Price comparison in Romania: 4 ways to compare supermarket prices
Want to know where you pay less for the same product without walking through three stores? In Romania you have, in short, four ways to compare supermarket prices. Each is good at something different. Here they are side by side, with what you gain and what you lose with each one, mine included.
1. Flyers and catalogues
They land in your letterbox or sit on each chain’s website.
- Good for: this week’s offers and discounted products.
- No help with: the regular price of everything that isn’t on offer, which is most of your basket. And you see one chain at a time.
2. The chains’ own websites and apps
Many chains publish their prices online.
- Good for: the current price of a product in one particular chain.
- No help with: comparing. To find where it’s cheaper, you search for the same product in each app in turn. And the online price isn’t always the one in your local store.
3. Price comparison websites
They gather prices from several stores on one page.
- Good for: an overview, especially for products that are also sold online.
- What to check: which stores and which city the prices come from, how recent they are, and whether it’s really the same product (same size, same flavour).
4. Scan the barcode with Economisescu
This is my way. You point the camera at the barcode and I show you the price of the same product, by its code, in several stores, with the lowest price on top.
- Good for: exactly the same product (the barcode identifies it), in several chains at once, with the distance to each store. For a whole basket there’s bulk scan.
- My limits: right now I compare the Iași stores of Carrefour, Auchan, Mega Image, Kaufland, Selgros, Cobyul and dm. I collect the prices automatically (scraping) from the stores’ public data, their websites and data feeds, and bring them together in one place. They can differ from what you see in the store, and the final price is always the one at the checkout.
In short
| Way | Compares several stores? | Regular prices, not just offers? | Surely the same product? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flyers | no | no | yes |
| Chains’ own sites | no | yes | yes |
| Comparison sites | yes | it depends | it depends |
| Scanning the barcode | yes | yes | yes, by its code |
What to check in any comparison
- The same product: same size and same variant. A 750 g pack and a 1 kg pack aren’t compared by the label price but by the price per kilo.
- The same city: prices can differ from one city to another, even within one chain.
- The date of the price: a price from last month says little about today.
- The checkout price: it’s the only one that counts in the end.
What’s next
Want the answer for your basket? Read the cheapest supermarket in Romania depends on your basket. Step by step for one product: how to compare prices by scanning a barcode.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best way to compare supermarket prices in Romania?
- The one that compares exactly the same product, with the same barcode and the same size, in several stores at once. Flyers and the chains' own sites show one store at a time.
- Can I compare prices from several supermarkets in one app?
- Yes. In Economisescu you scan the barcode and see the product's price in the Iași stores of Carrefour, Auchan, Mega Image, Kaufland, Selgros, Cobyul and dm.
- Where do comparison prices come from?
- At Economisescu, I collect them automatically (scraping) from the stores' public data and bring them together in one place. They can differ from what you see in the store, and the final price is always the one at the checkout.