When we arrived at our ‘home away from home’ in Edinburgh, we soon found there were enough supplies in the fridge and in the cupboards to delay our usual initial shopping trip until our second day in Stockbridge. The next day we made our Edinburgh shopping list.
As we wandered around the handsome village, we noted a number of wonderful specialty shops, including a serious fishmonger, a ‘game-dealing’ butcher, and a fantastic-smelling cheese shop, but more on those in another mouthwatering post on the local shops.
Price Check Edinburgh – An Edinburgh Shopping List
There are three supermarkets in the local vicinity, a mid-sized Scotmid (a local brand), a Sainsbury’s Local (a small version of the supermarket) and a huge Waitrose supermarket. The Sainsbury’s became our last minute ‘go to’ shop and the Waitrose our ‘big’ shopping stop.
While the mantra these days in the ‘foodie’ world is that the big supermarket chains are ‘bad’ and the little suppliers are ‘good’, the reality is that most people who don’t plan a month’s worth of meals ahead of time are going to need to use the local supermarkets at least for some items.
Of the big supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, Waitrose appears to be doing a pretty good job of supplying everything from fresh beef stock and independent farmer’s vegetables, to healthy, fresh, ready-to-eat meals. That’s no mean feat.
While some local foodies we met were suspicious of Waitrose’s motives (and that their interest in local produce was merely them jumping on the bandwagon), I found the variety of fresh vegetables and meats (in particular) to be fantastic.
While there were surprising things on the shelves (prepped woodcock, ready for the oven) there were disappointing surprises such as lamb from New Zealand (selling lamb to Scotland?) and asparagus from Asia (totally unseasonal).
Price-wise, Edinburgh has turned out to be one of the most affordable European cities we’ve visited on our grand tour this year and we’ll provide a more detailed analysis of our Price Check Shopping Lists for each destination and how all the cities we visited compared next week.
An Edinburgh Shopping List
| 2 litre water | £0.40 | €0.47 | US$0.64 |
| 1 litre milk | £0.65 | €0.76 | US$1.04 |
| Bottle of imported wine | £7.00 | €8.19 | US$11.17 |
| 330ml beer | £1.60 | €1.87 | US$2.55 |
| 100g Nescafe | £2.99 | €3.50 | US$4.77 |
| 250g coffee beans | £2.99 | €3.50 | US$4.77 |
| 50 tea bags | £1.40 | €1.64 | US$2.23 |
| 1 kg sugar | £0.98 | €1.15 | US$1.56 |
| Jar of jam | £2.00 | €2.34 | US$3.19 |
| 1 loaf of bread | £1.15 | €1.35 | US$1.84 |
| 250g quality butter | £0.98 | €1.15 | US$1.56 |
| 200g cheese | £1.95 | €2.28 | US$3.11 |
| 500 ml oil | £2.50 | €2.92 | US$3.99 |
| 1 doz organic eggs | £2.89 | €3.38 | US$4.61 |
| 1 kilo tomatoes | £1.99 | €2.33 | US$3.18 |
| 1 kilo onions | £0.82 | €0.96 | US$1.31 |
| 1 kilo apples | £2.00 | €2.34 | US$3.19 |
| 250g pistachios | £3.07 | €3.59 | US$4.90 |
| 200g Smoked Salmon | £1.15 | €1.35 | US$1.84 |
| Total: | £38.51 | €45.07 | US$61.45 |
Price Check is a series of posts from every destination we visit where we settle in for a while, that could serve as a shopping list for you to stock the kitchen at the start of your stay, as well as a cost of living index, giving you an idea as to what things cost in that place. We include some basic items to get you started, plus a local specialty or two from the place.
