A website that has been the scourge of Irish supermarkets for more than two years, monitoring their prices and exposing dubious practices on behalf of shoppers.

Shoppingbill.com, a website that offers consumers free and independent advice, is being sold by its creators due to a lack of resources.

The site is being auctioned on Ebay.ie and the owners are seeking offers in the region of €200,000. Bids will start at €25,000, but prospective buyers have only until July 4, when the auction closes.

The service has been run by former supermarket employees who know the trade’s secrets. It is one of the few that provide comprehensive pricing information to the public.

“If we don’t get a buyer, we plan to stop operating Shoppingbill at the end of this month,” said Alan Clayton, a former marketing manager at Asda, a British supermarket chain.

Two months ago The Sunday Times, in conjunction with the website, revealed that the abolition of the Groceries Order had failed to result in cheaper food, as promised. Instead supermarkets were shown to have increased the cost of a basket of staple goods, including eggs, bread and orange juice.

Within days of the findings being published Tesco and Dunnes Stores reduced the price of 12 own-brand eggs by 20c, Squeez orange juice by 13c and Brennan’s bread by 9c.

Posted: 06|25|06 at 4:32 pm. Filed under: Auction News.