Recently some stuff happened which has made me lean away from shopping at a certain chain of supermarkets, and in talking with friends I've noticed that every one has one chain they prefer to shop at, and so I ask you Ozbargain community, what is your preferred supermarket chain? And if you feel like it, why did you pick what you picked?
Guess you can't beat convenience :)
But if they were all in the building downstairs, what would you pick?
The closest one….
yeah i use woolies - close to home. If coles was next door, not sure who i would choose, i suppose i might start looking at catalogues to see who has the cheapest stuff i need.
Much prefer Woolies. The green in the logo is really working for me, makes me think about fresh veges. The red Coles logo reminds me a lot about the logo from the clinic I got my vasectomy done at after I had a one night stand that ended up leaving a woman with triplets which I'm paying $800/week for in child support and $100/week for soccer fees but there is one kid who just refused to do anything but paleo ballet and if you don't know paleo ballet it is very expensive and I'm paying $130/h for those lessons. That paleo ballet kid also has an allergy to cotton. COTTON IS EVERYWHERE.
So that's why I don't shop at Coles.
Wow I thought I was the only one.
welcome to the club.
So you have pay $800 plus sport stuff WTF?
I was waiting for the punchline
Same same.
When I go with my kids, Woolies - so they can take free fruit
When I need a meal, Costco if it's close.
Other times, the closet one. Not IGA or Foodworks though.
i find the fruit/vegetables to be the best quality at Coles, but i prefer Aldi
Haha I feel the other way around. I think the fresh produce is better quality at Aldi, but I generally do bulk of my purchases in Coles.
I find it hit and miss at Aldi. Sometimes it's great, some of the pre-packed stuff isn't.
So much for the 'fresh food people' lol
There’s a Woolworths near me, but their parking is horrible
I vary from week to week depending on where the catalogue specials are.
this is the real OzB answer
Exactly, I shop where they have specials on what I'm after :D
You should be doing half your shop with Coles specials and half with Woolies… swapping once a week is just throwing money away!
My local Woolies. Only because they have far superior parking and no stairs.
My old house I shopped at Coles instead for the same reasons above.
If there is both a Coles and Woolworths in the same shopping centre and both were selling the same item for the same price then I will go to Woolworths only because it is easier to get their discounted egiftcards.
This reason exactly, easier access to egift cards over Coles/other stores. Half price specials over most other grocery stores means that there's virtually no way you're getting that product cheaper anywhere else.
Yes.. very easy to use WW gift cards using the Woolworths Money App.
A real ozbargainer compares catalogues for Coles, Woolworths and Aldi and goes to all three in one shopping centre.
pretty much this
prolly should frame the question, if you have the ability to go to any, is there one that you only go to
mainly targeted those living in the city, where u most large shopping centres have at least 2 of the 3
I have access to all three and go to all three to buy items on sale
I'm loyal to price not a store
You're actually rewarded for not being loyal to one store. I'm not sure about Woolies but Coles progressively jack up requirements for bonus flybuys offer over time and it then goes down slowly when you don't go there for a while so my wife and I flip flop between the 3 depending on offers available.
Very true. I follow the specials on pretty much anything I need. I only ever pay over $1.80 for a pack of Tim Tams if I'm desperate, but even then I will refuse to pay more than $2.50
I only buy Tim Tams when they are $1.82 on special too….
We vary week to week as well; one week Coles to stock up on necessities at lower prices; next week at our local IGA to support them and our community; next week Aldi or a local greengrocer/deli.
roughly on a monthly basis and percentage of monthly budget
20% goes to woolies
20% goes to coles
10% goes to aldi
10% goes to Costco
50% goes to Asian groceries, meat, seafood, fruit and vegetables.
Good on you for giving 110%
hahaha… ohh yeah
We found the footballer.
Collingwood supporters
30% smokes
30% alcohol
40% bail
We are lucky in that we have a Coles, Woolies and Aldi all in close proximity to each other so tend to shop at all 3.
Aldi for the fruit and veggies (more fresher and better priced) as well as basic staples including wines… and then we use Coles and Woolies for certain named brands and stocking up on weekly offers.
I like the in house baked bread at Woolies. The Coles bread is too small and crumby and a little stale usually. Aldi doesn't have in house baked bread and stuff is too expensive at IGA (even though their bread is nice).
That's the sum total reason I choose Woolies usually.
i'm on the otherside for this.. I prefer the coles stone baked sourdough
Yes I like it when woolies does the hot cross bun loaf.
omg, i bought that hot cross bun loaf for the first time and finished it solo in under 24 hours. That stuff is baked with crack i swear.
For big shops, I will do it online and compare between Coles and Woolworths to see who has everything I want the cheapest.
