A SHOPPER has told how he bought all his family’s essentials for just £5 at Britain’s cheapest corner shop.
Sun reporter Ross Slater visited low-cost shop Bargains Galore in Eckington to pick up seven key items for under £5.
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These included 2.5kg of red potatoes for £1, a pack of eight frozen sausages for £1 and a block of cheese £1.25.
At ASDA, the same weight of red potatoes costs £1.40, research by Trolley.co.uk has found. At Tesco they’re £1.35.
Meanwhile Asda’s 8 peppery Cumberland pork sausages cost £1.50.
At Bargains Galore, we also bought a can of baked beans for 59p, six carrots for 50p, six satsumas for 50p and a tomato for 15p.
All in all, the basket came to just £4.99.
The low-cost shop is run by Ben Whitehouse, 38, who opened it to help his community in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, seven years ago.
He spends 50 to 60 hours a WEEK shopping around for the best cut-price deals at wholesalers to keep his shop stocked with the cheapest goods.
But prices soar in the cost of living crisis, even Ben’s shop has been hit.
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Ben told The Sun: “It is very, very tough now.
“There have been significant rises in the prices of all dairy products, in fact almost everything is going up.
“I’d say my customers are coming in ‘little and often’ meaning they buy the things that they want for now and just make more trips.
“They are looking for the cheaper options and I’m certainly finding more people asking if they can pay the difference when they are next in.
“It’s not easy for anyone.”
Even as prices soar, he keeps costs down.
He added: “I still do packs of bacon for a pound and you can get a pizza for a pound still but a lot of the other items have gone up.
“I am pleased to keep the potatoes at one pound which is a significant saving on supermarket prices and I also match them for egg, milk and bread prices but it is not easy.”
BIG SAVINGS
Shopper Pauline Holroyd, 67, had popped into Bargains Galore to pick up some bits for her husband and grandkids.
“Ben tries really hard. He is so focused on his customers, he even saves me cauliflower leaves for my rabbit,” she said.
“On many items he is cheaper than the supermarkets and I hate going to them.
“I have brought up two children on nearly nothing and back then I could do a week’s shop for £4.
“I have never known times as tough as they are at the moment.”
Regular customer Michael Marshall, 40, said: “I’m only in the shop because my central heating has packed up.
“It’s a warm space and Ben won’t be pestering me to buy anything. He’s a top lad.”
Meanwhile shopper Pam Herring, 72, said: “I am here for biscuits and cakes which my husband likes at the weekend and a scratch card because I could do with winning £1,000.
“Ben is brilliant. If there’s anything he doesn’t have he’ll get it in for you and I know he is doing his best with the prices.”
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