Shopping and Saving Money at mySupermarket

Although I do the majority of grocery shopping online, I still spend far too much time on foot, trudging around supermarket aisles, in search of new healthy arrivals and bargains.
As for supermarket loyalty – forget it. With skyrocketing prices and dodgy offers, I'm afraid loyalty to one store has gone right out the window.

That was until I discovered another kind of supermarket – one which you won’t find on any high street or out of town mega-mall. This is a supermarket that allows you to be as fickle as you want, flitting between one store to another, saving you money without leaving your chair.


Those who have already discovered this ‘supermarket’ probably know I’m talking about mySupermarket.co.uk. And for those who don’t, here’s a brief overview of what the site does.

mySupermarket.co.uk Overview

The mySupermarket website works just like your regular online grocery shopping sites, but with a whole host of extra features. The main focus of the site is to help you find the best deals and make the most savings whilst doing your shop.

It does this by comparing the price of your shopping basket at your chosen supermarket with the competition. Currently this includes Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Asda, and Ocado who all have an online grocery site.

When you shop, you simply log in to mySupermarket.co.uk, choose your supermarket, and do your shopping as normal. As you place goods into your basket, various pop ups let you know where you could make savings, for example, by switching to another brand or an alternative supermarket.

Once you’ve finished, mySupermarket shows you the total cost of your shop and how much it would cost at the other stores. If it’s cheaper somewhere else, you have the option of transferring your complete trolley to another supermarket. Once finished, send your shopping list over to the ‘real’ grocery site where you go to make payment.

What Else

That’s a very brief summary of what the site offers. Once you arrive at the home page, you have a choice of three sections to visit: Groceries, Health & Beauty or Wines – see the screenshot below.

By clicking on the ‘Groceries’ tab you’ll be taken to the area for grocery shopping in any of the 5 main supermarkets. If you click on the ‘Health & Beauty’ tab you’re given the additional choice of shopping at Boots or Superdrug too. Then into the ‘Wines’ section and you have the 5 main supermarkets and Majestic to shop in.

My Favourite Bits

I must admit, a few years ago I tentatively ventured into mySupermarket, but ended up sticking with my regular online supermarket whom I was quite loyal to. But since I’ve been hopping around different online stores, rediscovering mySupermarket has been a real eye opener.

1. Reduced Substitutes

One of the most annoying problems with online shopping has to be the dreaded substitute. But with mySupermarket.co.uk, as long as you’re signed in to your account, you’ll only be shown the products available in your local stores, rather than a general inventory of what the store sells. This means if your local store doesn’t sell it, it won’t be shown.

2. Finding Healthier Options

mySupermarket has some fantastically useful menu options, one of which is called ‘Dietary & Lifestyle’ which bundles all the healthier options together on one page. As someone who’s constantly on the lookout for lower calorie, reduced fat or healthier options, this saves me so much time.

The ‘Dietary & Lifestyle’ tab is shown as a leaf icon on the top toolbar. When clicked on, a small menu opens up giving you the choice of searching for your specific dietary needs. For example, Vegetarian, Organic, Gluten Free. See the screen shot below.

Within the ‘Dietary’ section you’ll find an entire page with virtually all the healthier options in one place. This includes branded foods such as Weight Watchers and the stores own lighter choices, reduced fat and lower calorie goods. It’s also a great place to discover new products.

3. Which Stores Sell What

When I post my food reviews, I try to be specific about the stores where you can find it, but this isn’t always possible. Therefore, one of my favourite parts of the mySupermarket website is the ability to see, at a glance, which stores stock any one product. This can save you time searching fruitlessly in a store that’s never going to stock what you’re after.

Here’s an example. While shopping at mySupermarket using the Sainsbury’s trolley, I searched for Quorn Sticky BBQ Fillets. As it was available at Sainsbury’s, it appeared on screen. If I click on the product I want, its current price at Sainsbury’s appears on the price comparison list alongside the price it’s selling in the other supermarkets. This product shows N/A in Asda, Ocado and Tesco which means that it’s not available in those stores locally to me.

There is so much more to this website and many more features than I’ve outlined here. So if you’re a regular online grocery shopper in the UK and you’re watching the pennies, mySupermarket.co.uk is certainly worth checking out (excuse the pun)!

© Diets and Calories 2012

This post was sponsored by mySupermarket.co.uk. However, all opinions are based on my own experiences of using the site.