Dubliners worried that their apple a day may be costing too much will be interested to find that Tops in Pops, an independent greengrocer in Middle Gardiner Street, was also tops for prices in a recent survey.
Checkout magazine carried out a fruit-and-veg survey, of six multiples and one independent shop, for this month's edition of the magazine.
Tops in Pops, Dunnes Stores in Henry Street, Supervalu at Roches Stores in Henry Street, Tesco and Marks and Spencer in the Jervis Shopping Centre, and Supervalu and Superquinn in Finglas were surveyed in 1998 and revisited this year.
The basket was dearest at Marks and Spencer (£11.84) and cheapest at Tops in Pops (£6.94).
It included five large apples, one pound of bananas, five large oranges, four medium pears, four kiwis, one pound of carrots, one pound of onions, a bunch of scallions, one pound of tomatoes and one garlic bulb.
The only store to have reduced the cost of its basket of fruit and vegetables since the first survey was Supervalu, with a 22p (2.8 per cent) drop.
Tesco Ireland showed the most significant percentage increase at 18.7 per cent.
Checkout says it did its best to ensure that all the fruit and vegetables were of a similar size, quality and freshness.
This follows the latest broadsides in the ongoing "price wars" among the multiples. Recently the Retail Grocery, Dairy and Allied Trades Association (RGDATA) accused Tesco of "playing cat and mouse" with Irish consumers.
The organisation urged Tesco to apologise to consumers over "misleading price claims" in its "so-called price offensive".
RGDATA claimed prices of leading brands at Tesco increased by 18.35 per cent over a 14-month period.
Tesco responded by saying that the overall price of the basket of goods covered by the first waves of price cuts (since September 2000) was still some 20 per cent cheaper than before their price-cutting initiative.
"There is very strong customer response to lower prices . . . and we intend to continue to drop prices in the future," Tesco said.