Cheapest Supermarket in Singapore 2026: Sheng Siong vs FairPrice vs Giant vs Cold Storage, and Where CDC Vouchers Stretch Furthest

If you only optimise one thing about your grocery bill, make it this: buy your rice, oil, eggs, noodles and detergent at Sheng Siong. Independent 2026 price comparisons repeatedly put Sheng Siong below FairPrice and Cold Storage on equivalent staple items, with a commonly cited range of 8-35%, which on a $400-500 monthly basket for a family of four works out to roughly $30-60 a month saved versus FairPrice Xtra. Treat those third-party figures as directional rather than gospel; the pattern is consistent even if the exact percentage is not. THE NEW ONE: from 10 September 2026 to 1 January 2027, Sheng Siong has raised its CHAS discount from 4% to 6%, for Blue cardholders every Thursday and Orange cardholders every Friday, at all its stores, on a physical or digital CHAS card. It is capped at $200 of spend per receipt per day, so $12 is the most it returns on any one day, and it excludes stage 1 and 2 infant formula, tobacco, alcohol, the carrier bag charge, phone cards, Sheng Siong vouchers and the 10-cent BCRS deposit. That puts Sheng Siong level with FairPrice on the same two days to the same end date, each with its own cap, so a CHAS household can split one Thursday or Friday shop across both. Sheng Siong also says it will run purchase-with-purchase deals on selected housebrand rice and cooking oil. WHAT'S RUNNING NOW: the fortnightly 2 Weeks Special runs 18 September to 1 October 2026, and its staples are the reason to go: Paddygreen Jasmine Fragrant Rice 5kg at $7.80, Royal Umbrella Thai Hom Mali 5kg at $15.55, and Happy Family canola oil 2L at $5.95 in the housebrand block. The Baby Fair closed on 24 September. The ad's footer also lists card rebates of 6% on the BOC Sheng Siong card and 5% on the POSB Everyday card, on each bank's own terms. SENIORS, READ THIS PROPERLY: the 4% discount is not daily, and this is the single most repeated error about Sheng Siong. It runs every Tuesday and Wednesday only, 1 January to 31 December 2026, for Singapore Citizens aged 60 and above, capped at $200 per receipt per day, on production of an NRIC or a Senior Citizen Concession, PAssion Silver, Merdeka or Pioneer Generation card, and infant formula stages 1 and 2, tobacco, alcohol, the carrier bag charge, phone cards and Sheng Siong vouchers are all excluded from it. WHAT ENDED: the DBS/POSB Saturday deal giving $3 off selected eggs and $3 off selected rice ran only to 29 August 2026 and has not been replaced at Sheng Siong, so the two-receipt trick that went with it no longer applies here. VOUCHERS: CDC Vouchers and SG60 Vouchers are accepted at every Sheng Siong outlet islandwide. OUTLETS: 93 stores, per Sheng Siong's own 10 September 2026 announcement, overwhelmingly in HDB estates. BEST FOR: the weekly staples run, CHAS households on a Thursday or Friday, and households spending down the supermarket half of their CDC vouchers.

