Where to get the best deals on Grocery this weekend.

Looking for a fast way to stock up on grocery this weekend? Then look no further,  we have compiled a list of online stores where you can get affordable household essentials delivered to your home, or picked up in store.

We all know the hassle of going  to the market, and how prices have gone up and keep going up weekly. So to save yourself some stress this weekend, all you have to do is visit these stores promising 24hrs delivery and your weekend shopping is sorted.

Saverscart

Saverscart is an online grocery store. The store carries products of reputable brands such as Unilever, Nesle, PZ Cussons, P&G and a host of others.
To save big on this site, you need to take advantage of their bulk shopping where they promise you alot of discounts. Once your order is confirmed,  your cart will be delivered to your home within 24hrs.
They have a walk in stores in different location within Lagos,  known as Shop direct Superstores.

Okearin.ng

Have you ever heard of a market called Okearin in the surburb of Lagos Nigeria? If yes, then this online store named after the popular Okearin Market will definitely ring a bell. At Okearin.ng,they brag about being the cheapest online store in Nigeria, providing same day / 24 hours delivery, with option of payment of cash upon delivery. I mean if you ask me, it doesnt get better than this. Doing

your grocery shopping within the confines of your home, and getting it delivered same day. Whaow!
The store sells products of so many reputable brands and have a wide range of products in different categories such as Household essentials, appliances,grocery,toileteries, beauty and cosmetics, baby products,pharmacy, books and stationeries etc.
Okearin.ng gives 5% discount on your first purchase and an additional 5% on online payment.

Jara Mall

Although I have never shopped on Jara Mall, but it is worth trying. Wait for this, you not only get your grocery here, you also get fruits and vegetables plus fresh farm produce. What better way to spend the weekend, than to have all your household needs delivered to you from one store without having to move more than a muscle. They offer same day/24 hrs delivery once payment is made. They have different kinds of products from reputable and trusted brands and they have a clearance sale section.

If you have other commitments this weekend, like a day out with the kids, a party or you just need a quiet time from the noise in Lagos, now you can do all of that and more, since shopping has been brought into your home just at the press on a button on your phone or laptop.

If you visit any of these stores, make sure you share your shopping experience with us and let us know if you would recommend any of them to friends.

Look What I found today !!!! I.C.E.C.R.E.A.M.

DIA ICECREAM

Hey guys, how are you all doing? Its Friday!!! Yaaaayyy!!! Just wanted you all to know about my latest discovery in the city of Lagos. Today I went to make my hair somewhere around Yaba, and needed to use the ATM on University Road, then I came across this supermarket with a Heritage Bank ATM positioned in one corner of it. The exterior of the supermarket looked okay, so I went in to get a bottle of drink plus something to munch on while I sit and make my hair. While perusing the supermarket looking for their fridge, I stumbled on their freezer section, where they had all sorts of things, Suddenly my eyes came in contact with the Ice-cream freezer, where I saw different variety of Ice-cream, In my mind I was like get thee behind me devil, this Ice-cream  will be expensive as usual, but at a closer look, I was wrong, They were all selling for N700. N700 ke? Unbelievable! I called upon a staff to verify which one exactly goes for N700, in my mind I knew it had to be the popsicle, but the attendant confirmed again that  all the Dia Ice-cream were N700.

All the worms in my tummy started dancing azonto! Now I was confused, because I had not tried any of their Ice-Cream before neither I have been in this store or heard about this store before. So I made up my mind to go with the Dia Minis, since it had four different Variety in it. Got to the check out counter, made the payment, and hurriedly dashed out into the car to taste this my new discovery.  I opened it and Voila there were 8 mini Ice-cream in the box, Oh my Goodness!!! I started with the vanilla flavour, then the chocolate,then the peanut chocolate, then remembered that as a good mum that I am, the Kids should have some too. I packed the remaining back into the box to take home for the kids,

My Judgement
For the price, it taste nice.  Do not go and buy it and be thinking you would have that same feeling of eating a Magnum Ice-cream ooo, They donot belong in the same creamy category, but trust me, its a very good buy and the kids loved it too. And I will be back there tomorrow to try the cone icecream.

If you have a good deep freezer, that performs wonders even when NEPA decides to strike for days, you can always stock up on this Ice-Cream for your kids. Because N700 gets you 8 minis in a pack.

