Supermarket price survey

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  • Updated:3 Jul 2007
 

05.Cheapest cities and states

Cheapest cities

In the last nine CHOICE supermarket surveys (back to 1991) Newcastle in NSW has been the cheapest city across the country for grocery shopping. This year it was knocked off its perch by Rockhampton in Queensland, which had the survey’s lowest average basket price of $99.59, including specials. It’s only marginal, though — Newcastle’s basket is still very close at $99.83. See the table below for results for all the surveyed cities.

 

 
  Cheapest cities in 2007 compared to 2003
Rank 2007 Rank 2003 City 2007 average basket price ($)
1 na Rockhampton 99.59
2 1 Newcastle 99.83
3 na Forster 100.35
4 8 Brisbane 100.61
5 3 Mt Gambier 100.77
6 10 Gold Coast 100.82
7 2 Adelaide 101
8 4 Townsville 101.85
9 13 Geelong 101.87
10 14 Melbourne 102.12
11 11 Sydney 102.17
12 9 Central Coast 102.39
13 17 Canberra 102.56
14 12 Wollongong 102.91
15 na Ballarat 103.04
16 19 Darwin 103.33
17 23 Launceston 103.57
18 na Wagga Wagga 103.76
19 21 Perth 104.51
20 5 Albany 104.92
21 18 Wodonga 105.64
22 24 Hobart 105.77
23 22 Dubbo 109.66
 

 

Table notes

  • Aldi not included.
  • The 2007 average basket price includes specials.

Cheapest states

There’s good news for Queenslanders: their state has taken over from SA as the cheapest for supermarket shopping. Again, it’s close, and SA isn’t far behind, but it’s an interesting change. The next time we do a supermarket price survey we’ll be interested to find out whether this is a continuing trend or just a one-off finding caused by the specific items and stores we chose to include.

Tasmanians are still paying the most for groceries, with their average basket costing $104.67. WA was only a few cents cheaper, ousting the Northern Territory from second-most-expensive slot. The NT’s average basket price was $103.33, around $3 cheaper than the two most expensive states.

And NSW shoppers are probably noticing the biggest impact on their pockets — this state moved from second-cheapest in 2003 to fifth position this year. That makes it the most expensive state apart from the NT, Tasmania and WA, whose higher prices are likely to be due at least in part to transport costs. Full state results are in the table below.

  Cheapest states in 2007 compared to 2003
Rank 2007 Rank 2003 State (number of stores 2007/2003) 2007 average basket price ($)
1 3 Queensland (20/24) 100.69
2 1 SA (9/11) 100.95
3 4 Victoria (22/27) 102.50
4 5 ACT (6/6) 102.56
5 2 NSW (31/38) 102.63
6 7 NT (2/3) 103.33
7 6 WA (12/17) 104.61
8 8 Tasmania (8/7) 104.67
 

Table notes

  • Aldi not included.
  • The 2007 average basket price includes specials.

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