I don’t do multi supermarket shopping for the simple reason of being time poor.
As others have said I do swap between woolies (closest to home so probably 80% of my shopping is here) and coles (has certain products woolies does not) for my big shops. The independents (iga/spudshed/farmer jacks) purely for the convenience of their longer opening hours in WA (the majors close at 5pm on Saturday).
We have recently started doing smaller shops at ALDI when only getting the basics (milk bread and top up vegetables etc) because they are cheaper.
2 Likes
Thanks for weighing in, meltam - if you had to put a rough figure on what that $25 figure represents as a % of your total weekly spend on groceries, what would it be?
1 Like
Is that right? Wish I knew when I had dosh to buy!
1 Like
Not exactly. This explains the Aldi Bauhn TV.
2 Likes
Ahh, OK. Still that would likely be fine for me, as long as its not one of those thats google based. Tizen is OK, I think.
1 Like
We are lucky to have two Coles, a Woolies and an Aldi, a short walk from our house. This makes it convenient for us to use all the stores for our shopping.
I make use of the Coles and Woolies apps. I have created lists with hundreds of items that we regularly purchase, and I check these lists every Wednesday to take advantage of any specials. Most of the items we buy tend to go on half-price sales approximately once a month. We have a lot of storage space at home, so can stock up on these items till the next sale. Often, if a specific brand isn’t on sale at one store, chances are that it, or another brand will be discounted at either Coles or Woolies.
When it comes to deciding which store to visit, we opt for the one with the most specials on our list. Sometimes, if both Coles and Woolies have a substantial number of items on special, we’ll visit both stores.
For certain items like cheese and tea, we’ve found that Aldi offers slightly better prices, but a lot of other products cost more at Aldi than they do at Coles and Woolies when on special. Also the discounts on branded products when on special at Coles and Woolies often make them more affordable than similar products at Aldi, where discounts tend to be relatively small in comparison.
4 Likes
I shop mostly at the local IGA.
There is no Coles here, but there is an Aldi and a Woolworths. I buy at Woollies only if there’s something I can’t find at the IGA but I have a fundamental issue with buying at the big 2 supermarkets with the way they operate, both towards their suppliers and their customers, but that’s just me. My local IGA DOES NOT have self serve checkouts, it’s fantastic! It’s another reason I go there and there’s a lot of local products/produce sold in the store. I hate shopping at the best of time, I’m not going to go to different supermarkets.
4 Likes
Like many others I use a mix of shops - Aldi and sometimes costco (but thats only when we are that side of town, as they have the best cauliflower rice and my partner likes the coffee). There are 3 Aldi near us, and one is opposite a coles which I prefer to woolworths for some branded products. We don;t eat much meat, but that we do I mainly get from a butcher. It certainly pays to shop around and as we can afford it, we stock up when things are on special.
3 Likes
It’s a real pity about the 10%. It was great with home delivery and stocking up on the heavier and more expensive items.
So now the Coles offers are much better especially their very regular promotions that is spend $50 each week for 4 weeks and get $50 off your next shop.
They do it about every 6 weeks
Of course Aldi is great for cheap staples and Harris Farm is the absolute best for fabulous fruit, veggies, meat, fish, bakery and cheeses
2 Likes
While the 10% offer was generous, one of the reasons it was removed is it cost Woolworths to give this discount (it was losing money on the offer). Woolworths current average net profit margin on its sales is 6%. This means the 10% discount was 4% over this margin and was subsidised by other Woolworths customers and/or came off their bottom line.
It was also an offer to attract new customers to Woolworths and its products and services.
2 Likes
Yes it was to sell their credit card and other financial services. These have a much higher profit of course. The card is now a Macquarie issued new one that arrived in the mail last month. The 10% has gone also from Big W.
Woolworths has the option of purchasing a yearly subscription now where the 10% continues. I did it for 3 months but not worth it.
It was not administered properly either. I am sure Woolworths did not intend this but if you took your 10% for a home delivery, then it was still offered at the register as well on the next shop that month. And used in conjunction with gift cards I purchase from RACQ or National Seniors I was getting a very good deal at Woolworths twice a month.
