Cheapest supermarket

Totally agree. I shop the specials. I check the catalogues each week and only buy expensive items like washing liquid, razor blades etc., when they are on special. Aldi’s products are cheaper everyday but are often not the same quantity/quality as those at Coles or Woolworths. However Aldi do have some great catalogue specials that are not grocery items, e.g. I got Roald Dahl books for my grandson very cheaply!!!

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I agree. Our local supermarket in the hills outside Perth is an IGA, and I do 95% of my shopping there because I believe in supporting local business. The staff are friendly, and because each store is independent, they are able to order in products you request. They actually respond to customer demand in a personal way.

They take the view that if it sells well, fine, if not, they sell it off at cost. I find their prices compare well to other supermarkets, though their fruit and veg can be more expensive.

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Call it being thrifty or lazy but I only shop at a supermarket that I have to drive pass during regular travel . I go fishing nearly everyday , weather permitting , and I pass a Foodworks and Coles and Aldis on my way to my favourite fishing spots . I nicked into Foodworks one day and the bread I usually buy , Helgas Wholemeal , was $1 cheaper than Coles . They have other products , not much though , cheaper than Coles and Co . / I buy all my bread at Foodworks now .

I have no Woolies near me and they have no good fishing spots near them in surrounding suburbs so I don’t shop there . I have 2 Coles S/Markets near me , which I pass to fish , and also an Aldi’s . I just go where is the cheapest between Coles and the Big A . Works for me .

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This is an issue in SA as well. Coles/WW tend to try and monopolise everything and you end up with very little choice (and I don’t believe their price wars do much for the local producers either) I haven’t been in ages but my local coles/WW typically had 1 brand along with their ‘coles/WW’.

I prefer driving to my local (foodland) IGA (I drive past several coles/WW) probably helps that its regularly winning awards for quality,price, service and the like though. I like it because there’s generally always a good selection (though each IGA is always different as they’re all independent).

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I have Coles & Woolies local to me, Aldi 10km away,
I find the comparison for their budget products to be of a similar cost. It’s more beneficial for me to shop Coles or Woolies, I look for Australian grown, made and owned products. I find that of the budget products I purchase, Coles has more Australian sourced than woolworths, the quality of woolies and coles budget products have improved over the years so I am prepared to buy them now. Woolies meat seems to be cheaper than coles and their fruit and veg are similar comparision. On a personal note I shopped at coles for years, then Woolies was built and I moved to them gradually, mainly because I prefer their meat, I recently moved back to Coles for my Weekly Shop because I prefer their budget lines. Still like to buy meat from Woolies though.

Hi, If you want to save money shopping for groceries etc then you need to shop at Aldi, Coles, Woolworths (if within walking distance) and Costco if they are in your area. I find Aldi to be the cheapest for a number of items, while Coles and Woolworths prices vary all over the place. Shop the weekly sale catalogues and get to know the prices of items you purchase regularly so you can compare prices and don’t forget to check out the local fruit shop, butcher, chicken shop. Costco has a $60 membership fee and even though I do not shop Costco weekly I more than recover my annual membership cost, and yes Costco does not carry the range of Woolworths or Coles but Costco also has limited clothes and some big ticket items. To save money you have to put in some work but once you have established your plan it is a lot easier.

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That is interesting information. Problem with Aldi is that they don’t always have every food item in stock at all times, well in South Australia that is! Whereas Coles and Woolies have so much variety in store to chose from, Aldi is limited.
I shop by specials only, never buy items at normal retail price.

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I don’t want an Aldi.They are German are they not.? Woolworths does seem to be a bit cheaper with a few things. Coles usually has better fruit and veg. But lately they are on a par.So I get most stuff from woollies and other bits from coles. Woolworths do keep their eggs in a cool area.Coles have the new Jersey milk.But they are pulling together on most things.

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We are in the fortunate position of being able to shop according to principles so we try not to shop at Woolworth due to their ownership of pokies. Like others here, we supplemented Aldi shopping with coles. However, recently the attendant told me they have a surcharge for non-cash sales of 0.5. That has changed our opinion of them.
Regarding meat sales, in the north of Adelaide where we live, the Asian grocery stores have very good quality meat at cheaper prices. They don’t have the range, though. Standom smallgoods have a reasonable range and good prices.

