Shopping for winter staples? Choice reveals which supermarket is actually the cheapest

Aldi has been crowned the cheapest supermarket in Australia, beating out major competitors by almost $10 across a basket of common goods.

Consumer group Choice released its latest quarterly supermarket basket survey, giving Aldi the title after comparing weekly grocery staples and winter warmers.

Choice compared the prices of 16 popular grocery items at Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA: Beef mince, a whole chicken, Royal Gala apples, Cavendish bananas, strawberries, avocado, leek, green beans, potatoes, full cream milk, basmati rice, honey mustard cooking sauce, beer-battered frozen chips, frozen apple pies, Tim Tam biscuits, and a large box of tissues.

Margaret Rafferty from Choice told nine.com.au the items chosen for the comparison were “equal” and “comparable” across the four supermarkets rather than the cheapest on offer.

Without including specials, Aldi proved to be the cheapest with a total of $68.80, followed by Woolworths at $77.53, then Coles with a total of $78.58, and IGA proving to be the most expensive at $91.65.

When specials were factored in, the places remained the same, with Aldi remaining the most affordable supermarket with an unchanged total of $68.60, Woolworths in second place with a slightly lower total of $76.82, then Coles in third spot and a fraction lower at $78.50, and IGA in fourth spot at the lowered total of $86.33.

Choice sent undercover shoppers to 104 supermarket locations across Australia during March to complete the research,

At Aldi, the full basket included one name-brand item and the rest of the items were from the discount grocery retailer’s home-brand.

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At Woolworths and Coles, we included the same three name-brand products and the rest were home-brand items.

Because IGA’s home-brand range isn’t as extensive, the IGA basket included five name-brand products.

While Aldi proved to be the winner overall, Coles and Woolworths prices were close, with Woolworths just two cents cheaper when comparing prices without specials, but Coles drew ahead to be six cents cheaper than Woolworths, thanks to a special on beef mince at the time the price comparison took place.

IGA stores don’t have the same chain-store model as Aldi, Coles and Woolworths, with individual stores operating as independently owned franchises, which resulted in “quite a lot of variation between the stores in the IGA network, often due to variation in store sizes and the effect this has on the ranges”.

While the results of Choices’ basket comparison are certainly food for thought, Aussie shoppers are increasingly shopping at multiple retailers rather than one supermarket in order to take advantage of the lowest prices each week.

Research by Roy Morgan has found 77 per cent of Australian grocery buyers now visit at least two different supermarket chains to complete their weekly grocery shop.

Consumer expert Gavin Northey from Griffith University told nine.com.au this “cross shopping” or “two-store strategy” is here to stay.

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“Part of the reason for this is that Australian consumers are adopting a more pragmatic mindset and shifting their behaviour to maximise their shopping value,” Northey said.

He added that digital media has fuelled this shift as it has “increased price transparency between the three major supermarket chains in Australia”.

“This might be why we are seeing the growth in ‘two-store’ shoppers. Fuelling this over the past decade is the growth in price comparison apps,” he said.

“When you combine this access to information with the high cost of living in Australia, you can understand why Australian consumers are looking for a bargain.”

An IGA spokesperson sent the following statement to nine.com.au regarding the Choice results, which reads in part: “Once again, the Choice basket continues to compare private label brands with name brand products (Aldi has one brand name product, Coles and Woolworths have three, and IGA has five) as well as comparing small format regional and remote IGA stores with large format metro chain stores, which isn’t a like for like or fair comparison.

“These comparisons aren’t fully reflective of the incredible work that independently owned IGA stores do to provide great service, value and range to local communities across Australia.”