Food Inflation - Which Supermarket Is The Quickest and Most Aggressive With Price Hikes?

IMO, Aldi is leading the charge with the price hikes, followed by Colesworth, and lastly, IGA.

For example, the price of Aldi powdered milk went from $5 last year to $7, now $10!

Baked beans went from 65c to $1 at all the supermarkets expect for IGA (as of late march).

Everytime I go to Aldi (about once a month) I always get a shock when I see the significant price increases on products I have been purchasing for years.

It's good to see Coles has the "price lock" guarantee. It gives the consumer more certainty about prices in an inflationary market.

I have tried to stock up on non-perishables as much as possible but there are limits to how much one can purchase, store, and consume.

Poll Options

  • 17
    Aldi
  • 26
    Coles
  • 185
    Woolworths
  • 3
    IGA
  • 4
    Other

Related Stores

ALDI
ALDI
Coles
Coles
IGA
IGA
Woolworths
Woolworths

Comments

  • +32

    I was always under the general feel that apart from specials, IGA was consistently more expensive than Colesworth?

    • +4

      It depends, because IGAs and Foodwork are independently owned they have that flexibility in setting their own prices.

      Aldi and Colesworth are corporate stores hence you get a sense of uniformity, although in remote areas they also have different pricing.

      • +10

        +1

        Where I live, some IGAs are incredibly fancy with enormous deli/gourmet food sections that put even the largest flagship Colesworths branches to shame and they source stuff you can't find anywhere else meanwhile other IGAs are literally hole-in-the-wall joints that have the product selection of a servo.

    • +9

      IGA are only better in the deli and meat deparments.

      The rest of the store is not even worth looking at unless on a public holiday or after 5pm on the weekends. lol

      • +4

        Some years ago, an asian owned IGA opened up near me and it actually stocked a decent range of asian-centric food and snacks, it generated some buzz for opening but then everyone realised… apart from extended trading hours, the price wasn’t actually that flash compared to dedicated asian shops in the area, or Woolies across the road.

      • +1

        I found the meats and cakes were often off at the IGA and other independent supermarkets.
        I find IGA great for health foods and foreign foods, superior selection to Colesworth.

        • I find chicken is always smelly at Aldi. IGA, maybe because they are franchises that can stock items suitable for their demographic. It's nice to be able to buy things not stocked elsewhere.

  • +16

    We stopped shopping at Woolworths ages ago and switched to Aldi. This was reinforced recently when I had to duck into Woolworths to grab something and saw Kettle chips for like $7 or something when its $2.99 at Aldi.

    • +6

      Is it same chips? Usually every other week they have offers of $2.5, but even without that it shouldn't be this much difference, on other note it's Kettle which decides the price isn't

      • +2

        I'm pretty sure Kettle make them for Aldi, most other large companies make products for Aldi here. Aldi has their own brand, and provides their own seasoning, flavours sometime etc

    • +6

      That's a crazy price for crisps. I find Aldi still has the cheapest junk food (if Colesworth not on special). But for other items I am having to do more price comparison with the other supermarkets to see if I can get it cheaper. A few years ago you could definitely guarantee that Aldi was always cheaper for almost everything, but that's not necessarily the case any longer.

      • +1

        yes i find with 10% off WW plus 5% discount cards, WW can be cheaper than aldi… or at least mean the special trip to aldi isn't worth it.

    • Local IGA has red rock for $8+

    • +11

      Dont forget about Shrinkflation along with price hike too (to double dip on profits)

      • so much shrinkflation going on at the moment. Stupid when they keep the same size packaging. I only noticed that Pringles reduced the height of the canister when we had a new one sitting next to a different flavour. Weight was less too.

    • +4

      Yes, I just saw Kettle chips were $6.80.

      You MUST think we're stupid to buy at that price. The bag won't even be half full.

    • I'm not a huge fan of Aldi, sure some things are fine and we do get some things there. But often people talk about how cheap they are then give a comparison of two products of differing quality, for example comparing Aldi brand products to brand name products instead of Woolies/Coles home brand.

      • Coles recently had $2.50 200g deli chips. Same quality as Aldi but even cheaper! Got discontinued.

    • I was following that for the past few months.

      If I'm not mistaken, the Kettle Chili went from $3.50 and 175g, to $4.50, to $5, to $5.50 and now they're $6 and 165g.

