Checking a product before you buy — what to check, and what you cannot
Four questions, thirty seconds, before it goes in the trolley
"Checking a product" sounds like it takes time. In practice it is a half-minute routine answering four questions, and most people answer none of them.
Question 1 — is this even the same product?
Comparing by name misleads: "5% cottage cheese" is a whole family of packs and sizes. The barcode identifies exactly one product — same manufacturer, same contents, same pack. That is where any real check starts.
The digits under the stripes are the barcode. Type them into the site search, or scan them with the Telegram bot and get the prices back without typing anything.
Question 2 — what does it cost somewhere else?
This is the check that returns money. The product page shows the price range and the number of offers: a 30-agorot range says there is nothing to chase, a ₪5 range says there is. If one check tells you the product is 30% cheaper two streets away, that is the whole value of checking.
Note that price depends on location: the cheapest price in the country is irrelevant if it is an hour away. Set a city or allow location, and the answer arranges itself around you with the distance next to every price.
Question 3 — is that promotion actually a promotion?
A discount is measured from a price the chain set itself, so on its own it says nothing. The only test that works: compare the promotional price to another chain's ordinary price. If it is still dearer after the discount, that is a real discount that is not enough.
Check the quantity too: "3 for" on something you buy monthly is not a discount, it is inventory — and if the third goes in the bin you paid more.
Question 4 — does the unit price still make sense?
Two packs of different sizes cannot be compared by the shelf label. Price per unit of measure — per kilo, per litre, per item — is the only number that compares them fairly, and it sits in the price table next to the price itself.
It is also where "the family pack is always cheaper" turns out to be wrong roughly a third of the time.
And what a price check does not tell you
We work from the official price files the chains are required to publish. They say what a product costs, where, and when the price was published. They say nothing about quality, taste, food safety, recalls or whether a product meets a standard.
If you are looking for a recall or a safety standard, the address is the Ministry of Health and the Consumer Protection Authority, not a price-comparison site. Better said upfront than discovered five minutes in.