Which supermarket has the cheapest groceries in our survey?

To coincide with the arrival of spring, this quarter we’ve included a range of products you might choose if you are focusing more on healthy eating.

As always, we aim to compare like-for-like products across the major supermarkets to help you find the best value.

This quarter, our mix of fresh and packaged foods is almost entirely made up of home-brand items at Coles, Woolworths and Aldi, though IGA’s more limited range meant we included more name-brand products in their basket.

On this page:

• The cheapest supermarket in our survey
• Base basket prices
• Spotlight: The spring refresh basket
• What’s in our basket?
• How closely matched are Coles and Woolworths?
• How does IGA compare
• Does where you live make a difference to grocery prices?
• Freshness assessment
• What our results mean for consumers
• How we survey supermarkets

The cheapest supermarket in our survey

Without including specials, our full basket of 17 items cost $68.89 at Aldi, $74.47 at Woolworths and $76.79 at Coles. At IGA our basket cost $92.69. 

We always choose carefully to ensure we’re selecting the most comparable products at each store. For this survey, that means the baskets from Aldi, Coles and Woolworths contain one name-brand product (Real Foods Corn Thins).

All the other items compared across those three stores were either from their home-brand ranges or fresh items.

Because its home-brand ranges aren’t as extensive, the IGA basket contained four name-brand products (Real Foods Corn Thins, Annalisa Chick Peas, Farmers Union Greek Style Yoghurt and Chris’ Hommus Dip). 

Prices with specials

When you take into account the savings from the specials available when we shopped, our baskets from Aldi and Coles stayed the same ($68.89 and $76.79 respectively). You would have paid, on average, $74.00 at Woolworths (a saving of 47c), and $92.32 at IGA (a saving of 37c). The savings at these stores were due to national specials on corn thins at Woolworths and some IGA stores, and discounts at some but not all locations on yoghurt, hommus and chickpeas.  

The difference in cost between Coles and Woolworths was mainly driven by the pricing of apples, yoghurt, avocado and carrots, which were more expensive at Coles. The discount on corn thins at Woolworths also played a part. 

Since we last surveyed in March, military action in the Middle East has led to spikes in fuel prices, which may have had a knock-on effect on prices. In this most recent survey, we saw prices rise at all four supermarkets for the base basket of eight products, but whether that was due to seasonal variations or an increase in freight costs is impossible to say.   

Base basket prices

In our base basket of eight items, which in the third year of our quarterly surveys contains apples, bananas, strawberries, potatoes, avocado, milk, basmati rice and beef mince, we saw prices increase across the board.

Without specials, the cheapest supermarket was Aldi, where the basket cost $40.10, followed by Woolworths $40.95, Coles $42.54 and IGA $50.42. Comparing those prices to what we paid when we shopped in March, we see that IGA had the biggest increase (+$5.00), followed by Aldi (+$2.96), Coles (+$2.44) and finally Woolworths, where prices rose by less than a dollar (+$0.87). 

There were few specials on the items in our base basket this quarter. Aldi, Woolworths and Coles had none and IGA had a small difference between the cost of our base basket with and without specials, with the price of these eight items falling by six cents, on average, to $50.36 with specials included. 

Overall, the cost of the average base basket without specials across all four supermarkets increased by $2.79 (7%) compared to March. The increase was largely driven by strawberries, which accounted for around half of the price increase. There were also higher prices on average for mince, milk and avocados, while lower apple and rice prices were recorded when compared to the previous wave.

Spotlight: The healthy basics basket

Our spotlight basket this quarter included some of the grocery items you might choose if you were focusing on healthy eating: baby spinach, broccoli, carrots, chicken breast, corn thins,  greek-style yoghurt, hommus, tinned chickpeas and rolled oats.

We also tried to include frozen berries (so important for those healthy smoothies), but due to lack of availability in many of the stores we visited, we left this item out of our final comparison. 

When looking at the balance of home-brand products vs branded products in our “spotlight” selection of packaged food, at Coles, Woolworths and Aldi, all of the packaged items were home brand, other than the Real Food Corn Thins (we purchased the same name-brand product at all of the stores we surveyed).

At IGA, where the home-brand range is smaller, the basket included an additional three name-brand products (Annalisa Chick Peas, Farmers Union Greek Style Yoghurt and Chris’ Hommus Dip).  

Without specials, Aldi proved to be the best value for this selection of items, costing $28.79, Woolworths cost $33.52 and Coles $34.25. IGA was the most expensive at $42.27. 

When we factored in specials, neither the Coles or Aldi baskets changed; Woolworths fell to $33.05, while IGA cost $41.96.

With specials, Aldi had the lowest price for seven out of nine items on the list. Woolworths had the lowest prices for the other two, which were carrots and corn thins. Without specials, Woolworths was $0.73 cheaper than Coles, however, the special on corn thins at Woolworths increased the gap to $1.20. Other than the corn thins, items were either the same price at Coles and Woolworths or they had very little difference between them, with the exception of the carrots and yoghurt.

The variation in pricing at different IGA stores means the average cost of our basket of goods was higher than at the other three supermarkets. While this is an accurate reflection of the data, you may find prices at your local IGA to be closer to what you’ll pay at other supermarkets, such is the significance of the variation between prices at different IGA stores.

What’s in our basket?