      A lot of other items went up price wise and down weight wise too. Colesworth's profit margins also went up at the same time, I wonder how that happened…

  • +46

    "It's good to see Coles has the "price lock" guarantee. It gives the consumer more certainty about prices in an inflationary market"

    Wow!
    You really believe this?
    Artificially inflated prices get lowered to normal proce…we are saved. Said noone ever

    • +3

      its 2023…. people believe anything… they still believe in teh fuel "price cycle" instead of the Price Holiday tax…

    • Many home brands were just gone like Coles energy drink @1.10
      Overall we still favour Coles but just. No Aldi here!

    • +13

      My interpretation as a Coles employee is the "Price Lock" guarantee is more of a guarantee that they'll raise the prices shortly after the expiry of the price lock (which themselves tend to only be set a couple of months in the future)

      My other gripe is that it's not an amazing feature to say "Our prices will be the same as they were a month ago! for a limited time only". Most people would expect the prices to remain consistent for a year or more

      • At least lets me know to stockpile homebrand items when I have Flybuys 20% points offers

      • Yeah, I mean I get that constant inflation is ‘a thing’ but advertising a “price lock” seems a bit on the nose to me. It’s like they’re acknowledging that they’re going to jack everything up and these are like little hints to “grab it while you can - it’s going up for good soon!!”

    • +2

      Price is locked, but quantity and volume isnt

    • Coles price lock is acknowledged to be until 4 July 2023 only. I'm sure they could extend but they would probably lock in a different set of products instead.

  • -3

    Are you are aware Supermarkets don't make what they sell?

    • +16

      Are you aware that supermarkets set final prices?

      When it was the poor dairy farmers, apparently coles/Woolworths set the buy price, but now end prices are soaring well above inflation and the poor supermarkets are powerless /s

      Coles and Woolies profits were up 7% last report - they are making increased margins.

      • +19

        They're also removing "middle shelf" brand products. You have the homebrand cheap stuff and the other brand expensive stuff. A lot that used to be sold inbetween is gone.

        Woolies are always the most aggressive when it comes to setting the final price. Always threatening to remove our products or move them all the way to the bottom of the shelf if we don't meet their price demands. Coles are much nicer.

        • move them all the way to the bottom of the shelf

          Sorry but why is that a threat? I've never disregarded something because it was in the bottom shelf. Are people more likely to grab something from the eye/hand level or higher shelves?

          • +13

            @Nillionaire: Yes. Smaller shelf space in harder to reach places has an impact.

            • +3

              @Clear: The ACCC should do its job for a change.

              I realise companies fall over all the time losing money supplying them e.g. Scotts transport, but their abuse of power has got to end.

              • +3

                @prodrome: Aldi are even worse because they'll take your product and make something that looks quite similar in packaging and sell it for less.

      • -1

        Coles and Woolies profits were up 7% last report

        So basically in line with inflation then?

        they are making increased margins.

        It seems not.

        • the "Coles and Woolies profits were up 7% last report" stat is irrelevant (sales does not equal profit) and in any case he pulled those numbers out of his rear

          https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/content/dam/wwg/investors…

          Page 24:

          Australian Woolworths Food Retail business total sales for H23 (27 June 2022 to 1 January 2023) = 24.196b, up 2.4% from H22 (28 June 2021 to 2 January 2022)

          • @stingysydney: Just looking at this your link without checking out the full statement.

            The argument here is whether Woolworths have priced their products more than the cost to them. The answer is marginally but almost nothing. Gross margins are just 48bps higher comparing both periods in the preso. EBITDA uplift of 13.1% would suggest profitability comes from a reduced cost base (not COGS) rather than increase of gross margins. This is just based on the preso.

            So the complains of supermarkets selling cans of beans at almost 2 times the prices is not really about increased margins but a true increase in cost by the manufacturer. These low priced items usually run razor thin margins. So any increase in cost in the value chain will need a significant price jump to make it profitable.

    • -1

      They don't? Someone tip off Woolworths about the Woolworths brand food at Woolworths!

  • I have two of the cheapest IGAs around me in sydney, many times they are cheaper then Aldi in many many things

    Eg. 12 / 18 pack Eggs are a few c cheaper then aldi

    also have chips available with a full fridge

    • Gee that's rare. I've never seen anything cheaper at IGA. The closest to ColesWorths would be when they have chocolate bars for $1 on sale. When softdrink is marked down it's still 50 cents more. And when Colesworths 2L homebrand ice-cream was $1.99 IGA was $6.

