Despite suffocating interest rates and spiralling insurance price hikes, the most important issue in our current cost-of-living-crisis is still supermarket pricing.
Surveys by CHOICE repeatedly back this up. At the most recent count, a whopping 96% of Australians reported paying more at the till, and 84% claimed food and grocery pricing was a cause for concern.
It's numbers like these that convinced CHOICE, in partnership with the federal government, to kickstart our quarterly grocery surveys. The goal: to cast an eye across supermarkets throughout Australia, bring transparency to pricing where possible and – hopefully – put pressure on supermarkets to lower prices.
Today we've delivered our fourth grocery survey, rounding out our very first full year of taking part in this work. We have a lot more planned for year two, but for now I wanted to run through some of the stranger, more interesting things we learned in our very first year of doing this grocery survey.
First, the numbers…
A grocery survey like this is a huge undertaking. We don't just go to a couple of supermarkets and call it a day.
In 2024 we recruited 182 different shoppers, who spent 220 hours and precisely $34,693.61 on groceries across every single state in Australia, both in regional areas and in capital cities. We shopped in 104 Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA supermarkets and recorded the prices of 14 different items at each store, in an attempt to figure out which provided the best value for money.
It's been a huge effort across the whole of CHOICE and beyond.
We don't compare apples to oranges
The responses to our supermarket survey have been overwhelmingly positive, but some have understandably asked for details about precisely which items were in our basket.
It's a fair question. Particularly given that both Woolies and Coles sell a broader range of goods at their stores – including pricier brands – whereas Aldi is almost exclusively selling 'home brand' items.
Our goal was to reflect the common shopping experience and be as fair as humanly possible
"Aren't you comparing apples to oranges?" has been a common refrain.
But we spent a lot of time and energy to make sure we didn't do that. In some instances, we could have bought cheaper versions of specific items at Woolies and Coles, but the same goes for Aldi as well. Our goal was to reflect the common shopping experience and be as fair as humanly possible.
Many – understandably – asked us to reveal our grocery basket item-by-item, but we've been close-lipped for good reason: revealing our shopping list could have potentially compromised future surveys. We wanted to track the prices over time, to see if they went up or down – and if supermarkets got wind of the items we were purchasing in the survey, they could potentially lower prices to game the system.
That being said, now that we've done a whole year of this, we are planning to create a whole new basket for year two. Keen to know what was in the original basket? Read the latest survey results where we also spill the beans, literally*.
(*Fact check: Beans were not in the grocery basket. So I guess we're spilling canned tomatoes instead. Very disappointing outcome for this metaphor.)
Some stores sell apples by the kilo, some sell them in packages, and others charge you per apple.
Comparing apples to apples is harder than you think
So we've established that we didn't compare apples to oranges, but unfortunately comparing apples to apples is still challenging.
Some stores sell apples by the kilo, some sell them wrapped in packages, others charge you per apple. Then there's the whole range of different varieties on offer. Seriously, this stuff is complex, particularly when you try to add IGA stores – which are franchised and lot more inconsistent – into the mix
Because of concerns like this, we also had a good, long debate about whether coffee or tea should be in the basket. Ultimately, we went with tea because the way coffee is sold across supermarkets is less consistent. (Which I was happy about because I'm a big tea drinker.)
There were plenty of items we wanted to add to the basket – like sunscreen, for example – but we couldn't, because finding comparable products across different supermarkets was extremely challenging.
Where you live makes a big difference in price
Making sure our grocery survey was representative of the whole of Australia was a lot of work, but it was worth it. We wanted to compare state-by-state pricing, but also look at the difference between regional areas and capital cities.
In general, folks in NSW and Victoria paid less than those in, say, WA, where supermarket prices were consistently the highest. We suspect that's mostly due to logistics – Perth is one of the most isolated capital cities on the planet and this impacts prices.
Perth is one of the most isolated capital cities on the planet and this impacts prices
Folks in the Northern Territory also pay a little more – we suspect because there's no Aldi to help drive prices down at Woolies and Coles.