For one off items I need quickly, Woolies is 200mt down the road. I walk there. My only brand loyalty is to whoever has it cheapest, but in saying that I tried Aldi and everything tasted like cardboard and wasnt much cheaper, so I wouldnt go back there.
Costco - but I don't like their customer service attitude but loves their variety of random products (eg: Unicorn Fruitloops)
Coles - because of flybuys points (The 10,000 points for x dollar spend)
Asian groceries - because what I am looking for can only be found there on certain things.
Woolies - because all three above don't have them so….. (eg: Loacker Vanilla).
Not shopping at Aldi other than winter gear specials.
Not shopping at IGAs, coz there is none nearby
AFAIK Aldi are not doing the Winter Gear Specials this year.
https://travel.nine.com.au/latest/anaconda-snow-gear-sale-dr…
None. I farm my own vegetables and hunt my own elk for meat.
the one with food
Probably split my shopping about 90% Aldi and 10% Safeway for whatever i can't source from Aldi
While I understand they are owned overseas, Aldi do stock a high percentage of Australian made and owned products and fresh produce.
i used to favor coles, but in the last 6 months, i favor Woolies. I like it that they tell me when i have reward points to be used and fuel vouchers are connected to the reward card so i dont have to keep the dockets.
I would love if Coles actually did that, its super annoying.
Can you give 4c to others for Woolies? That's the reason why I prefer Coles. I can give my 4c to someone else.
Also I have a permanent 4c off with Citylink so I will always get 8c off at least.
milk is the same price in the woolies service stations as the supermarket themselves.
i get 4c + 4c with $5 spend on milk every time i fill up.
and that is off 60 c/L LPG.
and to answer the OP's question I shop mostly at IGA to try and keep some competition in the market. some butcher, deli, baker, and grocer. only sometimes at woolies even though i have 10% staff discount.
though coles 90c a packet homebrand scotch finger biscuits, for cheesecake bases, are better than all the other 90c a packet homebrand scotch fingers.
If someone else uses the Woolies Rewards app on their phone and they link it to your Rewards card, I'm pretty sure they can access your 4c off vouchers.
They have Coles and Woolies in the US?
I usually, not always, directly compare Aldi, Coles and WW prices.
I have the luxury of time and not buying many items though. I get the impression that most people use spending incentives to choose such as Flybuys or 10% off with $150 spend so there is no competition there's just fake discounts achieved by losing money.
I have the luxury of time
and don't we know it ;)
What tools do people use to compare prices.
I use the Woolies app to store my shopping list as it shows me the actual in-store prices. I then go to Also first and can compare prices against Woolies. Whatever I don't get there, I then get from Woolies.
I use price hipster but the search algorithim is pretty poor. Make sure you're in the right 'type' (grocery, fashion, electrical etc) or you'll come up with random shit that has 2 letters out of what you were searching.
May be better to select the stores rather than the category in this case.
Can you please give me an example of a search with poor results. I'll look into it.
Just want to say thanks for price hipster, it's becoming my go to list for years now
Favourite is Aldi for middle aisle, specials and price but the fruit and veg doesn't last very long in my experience
Then comes Coles for price and bagging some yellow sticker bargains but lately we've found them to have poor availability and pricing
Last, Woolies, unless its just to pick up something specific on offer
Aldi and the Asian grocer next door. Usually go the grocer first, see what fruit/veg they have, make mental note without buying. Then go to Aldi, and then back to grocer.
In general Coles/Woolies always seems a lot more expensive to me, especially the fresh produce, which is the bulk of my shop
Coles for the flybuys points that I can use to shop at Kmart.
Woolies only for their woolies brand beef jerky and $5 pack woolies 4pcs large donuts
I am supermarket agnostic. I make a list of what I need, then I walk through each supermarket and compare prices. After this I buy the cheapest things at each supermarket, like what a true OzBargainer would do.
Time cost is always the killer for me on this idea.
an online site that took my order and split it into a list for each supermarket would be nice. i know at least one centre near me that coles and woolies entrance are closer than my parked car.
Maybe a nifty developer can work with Jazoom to create this feature on price hipster….
Prefer Aldi cos they are generally cheaper and better quality in terms of groceries
I have an Aldi and a Coles at my local shops and I prefer Aldi, but I do buy some certain things from Coles and Woollies occasionally.
Aldi is mostly cheaper, I find the quality good and its just a more pleasant shopping experience.
SpudShed
Coles and Aldi have a shop about 1.4km from my house also i pass it to-and-from work
A nice bonus is there is a solid viet roll shop and they sell pork rolls with chill for 6$
Pork rolls and chill? Now you got me excited
We are lucky to have Drakes and Foodland in SA. More variety and each store is quite different, unlike the generic, stale Colesworths around. Aldi food is just home brand low quality with a fancy colour label. Been into Costco around 20 times and have not bought a single thing…
Local Foodland does Pork Belly and it's the best!