FairPrice is not the cheapest chain on a like-for-like basket, but it is the best default for most households because of coverage and the sheer number of discount schemes running at once. THE BIG ONE, AND IT IS NEW: from 3 September 2026 to 1 January 2027, CHAS Blue and CHAS Orange cardholders get 6% off, double the usual rate, at FairPrice in store and online, and at Unity. It stays gated to your own day, Thursdays for Blue and Fridays for Orange, so it is a doubling of the existing perk rather than a new one. Giant matches it on the same two days from 1 to 30 October, and since 10 September Sheng Siong gives the same 6% on the same two days to the same 1 January end date, with its own separate cap. WHAT LAPSED: the Price Freeze that held more than 500 daily essentials flat from 1 June ran out on 31 August 2026 and has not been renewed, so those prices are free to move again. That removes the main reason a FairPrice housebrand basket used to land close to Sheng Siong's. THE DISCOUNT DAYS, PROPERLY: FairPrice's card schemes are not daily, they are a five-day rota, and turning up on the wrong day costs you the whole discount. Pioneer Generation cardholders get 3% on Mondays; senior citizens aged 60 and above get 2% on Tuesdays; Pioneer and Merdeka Generation get 3% on Wednesdays; CHAS Blue gets 6% on Thursdays; CHAS Orange gets 6% on Fridays. Each is capped at $200 of spend per customer per day and excludes alcohol, tobacco, infant formula for 0-12 months, gift cards, and delivery and service fees. The discount only auto-applies if you have refreshed your profile with Myinfo in the FairPrice Group app, so an unverified account quietly gets nothing at the till, and you also need a recent app version and to earn Linkpoints or pay through the app. CHAS Blue and Orange cardholders also get the $3.99 online service fee waived on their own day, on orders above $80. Linkpoints can be redeemed from 99 points for $0.99, which is the most useful redemption tier most members never use. STILL ON: the weekly Price Drop offers from 20% off, refreshed every week across FairPrice, Finest and Xtra. A new store opened at Elias Mall on 1 September 2026. IF YOU COLLECTED ONE: the $4 Return Vouchers FairPrice issued for every $50 nett spent from 17 to 27 September 2026 are redeemable to 14 October 2026 with no minimum spend; the issuing window has closed. VOUCHERS: CDC and SG60 Supermarket Vouchers are accepted at FairPrice, FairPrice Finest and FairPrice Xtra, but NOT at standalone Unity pharmacy stores, even though the CHAS 6% does apply at Unity. FORMATS: FairPrice, Finest, Xtra, Shop N Save and online. BEST FOR: CHAS households on a Thursday or Friday, and anyone who wants one store to cover everything.

Giant's base prices sit between Sheng Siong's and FairPrice's, and it runs more card-linked discounts at once than any other chain here. THE CHAS DEAL COMES BACK ON 1 OCTOBER, WITH A DAY GATE THIS TIME: the September round of Double Your CHAS Savings, 6% on any day, ended on 25 September, and Giant's official poster now sets a second round from 1 to 30 October 2026 that doubles the standing 3% to 6% for Blue CHAS cardholders every Thursday and Orange CHAS cardholders every Friday, in store only at all Giant outlets. That puts all three big chains level at 6% on the same two days in October, so the choice comes down to price and distance, and on staples Sheng Siong still wins. From 26 to 30 September Giant pays only its standing 3%. After 30 October the standing arrangement returns: Blue CHAS 3% every Thursday and Orange CHAS 3% every Friday, both to 31 December 2026. THE ONE MOST PEOPLE MISS: Giant runs a Senior Discount Tuesday, 4% off every Tuesday until 31 December 2026, on a Merdeka Generation, Pioneer Generation, Senior Citizen Concession or PAssion Silver Concession card, or NRIC. That is the same 4% rate Sheng Siong gives, and Sheng Siong's runs on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so on a Tuesday the two chains are level and Wednesday belongs to Sheng Siong alone. THE WEEKEND CARD OFFERS ARE BACK: after a gap of several weeks, Giant reopened two DBS and POSB weekend deals on 5 September 2026, both running to 25 October. Pay with a Passion POSB Debit Card, DBS Visa Debit Card or POSB Everyday Card and get $5 off $50 at selected stores, or $8 off $80 at Giant Tampines Hypermarket and IMM specifically. WHAT DIED, AND IS STILL ON DISPLAY: the $3 off selected eggs and $3 off selected rice every Saturday with any DBS or POSB card ran 18 July to 29 August 2026 and is finished, but Giant still tiles it on its own card-discounts hub with no end date shown, and the same hub carries two other lines dated 2025. Read the dates, not the tiles. ALSO LIVE: Super Savings weekly with selected lines heavily discounted, 3 Days Specials for yuu members, two-day Huat Weekend deals, the Top Selection catalogue at all Giant stores to 28 October 2026, a $3-off-$30 return voucher with any purchase at Giant Bedok Market Place only, to 30 September 2026, and the housebrand and No Brand value ranges. THE FINE PRINT ON THE CARD DISCOUNTS: in-store only, they do not apply to online orders, and tobacco, alcohol, newspapers and magazines, infant milk powder, consumer electronics, gift vouchers, lottery and concessionaire purchases are all excluded. BEST FOR: CHAS, senior and DBS/POSB households, and bulk dry goods.

