Which supermarket is cheapest in Croatia? One 17-item basket, nine chains (October 2026)

Short answer: for our basket of 17 identical branded products, the typical total on 26 October 2026 was lowest at Lidl (€40.57) and highest at Studenac (€50.00). Kaufland came second (€43.20); thanks to promotions it has moved ahead of Konzum and Plodine since September. Lidl’s lead rests on three products: leave out Rio Mare tuna, Nutella and Scotti rice, and Kaufland has the lowest median.

We compared the same products with the same barcode, store by store, using the price lists that Croatian retailers must publish every day. Prices change daily, so this is a snapshot of a single day. We also ran the same basket for 25 September 2026, so you can see what has changed since then.

How we compared#

• Identical products: 17 branded products with the same barcode (GTIN) in every chain. The full list is below.
• Real prices for each store: since 15 May 2025, supermarkets, hypermarkets, discounters and cash & carry stores must publish their price lists online every day by 8 a.m. (government decision NN 75/2025, in Croatian (opens in a new tab), based on the Act on Exceptional Price Control Measures, NN 40/2025, in Croatian (opens in a new tab)).
• Promotions included: we use the price you pay at the till. If a product is on offer, that is the offer price.
• Median per chain: for each chain we added up the basket in every store that stocks all 17 products and took the median. Half the stores are cheaper, half are more expensive, so a single unusual price barely moves the result.
• Same basket as in September: we put the basket together in September from products that each of the eight chains Lidl, Konzum, Plodine, Kaufland, Studenac, Tommy, Spar and Ribola listed in at least 90% of its stores. That removed five products from our original list of 22: Jamnica water 6 × 1.5 l, Podravka čajna pašteta 95 g, Dukat cooking cream 500 g, Persil gel 1.98 l and Čakovečki T-550 flour 1 kg. The basket stays the same so the results remain comparable. In October, only 38% of Ribola stores list President fresh cheese 375 g.
• Stores: every store of the nine chains whose exact location we know and that stocks at least one basket product, 737 in total. Our data has no price list for 26 October for five Plodine stores, so we left them out. Other chains in our data (for example Gavranović, Trgovina Krk and NTL) and cash & carry stores (Metro, Bure, Roto) sit outside this comparison.
• Date: price lists valid on 26 October 2026, the latest day for which we have price lists from all nine chains.

Result: the branded basket#

As of 26 October 2026, prices including promotions. The typical basket cost €2.63 (6.5%) more at Kaufland than at Lidl, €5.27 (13.0%) more at Konzum and €9.43 (23.2%) more at Studenac.

Three notes:

• Ribola: since 23 October, President fresh cheese 375 g has appeared in the price lists of only some Ribola stores, 23 of 61 on 26 October. So only 14 of the 40 Ribola stores we compared stock all 17 products, and the median applies to those 14.
• KTC: PIK cooked ham 125 g is missing from the 26 October price lists of all 26 KTC stores we compared, so KTC is left out of the table this time.
• Studenac: our data contains price lists for 20 Studenac stores, 17 of them with an exact location.

Eurospin lists none of the 17 products. We compare its prices in the own-brand section.

Where the gap comes from: three products#

Lidl’s lead still comes from three products. Lowest price in each chain, as of 26 October 2026:

Nutella is on offer at Kaufland for the same price as at Lidl, so the tuna and the rice are what separate the two.

Leave those three out and the order flips. Median basket for the remaining 14 products:

• Kaufland €29.07
• Konzum €29.76
• Lidl €30.28
• Spar €30.56
• Plodine €30.75
• Tommy €31.23
• Studenac €32.71

Ribola: €30.94, but only in the 14 stores that stock all 14 products.

The takeaway: the cheapest chain depends on what is in your trolley. If it is full of products Lidl sells for much less, Lidl wins. For the other 14 products, the top four chains were less than €1.50 apart.

Promotions shift the ranking#

Part of the gap is promotions. How many of the 17 products were on offer in at least half of a chain’s stores (as of 26 October 2026):

• Kaufland: 5
• Konzum and Spar: 2
• Ribola, Studenac and Tommy: 1
• Lidl, Plodine and KTC: none

Example: on 26 October, Nutella 750 g cost €6.29 on offer in all 53 Kaufland stores. On 25 September it cost €8.39.

In September the picture was different: Konzum and Tommy had five products on offer each, Plodine and Studenac four, Kaufland two. When those offers ended, the ranking changed.

We did not calculate a regular-price-only basket: during a promotion, some chains list only the offer price. You can see current offers by chain under deals.