Before I forget, the name of the supermarket is Citydia, and I heard its their product and they have branches around Lagos.

I guess they need to do more advert because I doubt if people really know about them.

The Price of Commodities in Nigeria. Then and Now!

Price review done by Tribune

The Oke Arin Market Challenge!

If you would recall, I did a post about comparing price of grocery in Lagos, if you missed it click HERE. I got a comment saying that grocery was cheaper in Oke Arin Market in Lagos Island, which I concur at that time. In order not to mislead anyone, I decided to take up the Oke Arin Shopping challenge, by visiting the popular Lagos market to have a first hand  shopping experience and to really see how much I can save by going to the major market.

Oke Arin Market

Today being the last Saturday in August, there was environmental sanitation in Lagos State, so I had to leave home later than schedule, Once the sanitation was over, I was out of the house by 11 am, the road was so damn free, that at 11:28 am I was already parked around the popular UBA House in Marina. I hardly have anything to do on Lagos Island, so I was a bit shocked when I was told that parking is N500. Five Hundred What? Not like I'm leaving my car over night I  only came here to do some grocery shopping, I negotiated N300 and it was no deal, I figured I had no choice than to agree to pay N500 before I was allowed to step out of the car.

Next, I had to call my arranged Alabaaru (people who help in carrying the goods you buy in the market), as it was my first time of going to Oke Arin in a very long time, I needed a Chaperon to take me round the market for easy navigation, so my friend who is a regular Oke Arin Shopaholic, arranged the Alabaaru for me. Iya Ibeji is my Alabaaru/Chaperon for the day, we met at about 11.55 am, and the journey to grocery savings began, or so I thought.

As we walked into Oke Arin Market, I could tell that I was in for an adventurous day, with everyone chanting Iya beji's name from all angles, I could tell she was one popular face among the sellers and her co-alabaaru, she took me to the first store, and said aunty go in there, that's where you friend buys imported groundnut oil. I entered while she waited outside talking to other sellers. Inside this store, I completely forgot I was inside Oke Arin, through out my duration in the store, they sell mostly imported grocery, if you want your yogurt, chocolate pasta,vegetable oil and all the Gerber baby food product there is,this is where to visit, because they sell in bulk. Just imagine everything in a Walmart or a Tesco store all stocked in one or two aisles. No where for shoppers to pass, and no shopping basket either, but if you stand in one corner and look around, you know that they have nice things. So for the lack of space, I was discouraged from staying too long in that store, I got just 3 or 4 items and I was out. The positive thing about this store called the Prime Grocers (which I later found out through the receipt they gave me, yes! you read it I got my first and last receipt from my first purchase at Oke Arin market), is that they sell in bulk, so if you are doing retail shopping, you might not be saving anything by coming to shop here.

Iya Beji and I continued our shopping from stall to stall, corner to corner,looking for the best bargain, which was very hard to find, did I tell you I went armed with my last receipt from the neighborhood grocery shopping, oh yes I did, because the reason for this trip was to save cost. By now, the sun was out in all its glory, and I realized it was already  1.25pm and we had only done half of the grocery because apart from not finding any reasonable bargain, some of the market women are just crooks. Imagine I got to a stall, and I bought Milo,Sardine, Noodles and Frosties Kellogs Cornflakes, next thing I noticed was the woman selling to me, trying to hide the Frosties, claiming she didn't want her co-market friend to know she had Frosties, at that point I was like hold on one minute, can I see the expiry on that Frosties, and she handed it over to me, to confirm my suspicion, the Cornflakes was expiring in 1 Month time. At this point, I was about giving up on this challenge, but I had to go on, because I was 60 percent into it already, I rejected the Cornflakes, and she said, Aunty that is what is in the market, that's what everyone is selling, I stood my ground and paid for other stuff I bought and left her stall. I later found another one with 2017 expiring in Bobo Ibo's stall.

By this time, I was already worn out , but I still needed to get other things on my list and Iya Beji said we had to go down down to where they sell toiletries. When we got there, my Harpic Liquid toilet Wash, that I know the price very well, was selling for N90 extra, I said well done, and there were alot of them so it was hard to differentiate original from fake by looking at the packaging alone, At this point, I told Iya Beji I was done with the market that I will go and buy the remaining things in my area. We left for the Abattoir to buy fresh Goat Meat and Cow Meat, I must say this was the only high point of this trip for me. As I honestly didn't save any significant amount like I had envisaged. But the freshness of the meat was the pat on the back, more like the consolation I needed.