Now I use the Coles $50 offer. I am surprised it is offered so often. Cannot be profitable
2 Likes
I’m still waiting for Coles and Woolies to discount the final tab when I use the self checkout. Or charge those who use click and collect more to have a personal shopper wander the aisles doing your shop for you, (half melted ice creams and thawed frozen peas at no extra cost). Yes, I’m tongue in cheek.
I doubt the big retailers see individual customers as simply as a 10% discount equals a loss vs the net profit margin. The gross markup on the wholesale cost of every product is significantly more than 10%. Market share, customer loyalty/satisfaction, volume of sales per outlet etc all have business values which are less readily compared. Whether it is a loss leading brand/product or customer discount, should the more astute customer be denied the opportunity to take advantage of those not so engaged?
The suggestion that it is cheaper to shop around more than one supermarket or store (specials/discounted stock etc) supports one response!
An aside:
IE Change customer behaviours. I remain surprised using a self serve checkout costs the same as using one with a trained and practiced operator.
2 Likes
They do and their bean counters look at where the profits might go.
‘Gross markup’ (or retail margin added to wholesale prices) is different to average net profit margin on its sales. The later includes all costs associated with running the business. At 6%, a customer receiving 10% discount is a cost to business or direct impact on total profit (the 4% difference comes off profit). Woolworths would have accepted these as a marketing or new customer cost. When market in such products matures, there aren’t any significant increase in new customers so the 4% isn’t monies well spent.
The Woolworths Annual Report 2023 shows that the profit from Other Revenue, which includes provision of financial services including credit cards and insurance, was also around 6% ($303M profit on $5087M revenue).
Woolworths is an on seller of such services (under its name) and only receives a modest commission for providing these services from the credit card issuer and insurance underwriters.
1 Like
It’s an aside to the benefits of going to more than one retailer. Of course following the supposition the 10% discount was costing Woolies - should supermarkets refuse to service customers whose baskets contain only specials. Note specials typically offer 10% or more discounted. It would seem those customers who are likely shopping around are also costing Woolies, or whichever supermarket chain is offering the discounts.
It seems that there is an alternate argument that to be fair to supermarket shareholders, all products need to be sold at a net profit? IE no discounting. The outcome would ensure no one customer benefits through the choices made by another. Power to the shareholder. 
Of course Colesworth etc are free at any time to offer 10% off your total shop or any other deals that can offset the monthly cost of living. Equally they can withdraw or change them. I can understand why many are upset having taken up another product such as credit cards or insurance with the enticement of a regular discount, now withdrawn.
If consumers shop around to get the greatest discounts, are our major supermarkets at risk of going out of business at 5% net profit margin?
Consider in the USA grocers average 2.5% net profit margins.
Perhaps more Aussies need to shop around more often? We are paying 2.5% more on average than necessary by that measure.
2 Likes
The $25 would be about 10%.
2 Likes
This article saved me trying to pen much of it.
What I think we are seeing is a wedge whereby our duopolies are wedging themselves into our buying habits in new ways that coerce* us to line up with them as if we are in their keiretsu.
Not wanting or able to sign up? No worries just pay more. Multi-supermarket shopping might become less and less worthwhile excepting for some seriously discounted headline sales that one needs that week. As for the rest of the shop, which keiretsu again? Of course one could always join each… status quo?
* term used broadly
They are moving with the times and joining other retailers which have member only specials/pricing, such as Spotlight, Anaconda, Coles and the list goes on.
Many retailers also have personally selected’ special offers to its members as well.
Hopefully they don’t follow the Cosco or other retailers which charge for the privilege.
When Woolies first introduced the rewards card, that is how it worked. No scan of card, no discount. I eagerly got a card to get the discounts.
But then the rewards program changed. Everyone got the discount, card or not. The card holders earned points instead. So the specials earned bonus points. Get to 2000 points, and $10 off your next shop.
I will be interested to see how points earning goes with this return to the past, as Woolies is my main supermarket out of the Colesworth pair.
Everything old is new again
1 Like
Dan Murphy’s is another standout. Although it seems more obvious given how the price labels are presented compared to how Woolies do it.
Noted Woolies also email offers especially for me for my next shop, providing a link to accept. Conditions apply. They are very quick to pick up when I shop at a different Woolies, as are Coles. Given we have no local Coles it’s always a surprise to see how they respond to the most recent away from home shop.
