Consumer group CHOICE has released the latest results of its quarterly survey of supermarket prices across Australia.
Fieldworkers priced groceries at 104 supermarkets in 27 locations across Australia in June 2025. They collected a base basket, consistent throughout the second year of surveys, including full cream milk, Sanitarium Weetbix, Royal Gala apples, carrots, Cavendish bananas, strawberries and chicken breast fillets (bulk pack).
For the full basket of 15 items, without including specials, ALDI came in cheapest at $55.34. They were followed by Coles at $56.75, Woolworths at $57.20, and IGA at $65.56.
This quarter, in addition to comparing prices of base items that will be tracked throughout the year, CHOICE also assessed the freshness of strawberries and compared a basket of home-brand goods across Aldi, Coles, IGA, and Woolworths.
CHOICE found that Coles had freshest strawberries, while ALDI had cheapest home-brand basket.
Berry freshness
To assess the freshness of strawberries, CHOICE selected 19 to 25 punnets from each of the four supermarkets.
Shoppers were asked to assess the state of the strawberries on day one, and again on day five, storing them in their original packaging in their fridge’s crisper drawer.
“In our freshness assessment of strawberries, Coles was the winner, with 100% of punnets showing no signs of decay on day one,” said CHOICE Editorial Director, Mark Serrels.
“Woolworths came in next with 92%, followed by ALDI at 75%, and IGA at 50%.
“By day five, Coles was still in front when it came to strawberry freshness, with 58% of punnets containing fruit with no signs of decay. 44% of Woolworths punnets contained fruit without signs of decay, and ALDI was fairly evenly matched at 45%. Of punnets purchased from IGA, only 25% had no signs of decay after five days,” said Mr Serrels.
Home brand comparison
This quarter, CHOICE also assessed the price of eight home-brand products across retailers.
“While we know people typically buy a mix of branded and home-brand products at the supermarket – you might be a dedicated Weetbix fan, but have no issue buying a pack of home-brand pasta – we often get asked how much money you can save by buying exclusively the cheapest products,” said Mr Serrels.
The home-brand basket was made up of cream cheese, thickened cream, puff pastry, frozen mixed berries, tomato paste, spaghetti, tomato sauce, and soy milk.
“Our basket of eight home-brand items included a mix of fridge, freezer, and shelf products from each of the supermarket’s own brand range. At IGA, for example, that was either Black & Gold or Community Co,” said Mr Serrels.
“When we compared home-brand baskets without specials, ALDI was the cheapest at $20.08. They were followed by Coles at $21.30, Woolworths at $21.40, and IGA at $23.89. When including specials, prices stayed the same everywhere except IGA, where it fell by five cents to $23.84.”
IGA at its “most competitive”
Responding to the survey findings, a spokesperson for IGA said: “IGA stores are the most competitive they’ve ever been, as we continue to offer local shoppers great value through a range of pricing programs including our weekly catalogues and half price specials, Price Match, Low Prices Every Day and Better Buys programs.”
In IGA’s own real-time basket comparison of the 15 items surveyed by CHOICE in large format IGA stores from NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and Queensland, the difference in price is negligible, says the spokesperson. Based on this data, the average basket price for large format IGA stores is currently $62.51, while Coles is slightly higher at $62.90 and Woolworths is $62.30.
“Many of our IGA stores run a pricing program on selected private label products which means that they are priced the same as Woolworths equivalent private label offer,” the spokesperson said.
‘These prices are checked weekly and in our real-time comparison of IGA’s Black & Gold and Community Co private label products that are included in CHOICE’s basket there is no difference in price to Coles and Woolworths.
“Based on our data, a private label basket across large metro IGA stores is exactly the same as Coles and Woolworths at $21.70, whilst ALDI is slightly cheaper at $20.44.”
The spokesperson says its survey shows how competitive IGA really is when compared on an even playing field.p
“Plus you get all of the benefits of shopping local which include supporting their local communities by sponsoring local clubs and schools and providing support for a huge number of local charities and organisations through the IGA Community Chest and ensuring that they stock the shelves with what the locals want,” the spokesperson said.