  • +2
  • Amazon needs to teach these fools a lesson and start shipping fresh groceries. Maybe let people subscribe but lock them to help the logistics and keep costs low.

    • +10

      That sounds rather naive, they are all cut from the same cloth.

      • +6

        Not really. Amazon will source anything from anywhere. It has no special relationship to only stock X brand of Y on Z percentage of shelf space. Amazon wants to move product as soon as it can, they'll sell you things in the same bulk cartons that the supermarkets unpack and load onto the shelf from. I bet if they wanted to Amazon could source fresh milk and bread and stuff, and if they knew a customer is likely committed to a loaf every four days for the rest of all time they could get the prices pretty low. All the middlemen between the oven and your bread bin could be cut out. Maybe one day…

        • +5

          All the middlemen between the oven and your bread bin could be cut out. Maybe one day…

          A global monopoly on food supply by one unethical Sillycon mega-corporation that's already shown itself to be incredibly sinister in it's agenda?

          What could possibly go wrong?

          • @Gnostikos: Hey Woolworths and Coles can complain whey they start offering next day delivery and TV shows like The Boys.

    • +7

      Amazon won't be competitive if it doesn't have competition. Have you not noticed how they price match, a lot more than setting their own prices low

  • +14

    On the surface Aldi might look like their price hike is sharper percentage wise, but remember it's because their base price point was significantly lower than Colesworth and Colesworth has been hiking their prices for so long

    • +2

      Good point. I never thought of this.

    • Correct, I've seen our local Aldi's consumer base grow significantly over the last 6 months. It doesn't much matter how much their prices move up as they are genuinely the cheapest. Eggs is a great example.

      • Aldi free range eggs have a 10,000 hen per hectare density which is weaker than brands at Colesworth (1,500/h)

        • -2

          I'm getting sick of cage eggs being sold out and I have to pay the scammers tax for free range .
          I know it's hard to believe both have the same nutritional value .

  • +4

    I've found Woolworths to be ahead out of colesworth duo. Recent example with cottage cheese:

    Initially:
    Homebrand @ colesworth $5.50/ea
    Bulla @ colesworth: $5.60/ea

    5th of March increases:
    Homebrand @ Colesworth increased to $6.00/ea
    Bulla @ Woolies increased to $6.15/ea
    Bulla @ Coles stayed @ $5.60 for 2-3 weeks (i.e. Bulla cheaper than Coles own brand, which was a good warning so I could stock up)

    As for Aldi their price stayed at $5.00/ea but hasn't been in stock for weeks at multiple stores.

    • +2

      if there is no stock @ $5 then the price is the same as a million $$$

  • +1

    Woolies are the first to jump in price from what I've seen. I shop at all 3, coles, woolies and aldi and Woolies are normally the first one to bump up their price when I compare online when shopping

  • +12

    It's good to see Coles has the "price lock" guarantee. It gives the consumer more certainty about prices in an inflationary market.

    Do you work in Coles marketing?

  • +1

    Not gonna lie but coles, Price lock/freeze and Rain checks are really useful to shield a little bit from price hikes

    And they had tissues for cheapest for longest time compared to other places.

    • All three tissues were the same: 99 cents.

        • -1

          Yeah before the Claus Schwab/coNvid tax I meant. They were 99 cents for years when Aldi stores started popping up everywhere.

  • +7

    I usually shop depending on what specials are on. If the veggies I want aren't on special, I'll buy the veggies that are on special. Beef brisket out of stock? I'll get chicken breasts or a whole chicken.
    For non perishables, I usually stock up when cheap. Like when whiskas is 5 cans for $10, I'll buy about 30 and use my 10% monthly woolies discount to bring it down further.

    Bananas I will pay whatever they're asking, because bananas are awesome.

    • +2

      That’s exactly how I shop including the banana!

      All meals and recipes and snacks are dependent on whatever protein, vegetable and fruits are on sale.

  • +4

    Is there a website for groceries, that is like PcPartPicker is for computer parts?

    I.e, I can enter my shopping list, and it will show these things:

    • the total price if I went to all three stores, and bought each item from whichever store is cheapest
    • the total price if buying everything from Aldi
    • the total price if buying everything from Coles
    • the total price if buying everything from Woolies

    That way, I could easily see which store is cheaper, and decide if it was worth my time to split my purchases between two or more stores.

    Or if included Costco pricing as well, I could decide whether it is worth the extra petrol cost to travel the extra distance to Costco.

