Need to know
- In our latest supermarket basket comparison, we found Aldi had the best price for our basket of 14 regularly priced items, followed by Woolworths, Coles and IGA
- This year, we’re changing our approach to focus more on the things you’ve told us are important
- Our latest grocery basket includes products you’re more likely to buy in winter, including porridge oats and hot chocolate
Despite recent cuts to interest rates that have provided some relief to mortgage holders, the cost of living continues to trouble many Australians. Since 2022, our quarterly Consumer Pulse surveys have found that household budgets are under pressure.
In our most recent survey, conducted in January 2025, nearly everyone in our nationally representative survey – 96% – told us they'd seen household expenses and bills increase in the previous 12 months.
Food and non-alcoholic beverages had some of the most significant increases in the most recent quarter
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' Consumer Price Index (CPI) tells a similar story, recording a rise of 2.4% in a representative basket of goods in the 12 months to the March 2025 quarter. Food and non-alcoholic beverages had some of the most significant increases in the most recent quarter, rising by 1.2%.
Given these stats, it isn't surprising that the cost of food and groceries remains a cause of concern for many households.
That's why CHOICE continues to compare grocery prices among the country's major supermarkets: Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA. We're here to help Australians find out where they can find the cheapest household products.
On this page:
- What's changed in our second year of surveying grocery prices?
- The cheapest supermarket in our survey
- What's in our basket?
- Does where you live make a difference to grocery prices?
- Spotlight: The winter basket
- What our results means for consumers
- How we survey supermarkets
What's changed in our second year of surveying grocery prices?
During our first year of surveys, we received a lot of feedback on our basket. You asked for more visibility over what we were buying, and you told us you wanted us to include more fresh foods.
We also received requests to focus on the quality of the products being compared because this is such an important consideration when evaluating value, rather than simply looking at cost.
You asked for more visibility over what we were buying, and you told us you wanted us to include more fresh foods
In response, we'll be providing more information about the products we compare, we'll include more of the most popular fresh foods, and we'll look more closely at the quality of the products in our basket, assessing taste and freshness, for example (this assessment will take place in our next quarterly grocery survey).
Most importantly, we'll continue to keep the focus on how the costs compare between the major supermarkets. We'll also continue to ensure the products we compare are as closely matched as possible by pack size, ingredients and country of origin, so we are making fair comparisons.
We'll look more closely at the quality of the products in our basket, assessing taste and freshness, for example
We've also reduced the size of our base basket this year to allow us to add more spotlight items each quarter, so that we can compare a wider variety of products across the year. We'll be able to track changes to the base basket as prices fluctuate across the year, and also include a wider variety of new items each quarter.
Our basket of items (without specials) cost $69.74 at IGA, $59.22 at Coles, $58.92 at Woolworths and $55.35 at Aldi.
The cheapest supermarket in our survey
Without including specials, our full basket of 14 items cost $55.35 at Aldi, $58.92 at Woolworths, $59.22 at Coles and the IGA basket was $69.74.
Looking at the individual items on our list (without specials), Coles had the best deal on apples, Woolworths had the cheapest chicken breasts and pumpkin, and at IGA you paid less for carrots and garlic than at the other three supermarkets.
Aldi had the best price on everything else.
Prices with specials
When you take into account the savings from the specials available when we shopped, at Aldi our basket cost $54.44. It was $57.67 at Coles, $58.86 at Woolworths and $67.54 at IGA.
Once specials were applied, a discount on chicken at Aldi meant this supermarket was cheapest for this item across the stores we surveyed. All other product-by-product price rankings remained the same.
As noted in our previous reports, buying items on special can make a significant difference to overall grocery costs, which is why it's a good idea to shop around. It's also worth noting that it isn't always clear when fruit and vegetables are on special, so we're comparing regular prices for fresh produce.
What's in our basket?
As part of our new approach in year two, we're sharing the full contents of our basket, which this quarter included 10 fresh and 4 packaged items. The products we purchased were:
- Chicken breasts, bulk pack
- Carrots
- Royal Gala apples
- Cavendish bananas
- Strawberries
- Butternut pumpkin
- Garlic
- Brown onions
- Sanitarium Weetbix
- Full cream milk
- Drinking chocolate
- Vegetable stock
- Sour cream
- Quick oat sachets.
For all items we chose, we considered a range of factors such as ingredient lists, country of origin and packaging similarities to ensure we made fair comparisons. When items were unavailable, we looked for the closest alternative, just as you would when shopping for your family. Fieldworkers priced groceries at 104 supermarkets in 27 locations across Australia in March 2025.
You can see the full list of what we purchased at each store by clicking on the blue arrow below.
How closely matched are Coles and Woolies?
In the first year of our quarterly supermarket research we saw Coles and Woolies remain similarly matched on price. While Woolworths was slightly cheaper when we shopped in March and June, Coles was the cheaper of the two in September and December.
At the start of our second year, we found that Coles and Woolworths remain similarly priced, with the Woolworths basket (without specials) just $0.30 cheaper than Coles ($58.92 vs $59.22).
