saw that they charged 37 HKD for Pura Hi-Lo milk, where ThreeSixty charges 29.9 (24% more expensive), and this didn't even affect the price comparison since City had a cheaper option available.
But any Hong Konger will tell you that CitySuper is not where you go to save money, so let's move on, shall we?
When I compared Wellcome, ThreeSixty, and TASTE on the 44 items or equivalents that they all stocked... (Another drumroll, please.) TASTE rocked! At TASTE my basket cost 1207 HKD, whereas at Wellcome it cost 1258 HKD (4% more) and at ThreeSixty it cost 1650 HKD (37% more).
How did TASTE do it? It's interesting... Experientially I've always preferred dealing with TASTE's staff. The stockers happily answer my questions about where to find things and the checkers can handle non-standard situations in English. It seems like the staff are allowed to *think* not just follow orders. At Wellcome, the staff do occasionally think for themselves, but it's usually to try and short E a few dollars at checkout (repeatedly).
Anyway, back to TASTE... The buyers there use their smarts for my benefit. They appear to have a better connection for some local produce like ginger and spring onions. For example, at TASTE ginger is 10.9 HKD/lb, whereas at Wellcome it is 24.8 HKD/lb (27.3 HKD/catty or ~500g) and at ThreeSixty it's 30 HKD/lb (66 HKD/kg).
For many goods all three stores appear to have the same distributor, but TASTE either gets a volume discount or offers a few loss leaders. For example, Kimlan Grade-A Light Soy is 11.9 HKD at TASTE while it's 13.9 HKD at Wellcome and at ThreeSixty. While this didn't affect the comparison, I was also interested to see that TASTE was on par with the other stores on its 2-fer deals, but often offered a lower single unit price. For example, Penfold's 2009 Koonunga Hill Cabernet Merlot is 168 HKD/2 bottles at both Wellcome and TASTE, but the single bottle price at TASTE is 119 HKD while it's 139 HKD at Wellcome. (Doesn't surprise me.)
Where the active thinking at TASTE really shows is the fact that they find better substitutes for Western items that wind up being uncomfortably expensive once you ship them across the ocean. For example, both Wellcome and ThreeSixty carry microwave popcorn: Newman's Own brand, which frankly, is a bit pricey at 51 HKD/box. That's US $6.58 or $2.19 for each individual bag inside. Not movie theater prices, but not cheap. By comparison, TASTE carries Orville Redenbacher for 28.9 HKD (24% cheaper). You might prefer Newman, but Redenbacher works in our household.
To their credit, Wellcome offered lower prices on many items, for example the aforementioned carrots. And they shot themselves in the foot by being out of stock for a few important items -- like chicken filets, which are normally 39.9 HKDs/lb -- leaving me stuck with the grossly overpriced Hazeldeen's organic boneless chicken thigh meat at 100 HKD/lb. But in the end, what it came down to was that TASTE did a better job for me as the customer. My basket there was cheaper.
Whoa -- shame on me for writing such a long post, but I've got more to say!
Who owns TASTE?
The richest man in Hong Kong -- Mr. Li Ka-shing -- that's who!
TASTE is just one type of grocery store owned by AW Watson company, which is a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa. The other stores are Park & Shop, Great, and Gourmet.
A little bird told me that the primary purpose of TASTE (and its sister stores?) isn't to make a big profit. It's to generate cash flow for the other Li businesses. Apparently groceries are purchased net-30 or net-something, so TASTE can buy a ton of stock on credit, put it out on its shelves, and keep a constant flow of cash coming in from its customers. Handy ;-)
In case anyone reading gets their feathers ruffled by my comparison, keep in mind that I didn't write this as a journalist or business person. I took it on as a consumer trying to figure out the best choice for grocery shopping among the places reasonably convenient and suitable for my location and tastes.
If you don't believe me, try it yourself.
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