This is a live experiment. I priced the same basket of everyday staples at Malta’s four online supermarkets, holding every line to the same grade of product: extra virgin olive oil, basmati rice, white granulated sugar, fresh whole milk, real dairy butter. Prices were collected on July 13, 2026.
It runs on grocery-cli, an open-source tool I built that reads supermarket catalogs through one interface, with AI agents doing the product matching and a human-editable map of exact products per store.
The Totals
Same 10 items at all four stores, same grade, quantities normalized (a dozen eggs, 1kg rice, 250g coffee, per-kilo chicken and potatoes):
| Store | Basket total | vs cheapest |
|---|---|---|
| PAVI/PAMA | €34.16 | — |
| Welbee’s | €39.51 | +€5.35 |
| Scotts | €42.12 | +€7.95 |
| The Convenience Shop | €47.84 | +€13.67 |
The spread between cheapest and dearest is 40% on identical-grade staples. One detail worth staring at: Lavazza Crema e Gusto 250g, the exact same tin, sells for €4.40 at one store and €5.50 at another.
Item by Item
Every price traces to a specific product, named below. Rows that can’t be compared fairly are shown but left out of the totals: loose produce sold per piece, and bread where the store doesn’t state the loaf weight.
| Item | PAVI/PAMA | Welbee’s | Scotts | The Convenience Shop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milk 1L | €1.15 Whole Milk Carton With Cap 1L |
€1.37 Benna Fresh Milk Whole 3.5% Fat |
€1.37 Benna Fresh Whole Milk 1L 3.5% Fat |
€1.37 Benna Whole Milk 3.5% Fat 1L |
| Eggs (12) | €3.46 Ave Maria Eggs X15 |
€4.10 Daily Fresh Eggs |
€3.36 Eggs X 6 Local |
€3.52 San Gakbu Farm Eggs Class A 6 Pieces |
| Bread | €0.78 (loaf size unknown) Davids Bread Small Sliced |
€1.35 David’s Bakery Toast White Sliced Bread |
€1.50 (loaf size unknown) Jesper`S Bloomer Slice White |
€1.40 Jesper’s White Sliced Bread 500G |
| Rice 1kg | €2.99 Basmati Rice 1Kg |
€3.15 Eurico Basmati Rice |
€6.39 Tilda Basmati Rice 1Kg |
€6.49 Tilda Basmati Rice India 1Kg |
| Pasta 500g | €0.89 Pasta Spec.Fusilli Buc.N.292 500G |
€0.69 Pasta Reggia 19 Spaghetti |
€1.35 Conad Pasta S&D Spaghetti Chitarra 500G |
€2.15 Barilla Pasta Tagliatelle 500G |
| Olive oil 1L | €7.99 Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1L |
€9.85 Carrefour Extra Virgin Olive Oil |
€7.99 Conad Ex Virgin O/Oil 1L Classic |
€10.99 Genesio Mancini Classic Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1L |
| Chicken breast | €7.99/kg Chef Choice Fresh Chicken Breast Xkg Offer |
€9.80/kg Chicken Breast. |
€8.35 Mpoint Fresh Chicken Breast In Net |
€11.75/kg Green Valley Chicken Breast Fillets 850G |
| Bananas | €1.28/kg Banana 700G |
€1.75/kg Bananas Premium |
€0.10 (per piece) Banana |
€2.00 (per piece) Banana |
| Apples | €2.26/kg Apples Granny 75/80 Cpq 750G |
€2.95/kg Apples Gala Premium |
€0.12 (per piece) Apples Royal Gala |
€2.00 (per piece) Apple Ambrosia |
| Tomatoes | €2.50/kg Red Tomatoes Packed 700G |
€2.48/kg Tomatoes Fresh Local Gl |
€0.09 (per piece) Tomatoes |
€2.00 (per piece) Tomatoes Round |
| Potatoes | €1.00/kg Italian Potatoes 2Kg |
€1.20/kg Potatoes By Weight |
€1.37/kg Potatoes 2Kg |
€1.00/kg Potatoes Packed Approximately 2Kg |
| Onions | €0.87/kg Onions 800G |
€1.20/kg Onions Yellow Loose Nl |
€1.56/kg Cipolla Dorata Conad 800G It Cti Cpq |
€2.00 (per piece) Onions Yellow |
| Coffee 250g | €4.75 Crema E Gusto Espresso 250G |
€4.75 Lavazza Crema E Gusto |
€5.50 Lavazza Crema Gusto 250G |
€4.40 Lavazza Crema E Gusto Ground Coffee 250G |
| Butter | €3.15 Butter 250G |
€3.81 Somerdale Salted Butter |
€5.44 Kerrygold Salted Butter 200G |
€4.38 Kerrygold Butter Salted 200G |
| Sugar 1kg | €0.79 White Sugar 1Kg |
€0.79 Sundale / Sukero White Sugar |
€1.00 Sundale Granulated Sugar 1Kg |
€1.79 Sundale Sugar 1Kg |
How This Works
- Each basket item has a strict grade definition (extra virgin olive oil only, white durum-wheat pasta, class A eggs), and each store is bound to the cheapest product meeting it. Within a grade, brands can differ; the product names above let you judge each row yourself.
- Quantities are normalized before comparing: eggs to a dozen, butter and coffee to 250g, rice and sugar to 1kg, pasta to 500g, milk and oil to a liter, bread to 500g where the loaf weight is stated, chicken and loose produce to per-kilo.
- Earlier versions of this table were wrong in instructive ways: a seed-oil blend passed as olive oil, and a 6-egg tray was read as a dozen. Every binding is now grade-checked, and pack sizes are verified against the stores’ live product listings wherever they publish them.
- Prices are what each store’s own website showed on the collection date. They move; treat this as a snapshot.
- Lidl Malta is missing because it has no shoppable online catalog, and Greens and Smart have no searchable one. That matters: Lidl is likely the cheapest of all.
What Would Make This Useful for You?
Before I turn this into an app or a standalone site, I want to know what would actually help. A weekly-updated page? Your own basket instead of my staples? Price history and alerts? Tell me in the comments on LinkedIn or reach out directly.