In this quarter, our basket included eight fresh and nine packaged items. The products we purchased were:

• Beef mince
• Chicken breast
• Royal Gala apples
• Cavendish bananas
• Strawberries
• Avocado
• Broccoli
• Baby spinach
• Potatoes, white, washed
• Carrots
• Full cream milk
• Yoghurt
• Hommus
• Basmati rice
• Corn thins
• Tinned chickpeas
• Rolled oats

For all items we chose, we considered a range of factors such as ingredients, country of origin, other product specifications and packaging similarities to ensure we make fair comparisons. Where similar products were in slightly different-sized packages, we calculated costs to reflect the same quantity for each store. 

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 June 2026.

You can see the full list of the items we bought at each store by clicking on the blue arrow below.

Store by store lists

How closely matched are Coles and Woolies?

When comparing our base basket of eight items (apples, strawberries, potatoes, bananas, avocado, milk, basmati rice and mince) this quarter, we’ve seen a slight widening of the gap between the big two. In March, Woolworths was just two cents cheaper when comparing prices without specials, but this quarter Woolies was $1.59 cheaper than Coles.

This was mostly due to the pricing of apples, which were on average $2.65 per kg more expensive at Coles. This was somewhat offset by a cheaper price on potatoes at Coles, where you’d have paid $1.20 less than at Woolworths. 

The differences were similar when we compared the full basket of 17 items: Woolworths was $2.32 cheaper than Coles (without specials) and $2.79 cheaper with specials. 

Most items at the two stores are identical or very similar in price.

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 variation in store sizes and the effect this has on the ranges.

All of this means that while some IGA stores might be more competitive, overall, our basket of 17 items (with specials) cost $23.43 more on average from IGA than the same basket of goods cost us at Aldi. 

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. 

The prices in different states varied very little between Aldi stores. Just $2.26 separates the most expensive state (Western Australia) from the cheapest (Queensland) where lower prices for strawberries and broccoli were the drivers of the difference.

Woolworths and Coles, were also fairly consistent – Coles had one exception to consistent national pricing other than fruit and vegetables, with corn thins being slightly more expensive in the Northern Territory. Despite this, Coles shoppers in the Northern Territory paid less overall than those in other states thanks to lower prices for strawberries, avocados and broccoli.

For Woolies shoppers, Tasmanians paid more than other shoppers thanks to higher prices in that state for potatoes, avocados and bananas. 

As we’ve seen in previous surveys, IGA shoppers experienced the greatest variation in prices between states: IGA customers in Tasmania paid on average $13.42 more than those shopping in Victoria ($99.53 vs $86.11) for our full basket of 17 items (with specials). This difference was mainly due to higher prices for many fruits and vegetables and chicken. 

Freshness assessment

One concern we often hear is that buying cheaper means getting poorer quality, and frequently, fresh fruit and vegetables are cited as being of a better quality and lasting longer at one supermarket or another. 

So, which supermarket really has the freshest produce? While we can’t answer that question for every item you might want, in this quarter’s survey, we asked our mystery shoppers to look at a product that often shows signs of decay more quickly than we would want: baby spinach.

We asked shoppers to refrigerate their product until opening it two days later, at which time they assessed its freshness.

Spinach was to be considered fresh when it appeared crisp, while a slimy, wet texture, a strong, unpleasant odour, or a mushy or limp appearance was indicative of decay.

Mostly due to availability issues in some of the areas where we surveyed, we were only able to assess 91 samples.

We found that Aldi spinach performed best, with all leaves remaining fresh after two days in 70% of samples, followed by 62% for Coles and 50% of the IGA samples.

Woolworths recorded the lowest results for freshness, with just 38% of bags assessed as having all leaves fresh.

No supermarket recorded any samples where less than half the leaves were fresh or where none of the leaves were fresh after two days. 

What our results mean for consumers

Our shopping baskets provide a general picture of prices in the different stores and locations we visit, but they 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.

What our findings continue to highlight is that small changes add up to significant savings, particularly over the course of the year. 

Changing the store you shop at, if that’s an option for you, is one way to find those savings. But we also recommend you think creatively and carefully about what you choose to put in your shopping trolley. 

There are lots of ways to save money on your weekly shop. Here are our top tips to help you reduce what you’re paying at the checkout. 

1. 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 in-store.
2. Shop around: Switching between stores and shopping at different supermarkets to take advantage of specials can deliver significant savings. 
3. 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 home-brand products. Our expert testing often finds these ranges often outperform more expensive options at all the supermarkets. 

None of these things can change the fact that we are still paying significantly more for our groceries than we were just a few years ago, but making some small changes can add up to significant savings, without compromising quality.

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 June 2026. 

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 17 grocery items in each basket (8 fresh and 9 packaged items).

For more details on how we survey, see How we survey supermarket grocery prices.

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Margaret Rafferty

Margaret Rafferty joined CHOICE in 2018 as a Content editor and since then has filled the roles of Commissioning editor, Managing editor and now Editorial consultant. Margaret has written on a wide variety of topics and enjoys making complex subjects easy to understand. With over 20 years of media experience, Margaret brings a strong storytelling background to CHOICE. She works closely with people across the organisation to help tell stories that make a positive difference to people and is passionate about uncovering bad practices and helping Australians to avoid falling victim to shonky products and services. LinkedIn

Margaret Rafferty joined CHOICE in 2018 as a Content editor and since then has filled the roles of Commissioning editor, Managing editor and now Editorial consultant. Margaret has written on a wide variety of topics and enjoys making complex subjects easy to understand. With over 20 years of media experience, Margaret brings a strong storytelling background to CHOICE. She works closely with people across the organisation to help tell stories that make a positive difference to people and is passionate about uncovering bad practices and helping Australians to avoid falling victim to shonky products and services. LinkedIn