But then Tasmania came along and completely blitzed this theory.
Well, sort of…
Despite the fact that Aldi has no presence in Tasmania, people living there are paying less for their groceries than those in WA and NT, especially if they shop at Coles. It can be hard to say precisely why this is – in Tasmania the price of apples had a lot to do with it – but overall groceries in Tassie were a little cheaper than you might expect, considering its location.
While prices at Aldi were remarkably consistent from state to state, prices at Woolies, Coles and IGA fluctuated much more, with IGA fluctuating the most due to its franchise model. Regardless of when or where you shop at Aldi, you're usually paying the same price as your fellow Australians in other states.
And on that note…
It's difficult to buy everything you need at Aldi.
We aren't biased towards Aldi
We have heard these accusations and we'd like to categorically state that we do not love Aldi! The truth is simply that we have consistently found them to be the cheapest when it comes to our current grocery basket.
But there are caveats here. First, it's difficult to buy everything you need from Aldi. For logistical reasons our first year grocery basket consisted of 14 items that can be found across all the supermarkets surveyed. But anecdotally, even the most hardened Aldi supporters tend to venture to Coles and Woolies to buy the brands and foodstuffs that Aldi doesn't stock. Simply put, major supermarkets like Coles and Woolies do have more choice and are more likely to stock specific brands. Aldi doesn't quite work like that.
We can't cover all the angles at once, but we are planning to take something new into account in year two – freshness
That's one of the reasons why we decided to shake things up in year two of our survey. We plan to focus on fresh products in our core3 basket, and add a completely new basket of items. It'll be interesting to see how this impacts results going forward.
Price isn't everything
Although price is the focus of this survey, we recognise that cost isn't the only factor that determines where you buy your food.
At a recent CHOICE event, one supporter asked if we thought about considering other factors – like nutrition, ethical ratings or where products are sourced from. I thought that was an incredibly insightful question.
We can't cover all the angles at once, but we are planning to take something new into account in year two – freshness. We want to evaluate how long fresh items last. It'll be tough, but we think this is an important part of your shopping experience. And, ultimately, the freshness of the food will also make a difference to your bottom line – throwing out uneaten food that rots too quickly is a waste of your grocery dollars.
IGA is a little bit different…
It was important for us to add IGA to our supermarket survey, but it does present challenges. First of all, IGA runs on a franchise model, meaning store prices are far less consistent when compared to centralised models like Coles and Woolies.
But there's also a bigger difference between IGA's smaller, metro-style stores and the IGAs that are a little more like traditional supermarkets. For all those reasons and more, it was far more challenging to get to grips with IGA and their pricing during the first year of this survey.
People really care about loyalty programs
This didn't necessarily come up during the supermarket survey, but we thought it was worth mentioning nonetheless.
Over the past year, we've spent a lot of time thinking about supermarkets and doing our own market research into people's shopping experiences. A topic that comes up frequently is loyalty programs and how much influence they have on where people choose to shop.
Loyalty programs seem to be a huge priority for shoppers and we're planning to investigate further. Stay tuned for more content on this topic throughout year two of our supermarket survey.
A lot of work goes on behind the scenes
These surveys are a lot of work, and require a lot of time and energy from multiple different parts of CHOICE as an organisation. We also recognise that it's almost impossible to cover every single angle – we see this grocery survey as a work in progress. We've already made changes to the way we're going to survey in year two and will continue to evaluate our approach and adjust accordingly.
Thanks as always for your support.
We're on your side
For more than 60 years, we've been making a difference for Australian consumers. In that time, we've never taken ads or sponsorship.
Instead we're funded by members who value expert reviews and independent product testing.
With no self-interest behind our advice, you don't just buy smarter, you get the answers that you need.
You know without hesitation what's safe for you and your family.
And you'll never be alone when something goes wrong or a business treats you unfairly.
Learn more about CHOICE membership today
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