Underlining the importance of checking specials, the picture does change once we look at prices that include those discounts: the average cost of our 14 items at Coles costs $1.19 less than at Woolworths ($57.67 vs $58.86). In this basket, there were special prices on Uncle Toby's Oats at Coles supermarkets, and there were also specials at some stores on chicken breast.
Since we conducted our price checks earlier this year, Woolworths has announced a reduction on nearly 400 items in their range, but we won't see the impact of that in our survey until we release our next report in September.
How does IGA compare?
IGA stores don't have the same chain-store model as Aldi, Coles and Woolworths, with individual stores operating as independently owned franchises. That means we see quite a lot of variation between the stores in the IGA network, often due to the variation in store sizes and the effect this has on the ranges.
While we did find IGA to be cheaper on some of the individual items we looked at, overall it remained significantly more expensive. IGA's basket of 14 items (without specials) cost $14 more on average than Aldi's basket).
Does where you live make a difference to grocery prices?
Our analysis found that the state you live in does make a difference to how much you pay, with Western Australians usually paying more than their eastern state counterparts.
The prices varied very little between Aldi stores, but because shoppers in Western Australia paid up to $2.70 more for one of our staple items (apples) than in other Aldi locations, Aldi's basket was more expensive. Western Australians also paid more than the mainland eastern states at Woolworths, Coles and IGA.
Shoppers in NSW paid less than other states at Woolworths and IGA; those in the ACT and NSW got the best deal at Aldi; and in Queensland, shoppers paid less than their fellow Australians at Coles.
Spotlight: The winter basket
Seasonal fare was the focus of this quarter's spotlight items: a hearty porridge breakfast, a hot chocolate treat and warming soup were on the menu for our shoppers.
Not only did we survey the prices you'll pay, we also cooked up the ingredients for pumpkin soup from each supermarket and compared the results to see which soup was superior.
Our tasters told us the soup prepared with ingredients from Woolworths was the best of the four batches
Our tasters told us the soup prepared with ingredients from Woolworths was the best of the four batches.
Read the full results, including advice from our CHOICE home economist Fiona Mair on how to make the best pumpkin soup.
Cheapest winter spotlight groceries
But first, price. The goods in our winter spotlight list (without specials) were cheapest at Aldi ($22.03), followed by Woolworths ($25.52), Coles ($26.34) and IGA ($30.68).
When we included specials, the price stayed the same at Aldi and Woolworths, but fell to $25.02 at Coles and $30.10 at IGA. The decrease at Coles was due to a special on Uncle Tobys Oats, and the reduction at IGA was due to specials on hot chocolate.
What our results means for consumers
Our baskets of goods give us a way to get a general picture of prices in the different stores and locations we visit, but it can't reveal the whole picture.
Smaller ranges, as we saw at some IGA stores, and special pricing can make a big difference to overall costs. We also know that between the time we survey and the time we publish our results, prices will inevitably fluctuate.
Smaller ranges, as we saw at some IGA stores, and special pricing can make a big difference to overall costs
What our findings continue to highlight is that small changes add up to significant savings, particularly over the course of the year.
That doesn't just mean changing the store you shop at, we also recommend you think creatively and carefully about what you choose to put in your shopping trolley.
What our findings continue to highlight is that small changes add up to significant savings, particularly over the course of the year
There are lots of ways to save money on your weekly shop. Here are three of our top tips to help you reduce what you're paying at the checkout.
- Check the unit pricing: It can be hard to compare prices of different-sized products from different brands, but unit pricing lets you compare prices based on the price per unit e.g. 100g or 1L. All supermarkets are required by law to include this information in labelling, both online and instore.
- Shop around: Switching between stores and shopping at different supermarkets to take advantage of specials can deliver significant savings.
- Change your routine: Swap expensive cuts of meat for cheaper alternatives, look at frozen fruit and veg, particularly if shopping for produce out of season, and give the ugly fruit and veg a go. Also, don't be afraid to try house brand products. Our expert testing often finds these ranges outperform more expensive options at all the supermarkets.
It won't change the fact that we are still paying significantly more for our groceries than we were just a few years ago, but making these small changes can add up.
How we survey supermarkets
Supermarkets and locations
We sent undercover shoppers into 104 supermarkets – 27 Woolworths, 27 Coles, 23 Aldi and 27 IGA stores – in 27 locations across Australia in March 2025. Supermarket locations were chosen to give good coverage of socio-economic status based on ABS Indexes and geographic spread across the country. We surveyed supermarkets in clusters so that each store has local competition, and we calculate the average price of the basket of goods, both with and without specials. A price was deemed to be a special when we had evidence of a temporary price reduction. There were 14 grocery items in each basket (10 fresh and 4 packaged items).
Grocery basket items
Our basket, which this quarter features a winter theme, consisted of chicken breasts, milk, sour cream, Weetbix, quick oats sachets, bananas, strawberries, apples, carrots, onions, garlic, pumpkin, vegetable stock and hot chocolate. The full list of items in our latest basket, including brands and pack sizes, can be found listed above.
For more details on how we survey, see How we survey supermarket grocery prices.
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 our recent sunscreens test showed just how important it is to keep business claims in check.
So you'll never be alone when something goes wrong or a business treats you unfairly.
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