- Prices at Boxer were 2.4% lower on average in six months, but what you save depends on what you buy.
- Boxer expects food prices to start rising but has not said when, which products or by how much.
Prices at Boxer have been dropping, but the supermarket says the savings may not last.
Boxer released its latest results on Monday, 12 October. Its prices were 2.4% lower on average in the six months to 30 August. That is about R24 less on every R1,000 spent.
But that does not mean every shopper saved that much. Boxer’s figure covers all the products it sells, not one fixed basket of groceries. What you save depends on what you buy.
Across South Africa, food and non-alcoholic drinks prices rose by 2% over the same period.
The drops at Boxer are now getting smaller. In August, its prices were 3.1% lower on average, about R31 less on every R1,000 spent. In September, they were 2.1% lower, about R21 less on every R1,000. So the savings got smaller from August to September.
Boxer had expected food prices to start rising slowly this financial year. That has not happened yet, but it still expects them to go up, later than it first thought. The retailer has not said when.
In May, chief executive Marek Masojada said Boxer would try to keep prices steady for as long as possible, but that rising food prices were inevitable.
One reason is the cost of fuel, which makes it more expensive to deliver goods to shops. On 7 October, 95 petrol went up by R3.33 a litre, and diesel by R2.84 or R3.24 a litre, depending on the type. The Road Freight Association has warned that the cost of moving goods to shops could rise by 4% to 6%.
On Boxer’s results call, Masojada said suppliers had approached the supermarket in the past month or so. He said Boxer and its suppliers had covered much of the extra diesel cost themselves rather than charging shoppers more.
But he warned that they were getting close to having to add those costs to food prices. He also said there were signs that diesel could become more expensive again in November.
According to Investing.com’s summary of Boxer’s results slides, rice and flour prices had largely returned to last year’s levels by October. Maize was still 16% cheaper than a year earlier.
Boxer has not said which products will go up in price or how much more shoppers will have to pay.