    • +2

      Recently made a forum post seeking something like this, unfortunately I had no luck finding anything. The closest site was called littlebirdie but it isn't perfect and can't do a list search.

    • +2

      It's a good approach but the comparison will be specific to that week since many prices depend on 'promo' during that week, particularly in case of ColesWorth. Unlike Aldi, ColesWorth don't have fixed price policy. So, one store cheapest for a product in this week may not be the cheapest for that product in the next week.

      • comparison will be specific to that week

        The groceries I buy are pretty consistent from week to week, so I'd be happy to upload my grocery list every week and check who is cheaper.

        Prices mostly change on Wednesday, to suit that advertising cycle of the stores. Perhaps the hypothetical website could even send out emails on Wednesday of each week, after the prices change, saying "Last week's shopping list is currently cheapest at xxxxxx store, full price breakdown below".

    • +2

      WiseList app does this but only for Coles/woolies which quickly shows if something is on special at one or the other. You can save your list etc.

      • That looks great! A pity it doesn't include Aldi, but probably because Aldi don't publish their prices online for non-catalog items.

  • +5

    I feel that both giants have mutual agreement on most prices. You will rarely find that one store increased price of a product and the other decided to stick to the previous price. One basic example is the home brand tissue boxes. A tissue box used to be 99c before Covid at both, Coles and Woolworths, and now both stores have been selling them at $1.70 each. I would have thought that both stores have totally independent pricing policy even if one of them was selling a box at $1.40 or $1.50. 'Price lock' and 'price reduced' are just jargons to fool the consumers.

    Bloody 70% price hike on a reasonably essential product and media doesn't even spot it or raise it. There should be an authority to keep a watch on opportunistic profiteering. Here we poor, innocent consumers believe that 'real' competition between two companies is fetching good outcome for us.

    • +10

      Competition simply means more capitalists ripping you off. Once there was only a single energy retailer, the State governments. Now there are lots of energy retailers. Have prices gone down due to competition? No. The exact opposite has happened.

      Capitalism is theft; it is rich individuals and corporations increasing their wealth by ripping people off on the costs of essentials such as electricity and food.

    • +1

      Do you know where else to get tissue boxes? I stocked up at Coles $1.30 late last year. $1.70 is ridiculous now, I do not want to support Colesworth there.

  • +1

    Companies all take advantage of this, just like landlords who own their investment properties outright but hike the rent due to higher interest rates.

    Everyone's out for themselves.

  • +7

    The government (or should I say the ALP) claims that inflation is only 6%. Anyone who has purchased food over the past 2 years knows that food has inflated by far more than 6%. It doesn't bother politicians though; they are paid so much, and also get so much in bribes, that they aren't bothered by food inflation.

    • Or housing shortages…

    • +5

      or should I say the ALP

      They are quoting the official figure from the ABS, which is currently headed by someone who was selected by the Liberal party.

      And keeping inflation in control is the job of the Reserve Bank, also currently headed by someone who was selected by the Liberal party.

      So why are you complaining about the ALP?

      over the past 2 years

      Well, there's part of your problem. CPI is always quoted as a monthly, quarterly or annual figure - so one year at most. CPI was 7.8% in 2022 and 3.5% in 2021, for a combined effect of 11.6% over the last two years.

  • Drakes supermarkets leading the way with inflation.
    Seems price hikes are weekly there

  • I think it has to be the wet market and the butcher shop. Their prices are all over the place and I’m always careful when buying.

  • As long as the legendary Costco BBQ chicken is still $6.99.

  • Woolies is the worst. I don't even redeem credit card points for their vouchers, only Coles or Bunnings. Main shop at Aldi with Coles the backup.

    What's Woolies problem? who do they think they are? No matter, their loss. Long live competition and free markets.

  • Stocking up can be helpful to save some bucks for now but in long-term actually just keeping the inflation late higher and will punish you again bro

  • Instead of price increase, why don't you compare price levels?

    E.g. A 25c increase on 50c is 50% increase to 75c

    Vs B 0 increase on $1 is 0% increase but still more expensive.

    • Explain B to me again

      • B still more expensive than A as $1 > 75c; but A had a 50% increase vs 0% increase for B.

        • Please elaborate, I'm still confused but agree that $1 is more than 75 cents

          • @SpainKing: I expanded comment.

            • @ihbh: Thank you, though I'm still not entirely sure of the point you're trying to make.

