Grocery Prices Go Up By 300% In One Week, Prices From Selected Supermarkets For The Week Of 5 October

This has been the worst week in terms of price increases, in years we believe. Ever since this website started we have never seen anything like it. Grocery prices for some items, e.g. Surf, went up by an astounding 300%.

We are at a loss when it comes to explaining this. It could probably be the Ecocash ban, well it was a ban on mobile money cash-in cash-out but Ecocash is mobile money in Zimbabwe. Without the black market trading supermarkets were just shooting in the dark here and trying to mitigate the risk that when it did resume trading the black market would start at extremely high rates.

“Empty” shelves covered up

We could not find essential basics like meali-meal, cooking oil and flour in most shops. In all supermarkets when an item is missing you wouldn’t even know it. Space is quickly covered up by something else giving the impression that nothing is wrong.

Another explanation for the prices could well be that these supermarkets like most businesses, actually rely on the black market to buy foreign currency to restock. Without the black market, they struggled to find the stock. It could also explain the missing items. To be clear we are just speculating here too.

NB

• We looked at multiple branches of each of these supermarkets before coming up with the list
• Prices were consistent across branches, unlike Spar shops which have wildly varied prices, its the reason why we constantly survey these chosen four. Occasionally we look at other shops for comparison purposes
• As always we chose the cheapest item/brand for each selected item, however for items such as toothpaste we only look at established brands, Colgate in this case, Mazoe Orange instead of other flavours etc
• Rice is Mega white rice, Ekono or Better Buy
• Thai Rice includes Probrands and Mega’s brands
• Cheaper brands of All-purpose cleaner such as Clean-O and Spotless were missing in a number of shops. Only the more expensive Handy Andy was available
• The prices of peanut butter, jam, Geisha and Boom toilet cleaner have doubled in the space of a week
• The price of Surf increased by 300% in a week.