My Judgement about Oke Arin market is that, not everything they sell is cheaper than buying from your Neighborhood Store, some things were obviously cheaper in Oke Arin market( by cheaper i mean N50 to N100 less),while some are far cheaper in my neighborhood Store. In my Neighborhood Store parking is free, and you don't need an Alabaaru because they have shopping carts, so you don't get charged for using the shopping cart, and the boys at the Neighborhood Store might help you with your grocery to the car if you did alot of shopping, for which you may,  either tip them or tell them thank you.

By the time we got to the car, it was almost 2.05pm, and Iya Beji demanded for
a N2k fee, I was surprised and thought that was an outrageous demand, because my friend had told me to pay N500 as that is what they charge on the average, although I ended up not paying N2k but I paid way more than N500.

Will I ever go back to Oke Arin market for grocery? That's never going to happen again, Because, you can not get all you need in one place, and the cost you are cutting is not significant at all. The sun and the mammoth crowd in the market is not one I would like to experience again.

So that is my Oke Arin Market Challenge, and I nominate you all to go and try it out too. Make sure you look for Iya Beji when you are there.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Comparing the Price of Grocery in Lagos.

I'm so glad the weekend is over, let me share with you my adventure over the weekend. We all know schools are on holiday and the kids are home , meaning mums can never stop shopping for grocery during this period.

Have you ever wondered how prices of grocery varies from store to store? I have always wondered too, so I took  it upon myself to visit two different  stores and a Neighbourhood Market to compare the price of some select food items.

I started with Shoprite (one of the most popular stores in Lagos and in some part of Nigeria), then Shop-direct(Not so popular but has a few branches scattered around lagos), and finally Census Market in Surulere (Neighbourhood Market).

Please note that this experiment was purely to compare  prices only, and nothing more.

The pros of shopping at Shoprite is that you are sure about what you are buying, you can always trust the quality, all items are neatly arranged in spacious isle with description. And you can always return non perishable goods to the store as long as you have your receipt.
At Shop direct,although they have space constraint and no visible description on the isle, the pros are all items are neatly arranged, quality of goods can be mostly trusted, and non perishable goods can be returned as long as you have your receipt.
Census Market is an open market with many buyers and sellers, so if you can't withstand the sun over your skin, then this place is not for you, also you can never be too sure of what you are buying. Shopping in open markets is generally at shoppers risk. But the pros are there are many sellers of homogeneous goods, so you can always compare prices and shop at the stall you want. Note whether perishable or non perishable goods,return or exchange is frowned at.

Grocery List                       Shoprite                 Shop-direct            Census Market

1. 1 full crate of eggs                            N1349.99               N1,140                     N900
2. Milo 550g tin                                    N959.00                 N980                        N880
3. Dano Milk 400g tin                          N834.99                 N740                        N880
4. Milo Cereal 320g                              N639.99                 N750                        N670
5. Kellogs cornflakes 500g                   N1099.99               N900                        N850
6. Goldern Morn   500g                        N534.99                 N600                        N520
7. Peak Milk 400g Refiil pack              N799.99                 N840                        N750
8. Heinz Baked Beans 200g                  N199.99                 N200                        N250
9. Knorr Chicken cubes                        N469.99                  N420                        N380
10. Quaker Oat 500g Tn                         N659.99                  N620                        N600
11. Honeywell Semolina                        N739.99                  N710                        N700
12. Ola-Ola poundo yam                        N929.99                  N890                        N850
13. Pet Coke                                            N89.99                   N100                         N100
14. Golden Penny Macaroni                 N199.99                    N180                         N130

At Shoprite, the selected items totaled at N9,508.87
At Shop-direct , the selected items totaled at N9,070                              
At Census Market , the selected items totaled at N8,460

Please be advised that there are other markets to shop from apart from the Census Market where you can get the above items even cheaper.

Now lets hear from you, where do you get your grocery from?Do you have any particular preference for any store? Does price influence your grocery shopping? Are you the market shopper or the store shopper?