Prime is the heartland chain most price-comparison articles skip, and that is a mistake if there is one near you. Its advertised offer is a weekly newspaper catalogue with two windows inside it: a 7 Days Offer that runs the full week, and a 4 Days Only block that closes halfway, so the deepest lines are gone before the ad itself expires. Prime's own Advertised Offers page can lag the shelves: on 14 September 2026 it still carried the 4 to 10 September ad and had not been updated since 3 September, while Prime's WOW! Deals 4 Days Only artwork ran 11 to 14 September. WHAT THE PRICES LOOK LIKE: that four-day block had whole sea bass at 98 cents per 100g (U.P. $1.19), Pork Prime Ribs at $1.50 per 100g (U.P. $1.89), Zespri Jumbo SunGold kiwi 3s at $5.00 (U.P. $6.65) and Farm Fresh chicken wings 300g at $2.95 (U.P. $3.45), so expect cuts of 15 to 35% on the fresh lines, not half price. THE CARD DISCOUNTS NOBODY LISTS: Prime gives senior citizens 3% off on Tuesdays AND Thursdays, for all Singaporeans and PRs aged 60 and above, with no minimum spend and no cap, on production of an NRIC, driving licence, PAssion Silver, Merdeka or Pioneer Generation card. CHAS Blue cardholders get 3% off every Wednesday within a $200-a-day spending limit, on the physical or digital card, and that one is for Singapore Citizens only. Note what is absent: Prime runs no CHAS Orange discount at all, and it did not join the CHAS increases that Giant, FairPrice and Sheng Siong are all running, so a CHAS household is better off elsewhere this month. That Thursday senior slot is still the only midweek second senior day on this list. SEVENTH MONTH: Prime's 7th Month Catalogue closed on 10 September 2026, and the Tramontina cookware purchase-with-purchase ran in the 4 to 10 September ad. THE CATCH: promotions are valid at participating Prime Supermarket outlets only and are explicitly NOT applicable at Prime Kiosk, and product availability varies from store to store. BEST FOR: fresh produce, meat and seafood, and midweek senior shopping.

Be honest about what Cold Storage is for. Third-party 2026 price comparisons put a Cold Storage staples basket roughly 25-35% above the cheapest chains, so if you are buying housebrand rice and cooking oil here, you are paying a premium for the address. Where it earns its keep is the imported range: European cheeses, proper baking supplies, imported produce, specialty meat cuts and a chilled section the heartland chains do not attempt. THE DEAL THAT CHANGES THE MATH: $7 off a minimum $80 spend on weekends when you pay with a DBS Visa Debit Card or POSB Everyday Card, at selected Cold Storage and CS Fresh stores, from 25 July all the way to 18 October 2026. Re-checked on 6 September and still running, it is one of the longest-running supermarket card offers on the calendar, and on an $80 basket it is effectively 8.75% off. Note it is weekend-only and card-specific: a general DBS credit card is not the same thing as a DBS Visa Debit Card. Note also that the same two cards now unlock $5 off $50 at Giant on the same weekends to 25 October, so if your basket is under $80 the Giant offer is the easier one to trigger. HOW TO USE IT PROPERLY: do the staples run at Sheng Siong or Giant, then do one consolidated $80-plus weekend shop at Cold Storage for the imported items you actually cannot get elsewhere. BEST FOR: imported groceries, baking, cheese and entertaining.

