Data shows supermarket prices vary state to state, as households share how they keep up with high grocery costs

Before the cost of living crisis, mother-of-five Bec Cocker used to spend about $300 to $350 a week on groceries at Australia’s two major supermarkets.

Now, the 42-year-old from Adelaide, relies on items from Foodbank and a local food charity called Puddlejumpers. 

Even with the discounted items at Foodbank, she still spends about $200 a week on groceries.

“[Major supermarkets] are just not affordable anymore,” she said.

“If Foodbank don’t have what I need, I go to Aldi,” she said.

Data from consumer advocacy group, CHOICE, shows Western Australia has some of the most expensive grocery prices in the country.

CHOICE editorial director Mark Serrels said the reason for price fluctuations in different states and territories was hard to pin down.

He said states which don’t have Aldi as a major contributor tend to be more expensive, with the exception of Tasmania.

“I think in some ways the places that are more remote and more difficult to access tend to be a bit more expensive,” he said.

Coles and Woolworths have criticised CHOICE’s basket survey, arguing it doesn’t compare their home brand items to Aldi’s home brand range. 

Travelling long distances for groceries

In 2001 Karel de Jong and his wife moved to regional Victoria’s Woosang, about 95 kilometres from Bendigo.

According to the 2021 Census, just 12 people call Woosang home.

The closest town, Charlton, is 10 kilometres away, and there is a local IGA there.

But Mr de Jong said he does not shop there if he can help it.

“Five or 10 years ago, we’d go in [to IGA] get the odd bread and milk, and a few bits and pieces like ham, cheese whatever, basically just to keep us going,” he said.

His wife moved into a nursing home about four years ago, so he now lives alone.

The change in his living situation and the cost of living means the way he now shops is totally differently.

“I go to Aldi [in Bendigo] probably every six to seven weeks, and I do spend up a fair amount,” he said.

He spends between $400 and $450 on these trips, putting a lot of the items in the freezer.

“The last shop I did at Aldi was $420, and then I went to check [similar] items at our local IGA, now that would have cost me close to $700,” he said.

“It is quite a significant saving.”

A spokesperson from IGA said they encouraged shoppers to consider IGA “as part of their shopping repertoire”.

“IGA and Aldi have completely different store formats and product offerings,” the spokesperson said. 

“For some people, Aldi meets their needs and travelling there makes sense.

“For others the time, effort and cost doesn’t add up, but by having a presence in regional towns, independents provide choice.”

Shopping around and doing it yourself

Carl Higgs lives in Melbourne’s inner-northern suburbs with his partner Caro and their 40-kilogram greyhound, Shug.

He says he has always been economical with his grocery shopping, but his cost saving techniques have ramped up since the pandemic and cost of living crisis.

Every Sunday he now bakes bread for the week and roasts vegetables and meat.

“In the past year I’ve tried to get into a weekly bread habit, a lot of people got into that in the pandemic, but I didn’t,” he said.

“Cooking the meat and and the veg in the oven at the same time as the bread actually keeps the moisture for the bread, which is nice.

“Then I’ve got lunches for the week, for pizza, and I’ve got some focaccia.”

He also grows some herbs, leafy greens and edible flowers in his garden, orders items like toilet paper and olive oil in bulk online, and supplements Shug’s kibble and dog treats with pumpkin and carrots.

“I think it’s economical, but more than that, it’s nice to do,” he said.

He said three years ago he was spending about $40 per week on groceries.

Today, he says that figure is between $50 to $100 depending on what needs to be restocked.

Ten years ago he was shopping at the major supermarkets, then he switched to the local IGA, but when that burned down in 2024, he had to reassess where he was shopping.

“I actually go to a local fruit and veg store that I am lucky to have close by now,” he said.

“They’re often cheaper, it’s more seasonal, it’s fresher and better quality, I find, than going to the major chain supermarkets.

“I am being more careful, I am trying to be less wasteful, I try to not buy food that will go to waste.”

Prices not coming down, CHOICE says

To collect the data comparing the cost of groceries in different states and territories, CHOICE fieldworkers purchased groceries in 104 supermarkets in 27 locations across Australia.

But Coles and Woolworths say the basket survey does not compare like-for-like. 

“Analysts have already pointed out the gaps in these basket comparisons, which don’t look at the lowest priced product from each retailer,” a Woolworths spokesperson said.

“We know when like-for-like products are compared, our prices are much closer to ALDI’s,”

a Woolworths spokesperson said.

“Our Woolworths own brand range of products are on average 30 per cent cheaper than mainstream national brands, which we know CHOICE has used in this basket.”

The analysts Woolworths is referring to is JPMorgan. 

JPMorgan did a price check of 100 like-for-like, equally weighted packaged grocery products compared on a unit-price basis.

JPMorgan’s survey compared Woolworths and Coles online prices to Aldi prices collected at Sydney metro stores. 

In response to the CHOICE survey, a Coles spokesperson said “the products CHOICE compared are not like-for-like and include comparisons between premium national brands at Coles and Aldi’s private label”.

According to CHOICE, the items in the grocery basket survey in June 2024 were: apples, carrots, Weet-Bix, sliced white bread, flour, penne, white sugar, tea bags, tinned diced tomatoes, a block of tasty cheese, full-cream dairy milk, frozen peas, beef mince and butter. 

“Our full grocery basket consisted of 14 items, 12 of which were packaged products, either national brand or comparable supermarket brand/budget brand options (including beef mince and milk), with two fresh fruit and vegetable items,” CHOICE said in a statement. 

CHOICE said it stood by supermarket basket surveys, explaining the 14 items in the basket were carefully chosen based on a range of factors such as weight, ingredient lists, country of origin, and packaging similarities to ensure the items were like-for-like. 

“CHOICE wanted to accurately reflect the way people shop in our survey, which means our basket for each store included a mix of house brand and national brands, and was neither the cheapest nor the most expensive it could be,” the statement read. 

“As we will track the same 14 products used in our basket in the future, we are unable to list the exact products we compare, as doing so would compromise the integrity of the study.” 

Mr Serrels said he was surprised that despite the huge attention on Coles and Woolworths, the price of their items according to the CHOICE basket survey, were not going down.

“I expected that price pressure to drive some of those prices down, but it hasn’t quite happened yet,” he said.

A spokesperson from Coles said grocery prices are heavily influenced by ingredients, rent, fuel, wages, energy, shipping, transport and other costs. 

“Price inflation in Coles supermarkets was just 1 per cent for the first quarter of this financial year, significantly below the ABS rate for food inflation across the industry,” the spokesperson said.

“Categories such as dairy, meat, home care, health, and beauty were in deflation”.

Woolworths said that over the past three financial quarters, it had reported decreases in average prices across its supermarkets.

Giving back

Bec Cocker said without services like Foodbank and Puddlejumpers, she wouldn’t be able to afford groceries for her family.

Her experience inspired her to give back, and she’s now been a volunteer at Puddlejumpers since October 2024.

“It gave me such a natural high,”

she said.

“I saw a post one day on Facebook that they were looking for volunteers for food recovery at the Pooraka markets, they only had one volunteer that day and I was like ‘alright, where is it, what time? Give me 30 minutes, I’ll be there’,” she said.

“I just loved it so much, and it just gave me such a natural high, so I just jumped onto it and I’ve been volunteering ever since, and now my children do it too.”