I find Coles online website is way better than Woolworths online. We do click and collect for nearly all our shopping now. Coles usually has a $10 off promo code, saves heaps of time walking around the store and the online platform is way easier to compare prices (you can sort by cheapest unit price) which is easier than looking at a shelf full of randomly placed but similar products.
Think I'm more a Coles person than a Woolies person, but only because Coles is close to both my work and my home. Still shop at both if both in the same shopping centre for the weekly specials, but rarely shop at Aldi (although I do like checking out) the Special Buys, and probably go IGA twice a year
Thomas Dux.
I love paying more.
The commoners Supermarket.
Coles. Nearer and bigger store.
I avoid Aldi as no self-checkout and my local usually has longish queues, Toss up between WOW and Coles depending on the specials.
i have zero brand allegiance to either. I’m lucky enough to live in a spot where there’s a number of supermarkets so i just shop at the one that has the best specials that week, or just one at random that i pick for no discernible reason
Coles is closest (100m away) but Woolies (300m away) is much bigger, newer and has by far the best fresh produce (chicken from the deli is also cheaper than Aldi). Will only go to Coles for convenience if we need 1-2 items (i.e. milk). We usually go to Aldi (350m away) before we go to Woolies as it's next door and cheaper for most items (plus we love their cheese and chocolate)
Our local Coles and Woolies usually have the same prices so we switched to Woolies a few years ago since we discovered you are getting a 5% discount on everything you buy (except for giftcards) by using Woolies egiftcards purchased via Cashrewards or the Entertainment book. This also applies to purchases made at Woolies petrol stations and Big W
Aldi. They have proven over the last decade or so how much Woolies and Coles have ripped-off the consumer. I try to shop at the big two as little as possible.
There are particular items I like to various. stores. I have round 80 staple items.
My staples list includes the major stores (Woolworths/ALDI/Coles) and Chinese grocer and Indian grocer and the greengrocer. I aim to have 6 months supply non-perishable food because I cook a wide variety of dishes and I'm a forgetful shopper. For example I have around 20 cans of soup at the moment. I often buy 3-10 of an item at once.
From the Chinese & Indian grocers I buy bulk rice, and try new things from https://thesourcebulkfoods.com.au
I'm an organiser rather than a prepper. Here's my organising website http://library.deep-blue-sea.net/
I try to actively avoid having a preference as I feel it psychologically binds us irrationally into a brand loyalty that isnt in our best interests.
No matter which suburb or state I'm in I mostly prefer shopping at Coles.
IDK if it's just me but Coles stores as a whole have more welcoming feeling to it as compared to Woolies.
I don't mind coles, just my local is doesn't feel like that, but others near by do. Then again that whole center is just like that tbh.
Coles is within walking distance, and my credit card is thru them so I get flybuys.
There's a woolworths just outside of walking distance that is bigger that the coles and better stocked, but every time I've bought meat from them there's been a quality problem. I don't shop there often, and I don't buy any meat from there when I do.
Local IGA, fruit market, butcher, I shop at occasionally when I go to the chemist near them to get my regular medication.
BP on the corner outside of hours to buy milk when I've given up on managing my life.
Bulk of all my shopping is done online. If I don't have to leave the house then I don't. Other people are their own special kind of hell.
Brisbane CBD here - Woolworths is the biggest in the city and is a normal store (i.e. not a Metro store). I would like to shop at Coles as the produce is generally better but both stores in Brisbane CBD are Central stores so therefore don't have as many specials, etc.
I always wondered why people even bothered going to the Coles in the Myer Centre or Queens Plaza when there's a Woolies just a stroll away with all the specials lol
Aldi for big shops, Woolies for top-up shops and those items Aldi does not have.
Which shop is not important.
I don't like the colour red, so I try to avoid Coles when I can.
Stop signs must be a nightmare
Nope, I just don't like shopping and be alerted all the time.
My local woolies as I get that 5% discounted wish cards via cash rewards and Aldi.
Woolies for groceries.
Local butcher for meat (cheaper than Woolies)
Local green grocer for fruit + veg (cheaper than Woolies)
Local Asian grover
Local Indian shop
Same as well, lucky to have a butcher and green grocer both with great quality and variety.
Only shop at Woolies for basics due to it next door and have 4 within 2kms each direction + 5% off with wish card + fuel discount voucher.
Coles - for no other reason then being the closest
Used to be Woolies at my old place, it was literally across the road.
Coles. It's in the building downstairs.