Donki is not where you do the weekly staples run. It is where Japanese produce, ready-to-eat bentos, sashimi and snacks are genuinely competitive against specialty importers. It is also the chain with the most promo churn: several campaigns run at once and most reset at month end. WHAT ENDED ON 31 AUGUST: the SG61 $61 best-sellers bundle with its cooler bag, the month-long Meat Festival Sale, the $5.90 takoyaki price and the Wagyu Feast all closed with the month. Donki publishes no Singapore promotions page of its own, and nothing has replaced them on its own channels, so read the in-store signage rather than any list, including this one. OUTLETS, RE-COUNTED FROM ITS OWN DIRECTORY ON 6 SEPTEMBER: 18 Don Don Donki stores, plus the Sweet Potato Factory concept store at Changi Airport Terminal 3, which its own listing now marks as temporarily closed until further notice. Both Downtown East and HarbourFront Centre are still on the directory with live phone numbers, so reports that either had closed do not match the chain's own store list. HOURS ARE NOT UNIFORM, AND ONE OUTLET NEVER SHUTS: Orchard Central trades 24 hours daily, Waterway Point and City Square Mall to midnight, PLQ Mall, Square 2 and Bukit Panjang Plaza to 11pm, and Downtown East to 10.30pm. BEST FOR: Japanese groceries, ready meals and late-night runs.

Scarlett has quietly grown into one of Singapore's largest grocery networks by store count, 39 outlets, and it competes on a completely different axis to the mainstream chains. Because it imports directly from China without middlemen, its snacks, instant noodles, sauces, seasonings, frozen dumplings, beverages and daily essentials routinely undercut what the same or comparable products cost at FairPrice or Cold Storage. If your pantry leans towards Chinese cooking, this is where the savings are largest in percentage terms. WHAT IT IS GOOD FOR: confectionery, noodles, beverages, alcohol, frozen food, sauces, seasonings and daily essentials. WHAT IT IS NOT: a full-basket replacement. The fresh produce, meat and Western grocery ranges are thin compared with a Sheng Siong or an Xtra, so treat Scarlett as a top-up stop rather than the main shop. OPEN 24 HOURS: three outlets on Scarlett's own store list, the People's Park Complex flagship, Bedok, and Geylang Road. The rest keep varying hours and they are genuinely not uniform: Century Square is 10am to 10pm, NEX and Jurong Point 9am to 11pm, Jalan Besar 11am to 11pm. NEW FORMAT: Scarlett has opened three smaller Bite & Go stores at Northpoint, Heartland Mall and Causeway Point, all 9am to 10pm, which carry a narrower range than the full supermarkets, so check the format before making a special trip. Scarlett runs rotating weekly fruit and grocery offers rather than a fixed promo calendar, and its store list is loaded by script rather than published as plain text, so confirm hours on the store page itself. BEST FOR: buying Chinese snacks, sauces and instant noodles at the lowest unit price in town.

One shop, 145 Syed Alwi Road, open 24 hours a day every day of the year including public holidays, and the second-floor grocery section is a full supermarket that beats the mainstream chains on a lot of lines. The draw is twofold: competitive everyday pricing on ordinary groceries (a 24-can carton of Coca-Cola around $12.90, 1.5L bottled water around $0.70), and an imported range that no supermarket chain here matches, covering South Asian spices, ghee, pulses, specialty rice, organic lines and a fresh seafood counter running round the clock. There is no promo calendar to track; the pricing is simply low all the time, which makes it the one entry on this list you can shop without checking a catalogue first. THE TRADE-OFFS: it is a single location in Little India, so factor in the trip; weekends and evenings are genuinely crowded, so go on a weekday afternoon or after 8pm; and set aside real time, because most people underestimate how long a full Mustafa shop takes. The gold section takes its last transactions at 9.45pm, but groceries never close. BEST FOR: bulk buying, South Asian and imported ingredients, and anyone whose shopping window is the middle of the night.