In the coming weeks, many households will be making every cent count as they battle to ensure they can put food on the table when incomes have been seriously cut back.
For many families, hunting bargains is a choice between the big three: Coles, Woolworths and Aldi. But which is cheaper?
To test the big brands in a week that has seen enormous change in the way we shop and what we buy, we picked the home brand staples. We bought bread, eggs, flour, rice and milk
While Aldi edged out its competitors in price, be aware that there will be discrepancies between stores in different locations around the country – and even around you city.
Our test was conducted in Sydney. And our perhaps surprising results showed the price difference is a lot less than we expected.
Our test shopping basket consisted of a carton of 600g eggs, a loaf of bread, two-litres of milk, one kilo of rice and one kilo of flour.
And here are the results. The total price for these five staples at Aldi was $11.75; at Woolworths, it was $12.04 and surprisingly at Coles, whose slogan used to be “Down, Down”, the basked worked out to be $12.29.
Here is how the big three supermarkets fare:
| Aldi | Coles | Woolworths | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eggs | Aldi – Lodge Farm Free Range Eggs 12 pack $3.99 (600g) | Coles - Free Range Large Eggs 12 pack $4.10 (600g) | Woolworths -Select 12 Free Range Eggs $4.10 (600g) |
| Bread | Aldi – Bakers Life Multigrain Sliced Bread $1.49 | Coles - Soft Multigrain Sandwich Bread $1.60 | Woolworths - Multigrain Soft Sandwich Bread $1.60 |
| Milk | Aldi Farmdale Fresh Full Cream Milk $2.39 (2L) | Coles Full Cream Milk $2.39 (2L) | Woolworths $2.39 (2L) |
| Rice | Aldi Imperial Grain Jasmine Rice (1kg) $2.89 | Coles – Sunrice Jasmine Rice (1kg) $3.20 | Woolworths – Essentials Jasmine Rice (1kg) $2.95 |
| Flour | Aldi - White Mill Plain Flour $0.99 (1kg) | Coles – White Plain Flour $1 (1kg) | Woolworths – Essentials Plain Flour $1 (1kg) |