Leading consumer advocacy group, Choice, conducted an undercover survey of Australian supermarkets to see which one has the cheapest grocery pricing. It found that shopping at Aldi can save consumers around 25 per cent, leading by a large margin, with Woolworths slightly cheaper than Coles.
The cost of living continues to rise, with basic grocery items skyrocketing in price. The latest Choice Consumer Pulse survey indicated the cost of food was a concern for 87 per cent of respondents, and that 39 per cent don’t trust supermarkets to provide the best service for their needs.
In response to the growing issue, the federal government has provided funds to Choice, to run supermarket price research every quarter for three years.
Choice CEO, Ashley de Silva, said that the company will continue to deliver quarterly price analysis reports so Australians can stay on top of where they can find the cheapest groceries, to help relieve some of the pressure on household budgets.
Method to the madness
Choice sent undercover shoppers into 81 supermarkets, including 27 Woolworths, 27 Coles, 23 Aldi, and 4 IGA stores, spanning 27 locations across the country. The organisation ensured that there was good representation of socio-economic status based on ABS Indexes, and clustered its shops to ensure there was local competition. IGA’s were only used when there was no Aldi store in the area.
Each basket surveyed consisted of 14 standard grocery items – apples, carrots, Weet-Bix, sliced white bread, flour, penne pasta, white sugar, tea bags, canned diced tomatoes, a block of tasty cheese, full-cream dairy milk, frozen peas, beef mince, and butter. Items were selected from either a national brand or a comparable supermarket brand option.
Choice determined that Aldi is still consistently cheaper than its competitors, a lead which it has maintained across the organisation's four surveys since 2015.
The average cost of the basket of 14 grocery items across the supermarkets surveyed was $63.74 – clocking in at $69.33 at Coles and $68.58 at Woolworths, a comparable basket of Aldi brand products was just $51.51.
The Aldi basket was more than 25 per cent cheaper than the equivalent basket at Coles, and would save consumers around $17 on the products that Choice selected, which included both national brand and house brand products.
ColesWorths neck and neck
According to Statista, Coles and Woolworths rake in 65 per cent of the market share between them.
In the financial year 2023, the Woolworths Group held the largest share of the grocery retail market in Australia, with a share of 37 per cent. The Coles Group came in second with a 28 per cent market share, Aldi third with 10 per cent and IGA (Metcash) fourth with just 7 per cent.
Australians simply don’t have as many options to choose from when it comes to grocery shopping as overseas consumers might, leaving the Coles and Woolworths duopoly to hold the market to whatever prices they can set.
Choice found that this careful price monitoring between Coles and Woolworths resulted in a very similar basket price, with only 75 cents separating the stores without specials. However, the basket of products including specials was $68.52 at Coles and $64.93 at Woolworths – a more significant difference of $3.59.
Although specials will fluctuate across stores over time, this could be an indicator of a trend to look for in the future.
IGA compared
In Tasmania and the Northern Territory, Choice looked at comparable products in IGA stores, as there were no Aldi stores in the areas surveyed.
Independent grocery brand, IGA, has individual stores operating as franchises, owned and operated independently. This means that different items are stocked by each IGA store and prices vary between stores, making it difficult to fairly compare.
The basket compared the cost of 10 items, as four of the original list did not have a comparable match at the IGA stores surveyed. Choice found that shopping at IGA was substantially more costly than at Coles and Woolworths.
In the Northern Territory, the 10 items cost $46.75 at IGA, compared to $33.54 at Woolworths and $33.79 at Coles. However, the organisation noted that prices and supply in the Northern Territory were impacted by Tropical Cyclone Megan and its aftermath at the time of the survey in March 2024.
In Tasmania, the cost of the IGA basket was $41.05, compared to $33.50 at Woolworths and $34.40 at Coles.
Regional advantage
Choice found that there was a difference in cost between locations and states, even across the chain stores. Western Australians are paying around a dollar more for this selection of items compared to most parts of the country.
The average cost of a basket was also significantly higher in Tasmania and the Northern Territory because they don’t have the option to shop at Aldi.
People in capital cities are paying slightly more than shoppers in regional areas, with an average saving of 70 cents for the basket compared to capital city shoppers.