What has changed since September#

We ran the same basket with the same method on the price lists for 25 September 2026:

Median of the 17-product basket, prices including promotions. Ribola on 26 October: 14 of 40 stores stock all 17 products.

• Kaufland moved from fourth to second place. Nutella, PIK ham, Dukat UHT milk and Barilla spaghetti are on offer. The offer on President cheese has ended.
• Konzum and Plodine each went up by €2.20. At Konzum the offers on Scotti rice, beer and ketchup ended; at Plodine those on butter, President cheese, coffee and beer.
• Studenac: in 15 of the 17 stores the offers on tuna, butter, ketchup and biscuits ended.
• Lidl is still first. Passata is back at its regular €1.09 (€0.79 on offer in September), and ketchup costs €1.99 (€1.59 in September).
• After the summer season: in September Plodine charged more in resort towns and on islands, and Spar had its higher price level in most coastal stores. Now this basket costs almost the same in every Plodine store, and Spar stores in Zadar, Pula, Šibenik and Poreč, for example, are on the lower level.

Own brands: the cheapest option#

A branded basket tells only part of the story. Many shoppers buy store brands, and Eurospin sells mostly those. So for five staples on Croatia’s price-cap list, we looked up the cheapest option in each chain. Condition: the product is sold in at least 90% of the chain’s stores.

* offer price. A range means the price differs between stores. As of 26 October 2026.

• For these five staples the chains are about one euro apart: from €4.08 at Kaufland to €5.19 in Ribola’s most expensive stores.
• The bigger gap is between branded and store-brand products. The cheapest UHT milk 2.8% cost €0.39 at Lidl. The Dukat UHT milk from our branded basket cost €1.02 in six of the nine chains.
• Milk at €0.39 or less is also on sale in some Kaufland stores (37 of 53) and Konzum stores (24 of 188). That is below the 90% threshold, so the table shows the next cheapest option for both chains.
• KTC is not in this table because it lists these products in fewer than 90% of its stores.

We searched the chains’ price lists. A chain may have an even cheaper option under a different name.

Two stores instead of one#

If both are on your way, splitting your shop saves money. We calculated the cheapest single store and the cheapest pair of stores from the nine chains within 5 km of each city centre. Each product is bought wherever it is cheaper.

As of 26 October 2026, 17-product basket. In all six cities the best pair is Lidl and Kaufland. At Kaufland it paid to buy the Dukat UHT milk, Barilla spaghetti, coffee and ham. All four were on offer, so the saving lasts only as long as the offers. In September the second store was Plodine (Konzum in Osijek), and the saving was €1.47 to €2.14.

In the Pinezi app for Android and iPhone you choose how many stores you are willing to visit (1, 2, 3 or more). The app also includes other shops nearby, so the saving can be larger.

Same chain, different prices#

In several chains the same basket costs a different amount from store to store (as of 26 October 2026):

• Lidl: €40.57 in all 112 stores.
• Kaufland: €43.20 in each of the 52 stores that stock all 17 products.
• Konzum: three price levels, €45.84, €47.08 and €47.96. All 20 hypermarkets in the comparison are on the lowest level. Zagreb has stores on all three levels, so the level depends on the store more than on the region.
• Spar: €46.83 in 83 stores, including all 20 hypermarkets. €48.23 in 34 stores, 27 of them in Zagreb.
• Plodine: €47.02 in 133 of 134 stores. One store in Zagreb: €46.85.
• Tommy: €47.00 to €47.94. The highest level applies in 9 stores, for example in Vir, Sali and Privlaka.
• Studenac: from €44.22 (Buzet) to €53.65 (for example Komiža, Grohote and Funtana).
• Ribola: 14 stores stock all 17 products: €48.21 in 13 of them, including Makarska, Dubrovnik and Zadar, and €49.50 in Ražanj. For the other 16 products, the gap between the cheapest stores in Split and Kaštela and the stores in Makarska and Dubrovnik shrank from €3.49 in September to €1.86.

After the summer season the differences are smaller. In September Plodine charged more on islands and in resort towns than in the cities, and Spar had its higher level in most coastal stores too. Now this basket costs almost the same in every Plodine store, and Spar stores in Zadar, Pula, Šibenik and Poreč, for example, are on the lower level. Tommy and Studenac still have their highest level mainly in resort towns and on islands. At Lidl and Kaufland this basket costs the same across the country.