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If you are referring to ALDI’s 0.5% surcharge on Credit Card transactions they have had them for quite some time. If you use cash or a debit card (EFTPOS from a savings or cheque account) there is no surcharge.

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I notice the “basket” is full of manufactured items and not fresh “real” food. How would it compare if there were primarily fresh vegetables instead of the token items shown?

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I would recommend shopping ata farmer’s market for the freshest vegetables, @sgoodbar.

There is an abundance of products that go on half-price specials! It only takes a small amount of planning, and you never have to pay full price again.

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@karenzmcbride, we also shop at a Asian butcher (mini meat supermarket called Hauff’s) at Sunnybank in Brisbane.

The butcher has a wider range of meats, cuts and offal than any supermarket and prices are significantly less as well (generally at least 10-30% cheaper). It also has some smoked goods (and other small goods such as limited range of sausages), but doesn’t have things like salami, corned meats, marinated meats or other ‘European’ style prepared meats. Such doesn’t really worry us as if we do decide to flavour meat before cooking, we chose to do it ourselves so that we know exactly what it in it.

We also find the quality of the meat is also superior as the turnover at the butcher is high as it is very popular/busy.

We do buy meat occasionally from Woolworths if we see it marked down at a great price, but don’t do our regular meat shop there.

Good point @sgoodbar

Aldi -yes I agree that the weight of most similar packets of biscuits etc are at least 20 gram less at Aldi than the Coles or Wths pkts. making it harder to compare like for like. I no longer shop Aldi as at checkout they tend to just throw items at you so quickly, to pack yourself, forgetting that food should be a little respected right from the start .Picking up fruit off the floor as the counters are too small after the checkout ruined it for me.

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Hi @sgoodbar, that’s a good question and thanks for the feedback. While there were five fresh items in the basket, the number of fresh fruit/veg items were kept to a minimum because the quality can vary widely across stores and geography, which created too many variables for a fair price comparison. Here’s a full rundown of how we choose the basket.

With that in mind, perhaps it’s something we can look at in the future. I’ll be sure to mention your comments to my colleagues who worked on the survey as well.

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Its interesting that the big supermarkets use cyclical up and down pricing to attract customers . It’s so regular you can almost determine when an item is on sale . On some products where the cyclical sale pricing has stopped the day to day pricing is an average of the cyclical price and available anytime at a reasonable price .
It is a false saving to buy on special when the price is higher at other times due to cyclical pricing.
It would be possible for the opposition to put out a catalogue saying the price of this item has gone up , as this is technically correct .

I don’t shop at Aldi both my wife and myself when we bought some Aldi products we were not impressed with Quality and Taste, when Woolworths tried to be Aldi a few years back and lost so many name products i was forced to go to Coles for the major shop, and have till this day done our major and small shops at Coles they always have what we want, we are very happy with the Quality and taste, however as Coles seem to be reducing its Brand names , though we have not been affected yet, I will change to where i can get my brand names even if that means Amazon, which is not faraway.

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I have found that as Coles and Woolies modify their house brand offers one then the other can have a better product, and who has the better product can change over time.

For our taste Woolies “boxed meats” (eg prepack precooked like briskets, etc) are better than Coles equivalents. Woolies used to have excellent “Select” unsalted peanuts but has since replaced that line with one that is fairly ordinary, so those are now deuce. Ignoring butchers’ offerings, we prefer Coles range of gourmet sausages.

Bottom line is it is good to shop the competition occassionally to see who is really on top for “you”, product by product. Brand names are easily compared commodities but house brands change for better or worse over time. In some instances Coles and Woolies carry the same brand but the ranges are not the same, so Woolies might stock A, B, C, and D, while Coles could have A, B, and E, or just A and B, as examples, and vice versa.

Re prices, it seems both Woolies and Coles are playing a good game of selective discounting where the average prices are actually rising, although if one shops the best sales it is good for the consumer.

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