              It shouldn't matter if another brand/product didn't increase in price if the one I normally buy did increase. If the bananas I buy went from 50 cents to 75 cents each I wouldn't be happy that the apples were still $1 each

              You could also use this analogy to compare different types of apples (e.g Fuji and Granny Smith) or home brand vs. name brand

              • @SpainKing: When you compare things you need to compare apples with apples and bananas with bananas (as much as possible), pardon the pun. I'll spell it out in black and white. The point I[m making is that the final price is more important than the latest increase to that price.

                E.g.

                If Aldi home brand baked beans has a 25c increase on 50c, it is a 50% increase to 75c

                Vs Coles home brand baked beans has 0 increase on $1, it is a 0% increase but still more expensive.

                Even though this Aldi product has 50% inflation, it is still cheaper than the similar Coles product because it was much lower to start off with.

                This is a worked example, not necessarily a real life one.

                • @ihbh: Well I thank you again for your thoroughness ihbh. I believe I understand the point now

                  The final price is of course important, but if the final price of Heinz baked beans is 50 cents more than it used to be it's somewhat unimportant to consider the other brands (if one wants to compare apples with the original apples)

                  At some point that price becomes unpalatable and we have to consider other brands which is where it is valuable to consider the final price of equivalent products (apples to other apples). This often applies to goods on special as well where we will use whatever looks to be of decent quality and relatively cheap. Groceries rarely go below 50% off though, so increases to the base ticket price also increase the minimum spend when on special, and people 'round these parts don't like to spend more

                  Some brands outrank others in terms of the enjoyment we get from them, to the point where it's not worth buying an inferior product. If your enjoyment across all products is equal then I'd agree you should go with the one with the cheapest final price

                  • @SpainKing:

                    If your enjoyment across all products is equal then I'd agree you should go with the one with the cheapest final price

                    Nope. And therein lies the challenge.

                    I used home brand bake beans for example to simplify the comparison and make it as apples as apples as possible.

                    Obviously you'll need to check quality of ingredients and source, and so on, as well as basket as you mentioned. The point I'm making which is counter to the OP is that inflation doesn't mean much compared to final price (e.g. a manufacturer that held their price flat for 10 years and then putting in a big increase vs someone else increasing it 3% p.a.)..

                    PS: Brand is far less important for me compared to quality of ingredient. E.g. wild (much more exy) vs farmed salmon.

  • +1

    Woolies.

    Formula was $18 went to $24 after “price drop” for about 4 weeks. Now $21 with a “price dropped was $24 on 27/3” marketing. Absurd.

    Bag of coffee beans the exact same marketing.

  • I stopped going to Aldi years ago because I noticed they were increasing prices steadily.

    Just doing the usual undercut the market for market share then increase prices.

    I went back recently and was surprised how good the fresh produce quality had increased by which was by far the worste thing about it when I shopped there regularly. I havnt compared it too much but i find I just shop whatever is on special at woolies. Local butcher for meat.

  • Have not seen a Price Hike yet… increases, but no hikes barring Car Insurance Premiums.

    Also, do you mean to ask about the cost to the stores by manufacturers and wholesalers increasing prices,
    or the stores only increasing their margins therefore increasing prices?

    Or perhaps the growers, or suppliers, or transport guys causing increases?

  • Alls I wanna know is why the Ribena 6 pack has been out of stock in Colesworth in what feels like forever & when will it be back?

    • -1

      Maybe after we start eating zee bugs.

  • +4

    The woolworths ‘price dropped’ tags are bullshit as well. $11 block of cheese ‘was $12 3 months ago’ well, 6 months ago it was actually $9. They prey on people having short memories. I no longer treat white or yellow labels as anything special and just remember the price of items I regularly buy to know whether they’ve gone up

    I reckon one day they’ll change the 8.90 per kg to 8.90 per 900g without us noticing too

    • I've seen Liquorland do something similar. Henninger was the new cheap beer on the block, everyone was buying it (I was at least) then they raised the prices for a week. When I come back it's the original price when it was introduced but now it's got the shitty "Was $(current price + 3 dollars)

      If they keep it up for longer than 6 months I wonder if it would violate certain ACCC laws about displaying sale prices

    • +1

      I think they've already done that with shredded cheese. I'm sure they all used to sell 1kg bags of shredded mozzarella and tasty cheese, but now it's something like 700g. P#$@ks!

  • +3

    Burger Rings went from $3 to $5.80 !!!! BURGER RINGS !! Overnight the price went up. For BURGER RINGS!! :(

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