Why shopping at Aldi is cheaper than Coles

The pandemic has supercharged our grocery shopping bills.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has been tracking our grocery spend. Its analysis reveals the “panic buying spike” in the cost of our weekly shop that came when the coronavirus pandemic first struck in March and April of last year.

We have been spending more on groceries since the pandemic struck.Credit: iStock

Our weekly grocery bills have remained elevated on a historical basis since then.

The next release of data will likely show another – albeit smaller – spike around the start of the 2021 lockdowns.

In 2015-16, our grocery bills averaged about $237 a week, or some $12,300 a year.

However, more groceries since COVID-19 means bigger bills – unless you can find a way to spend less on each individual item.

A new study by market researcher Pure Profile (commissioned by Aldi) shows we are becoming more budget conscious with our weekly grocery shop.

• 23 per cent of those surveyed feel they cannot afford their weekly grocery shop since the pandemic hit
• 42 per cent now consider price more important to them than before
• 72 per cent have changed their priorities when shopping, with price now the number-one consideration for 79 per cent of those polled.

Aldi told me it has dropped prices on 10 per cent of its core grocery items since the pandemic began.

It is no secret that Aldi is the cheapest supermarket.

Numerous surveys by consumer advocate Choice have found Aldi is on average 10 per cent cheaper for its home brands than its bigger rivals. It does not have the wide range of brands that Coles and Woolworths offers. It is for that reason that I recommend shopping at Aldi and one other major supermarket.

Get your basics foodstuffs, then get the brands you are attached to or the niche items you need at one of the other majors. Pick the eyes out of the specials at both.

I decided to road test what difference the Aldi price drops over the past 16 months have made, and to see what shopping at two supermarkets would do to my family’s weekly grocery budget.

Last Sunday, I spent two hours doing the family grocery shop at Aldi and Coles – my two local supermarkets – and undertook two experiments.

EXPERIMENT #1

I looked at the range of Aldi items with lower prices since the pandemic and picked 25 that my family buys from time to time. They added up to $109.63.

Then I checked what the cheapest equivalent item in Coles would cost (usually the Coles home brand). The total was $128.88, which is 17 per cent more expensive.

EXPERIMENT #2

Because Experiment #1 was unfair on Coles (it began with Aldi’s cheapest prices), I then decided to do my weekly grocery shop at both Aldi and Coles, then calculate what the price difference would have been if I had done the entire shop at Coles. My shop came in at $266.

When I got home, I took out the receipts and calculated what the shop would have cost me had I done the whole thing at Coles, selecting the cheapest equivalent items (it was usually the Coles home brand). The hypothetical total came in at $297.99, which is 11 per cent more expensive.

Let’s say I did that every week for a year, the savings would be more than $1600. Shopping does take a little longer but, for that sort of money, you could pay most of your power bill for an entire year, or go on a weekend getaway for free.

Financial analysts are predicting grocery prices to rise later this year due to COVID-19 related cost increases, so these numbers provide plenty of food for thought.

Joel Gibson is the author of KILL BILLS. Catch his money saving segments on Nine Radio, TODAY and on Twitter @joelgibson.