Grocery Price Index: Aldi Holds, Coles Up $3.70
This week's Cuugo basket: Aldi at $76.67, Woolies at $77.97, Coles up $3.70 to $76.45 (one item missing). Cherry-picking saves you $11.69.
Every Friday, Cuugo prices the same 15 staples at Woolies, Coles, Aldi and IGA. Same items, same quantities, every single week. The chart and full methodology live on the Cuugo Grocery Price Index hub.
This week's basket totals
| Store | This week | Last week | Change | |, -|, -|, -|, -| | Coles | $76.45 * | $72.75 | +$3.70 | | Woolworths | $77.97 | $78.27 | -$0.30 | | Aldi | $76.67 | $76.67 | unchanged | | IGA | $84.12 * | $82.02 | +$2.10 |
\* One item was unavailable at Coles and IGA this week, so their totals aren't directly comparable to Aldi and Woolies. They're included for trend tracking but treat the gap with caution.
Aldi is the cheapest complete basket for the second consecutive week. Woolies edged down $0.30, the only chain to ease this week.
Coles had the biggest swing: up $3.70. We don't have a specific cause to point to, so we won't guess. If you shopped Coles this week, you felt it.
Where the biggest gaps are
The full price table renders below, but a few items deserve a mention.
Toilet paper is the week's oddest spread: Woolies has it for $4.30, Aldi is at $13.49. That's almost certainly a pack-size difference rather than a like-for-like price gap, but it's worth checking your unit price before you toss either into the trolley.
Chicken breast fillets run from $9.17 at IGA up to $14.50 at Coles. That's a $5.33 difference on a single item. Free range eggs are cheapest at Coles ($5.00) and dearest at IGA ($6.40). Cavendish bananas are $4.86 at Aldi versus $7.92 at Woolies.
Sliced white bread costs $3.00 at Aldi and $4.70 at Coles. Weet-Bix is $6.88 at Aldi and $11.15 at IGA. Beef mince: $5.49 at Aldi, $10.00 at IGA.
Long grain rice is one of the better Coles wins this week: $1.80, versus $3.10 at IGA.
The cherry-pick verdict
If you buy each item from whichever store has it cheapest, the basket comes to $64.98. The cheapest single-store complete basket (Aldi, $76.67) costs $11.69 more. Whether that saving is worth the extra stops is your call, but the gap is real.
Frequently asked questions
What's in the Cuugo grocery price index basket?
The basket has 15 everyday staples priced every Friday: sliced white bread, free range eggs, chicken breast fillets, Weet-Bix, apples, Cavendish bananas, carrots, tasty cheese block, beef mince, long grain rice, butter, toilet paper, laundry powder, and two more items. The same products and quantities are used every week so the trend is reliable. Full methodology is on the Cuugo Grocery Price Index hub page.
Why can't I compare Coles and IGA totals directly this week?
One item was unavailable at both Coles and IGA this week. Their basket totals are missing that item's cost, so they'll read lower than they otherwise would. We flag this every time it happens rather than dropping those stores from the table entirely.