Price caps#

Since 1 December 2025, Croatia caps the prices of certain products (government decision NN 142/2025, in Croatian (opens in a new tab)). It replaced the earlier decision in NN 17/25 and applies until further notice.

• 29 products (point II): every item must be priced at or below the cap.
• 71 categories (point III): at least one item in the category must be at or below the cap, if the retailer sells the category.
• The caps apply to regular prices; promotions are exempt (point V).
• Capped items carry a special label next to the price, and a poster at the entrance or another visible spot lists them (point VII).

All five staples in the own-brand table are on that list. The cheapest options we found were at or below the cap. The full list of capped products and prices is on the price caps page.

Limits of this comparison#

• Fresh produce sold by weight (fruit, vegetables, meat, bread) has no standard barcode, so the basket covers packaged products.
• One day: price lists for 26 October 2026. Offers change, and the ranking changes with them, as the comparison with September shows.
• Stores with an exact location, for example 161 of 188 Konzum stores.
• Who publishes price lists: until 16 November 2026 the obligation covers supermarkets, hypermarkets, discounters and cash & carry stores (NN 75/2025). From 17 November 2026 (postponed by NN 110/2026) it covers every retailer with a website, with new fields for the anchor price, the type of promotion and availability (government decision NN 101/2026, in Croatian (opens in a new tab)).
• Errors in price lists: if a retailer publishes a wrong price, it is in our data too. The median softens single errors.
• 17 products: the basket shows how the chains compare on identical products. For the price trend of a whole household shop, the consumer price index is the right measure.

How we collect the data is explained on the data sources page.

What’s in the basket#

1. Dukat UHT milk 2.8% 1 l
2. Z’bregov fresh milk 3.2% 1 l (Vindija)
3. Dukat b.Aktiv natural yoghurt 1 kg
4. Z’bregov butter 250 g (Vindija)
5. President zagrebački fresh cheese 375 g
6. Zvijezda sunflower oil 1 l
7. Scotti Originario rice 1 kg
8. Barilla Spaghetti no. 5, 500 g
9. Podravka passata 500 g
10. Franck Jubilarna ground coffee 250 g
11. Ožujsko beer 0.5 l can
12. PIK cooked ham 125 g
13. Rio Mare tuna in sunflower oil 160 g
14. Nutella 750 g
15. Zvijezda mild ketchup 500 g
16. Coca-Cola 0.5 l
17. Kraš Petit Beurre biscuits 480 g

Download the data#

Prices of all 17 products and the basket total for each of the 737 stores: CSV file (column names in Croatian).

If you quote these results, please name the source (Pinezi) and the price-list date (26 October 2026). We plan to publish the same basket once a month as the “Pinezi košarica”.

FAQ#

Which supermarket is cheapest in Croatia?#

For our 17-product branded basket, Lidl had the lowest median on 26 October 2026: €40.57. The ranking depends on what is in the basket. Without Rio Mare tuna, Nutella and Scotti rice, Kaufland had the lowest median (€29.07) and Lidl came third.

Is Lidl cheaper than Konzum?#

For this basket, yes: €40.57 against €45.84 (median, as of 26 October 2026). The gap comes from three products. For the other 14, Konzum was cheaper: €29.76 against €30.28.

Are prices the same in every store of a chain?#

At Lidl and Kaufland this basket cost the same everywhere, and at Plodine almost everywhere. At Konzum, Spar, Tommy, Studenac and Ribola prices vary by store. At Plodine, resort towns and islands were more expensive than the cities in September; by late October the prices had evened out.

Is it worth shopping at two supermarkets?#

In the six cities we checked, the saving on this basket was €1.85 (4.6%, as of 26 October 2026), each time with Lidl and Kaufland. It is worth it if both stores are on your way.

What has changed since September?#

Lidl is still the cheapest, and its basket now costs €0.70 more. Kaufland got €2.04 cheaper thanks to promotions and moved up to second place. Konzum and Plodine each went up by €2.20 as their offers ended.

Why is Eurospin not in the branded comparison?#

None of the 17 branded products is on Eurospin’s price list. For the five own-brand staples, Eurospin came to €4.54 (as of 26 October 2026).

How up to date is this?#

Retailers must update their price lists every day by 8 a.m. This comparison uses the price lists for 26 October 2026. For today’s prices of any product, use search.

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Build your own shopping list in the Pinezi app for Android (Google Play) and iPhone (App Store) to see which chain is cheapest for your shop and how to split it between two stores. Compare single products with search and check current offers under deals. The supermarket chains page lists every chain we track.