What’s a tomato worth to you?

Jola Chudy

• Last Updated: November 13. 2009 11:15AM UAE / November 13. 2009 7:15AM GMT

Taking a fresh look at the weekly grocery list is one of the many financial considerations expatriates face when moving to the UAE.

A quick drive around their neighbourhood will show consumers that there is no shortage of choice when it comes to supermarkets – from bargains at Carrefour and LuLu to the upscale and speciality items sold at Spinneys and Waitrose.

But for many shoppers, this range of options can be bewildering, and it’s easy to get lost in aisles.

Consumers are confronted by new stores, unknown brands, and, at times, surprising differences in quality and price.

Common items such as meat, fish and produce can greatly vary in cost and quality based on your choice of supermarket. What emerges from this confusion is a culinary chess match of where to spend your precious dirhams.

After weighing cost, quality and convenience, which supermarket best fits your lifestyle?

Cameron Cairns, a 28-year-old yacht projects consultant who moved to Dubai from South Africa in 2006, says variety in the UAE is not an issue for him.

“Supermarkets here stock pretty much the same things you’ll find back home, the same brands and types of food,” he says.

“Of course, in each country you will be introduced to new foods, and while things like hummus are pretty universal, Arabic items like kibbeh or baba ganoush are less unusual here than at home.”

Mr Cairns lives in Dubai with his British wife, Zoe, a graphic designer, and their dog, Safa.

Their supermarket of choice is the Choithram on Al Wasl Road.While variety, customer service, value and food quality all play a part in deciding where to shop, location is the the main reason he and his wife frequent Choithram.

Situated on the busy road, the supermarket has a loyal following among Dubai’s expatriate shoppers. Competitive prices, a wide variety of items arranged neatly on its high shelves, a central location and a reputation for value means many shoppers have adopted it as their weekly “big shop” market.

“It’s our nearest supermarket,” Mr Cairns explains. “My wife and I will do a shop once a week and spend around Dh600. This will include bread, meat, vegetables, and household items – the usual. We like to buy a lot of salad ingredients, but find that they tend to go off after a few days, much quicker than back home, so we may top up on these during the week. The same is true for bread. It goes mouldy in a few days.”

The poor shelf life of perishable goods is a common complaint of shoppers, who find that air-freighted vegetables wilt, bread goes stale, and fish starts to smell.

Although the option to simply buy less might save you on wastage, and ultimately, cost, in the long run, additional supermarket visits will likely result in higher grocery bills.

Why? Each time you enter, you will likely be tempted to buy products you don’t actually need. Instead, consumers should adopt new habits, such as freezing bread and defrosting it as required, or prepping fresh vegetables and freezing what is not used that day in Tupperware boxes or plastic bags. Mr Cairns and his wife, however, simply buy less, because they usually dine at restaurants several times a week.

“Eating out is a huge thing here, much more so than at home,” he says. “It’s part of the culture to meet people for meals, or order takeout food and not cook yourself. That means we automatically buy fewer ingredients to cook daily meals.”

Dining out is on the menu less frequently for Richard and Lea Devera, who hail from the Philippines and have a baby less than a year old. For this couple, both 29, cost and convenience are the priorities, so they try to get most of their shopping done in one monthly sweep at Carrefour.

Boasting stores in the bustling Deira City Centre and Mall of the Emirates, Carrefour is Dubai’s busiest supermarket, and at peak hours the experience of shopping its aisles isn’t for the fainthearted. But despite the crowds and notoriously long queues at checkout, Mr Devera remains undeterred, citing the French chain’s unbeatable range of food and household items, as well as its sections devoted to carpets, gardening, DVDs, mobile phones and electrical goods and children’s toys.

“There’s a lot of choice here and we find all the products we can think of are available,” he says.

“There is even a new section of Filipino products that we like, with spices, sauces and noodles from home. Those items are the same price in other stores, but here there is the most choice and it is very competitively priced.”

The store’s own economical brand also appeals to the couple.

“The economy is hurting, so at the moment buying these Carrefour brand goods is a good way to save,” Mr Devera explains.

He points to a cleaning product on the shelf. “The branded LUX washing up liquid is Dh8.90 per litre, but the store’s brand is Dh7.25, and the quality of it is exactly the same.”

An even cheaper “1” line includes a litre container of washing up liquid for Dh4.50. The Carrefour cleaning products also feature a toilet cleaner for Dh7.25, which compares very favourably with the brand-name Harpic equivalent, which Carrefour sells for Dh12.20.