Grocery Price Index: Woolies Wins at $251.40
Woolworths wins this week's basket at $251.40, edging Coles by $4.93, but cherry-picking the cheapest item at each store cuts the total to $198.16, a $53.24 saving over shopping at Woolies alone.
Every Friday, Cuugo prices the same basket of 15 household staples at Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and IGA. This is Week 1, the baseline every future week gets measured against. No prior week to compare, so no trend arrows yet. Just the raw numbers.
The full price table is on the Cuugo Grocery Price Index hub, updated each week.
This week's basket totals
| Store | Total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Woolworths | $251.40 | All 15 items available |
| Coles | $256.33 | All 15 items available |
| Aldi | $230.58 | 2 items not stocked, not directly comparable |
| IGA | $279.03 | 4 items not stocked, not directly comparable |
Woolies wins the like-for-like comparison at $251.40, beating Coles by $4.93. Aldi's $230.58 looks cheaper on paper, but two basket items simply aren't available there, so you can't do a complete shop for that price.
IGA comes in $27.63 above Coles on the comparable items it does carry. With four gaps in the basket, it's not a full-shop option for this particular list.
Where the gaps are widest
A few items swing so far between stores that they're worth paying attention to on their own.
Carrots are the starkest: $1.49 at Aldi versus $9.20 at Woolies. That's a $7.71 gap on a single vegetable. Laundry liquid goes from $1.99 at Aldi to $6.00 at Coles, a difference that pays for a bag of apples. Dishwasher tablets are $4.00 at Woolies and $11.50 at Coles, which is genuinely hard to explain given these are often similar products. Navel oranges cost $6.99 at Aldi and $12.00 at IGA.
Some gaps reflect brand versus house-brand. Weet-Bix is $7.00 at Coles (where it's on promotion) but $15.96 at Aldi, because Aldi stocks its own cereal, not Sanitarium. That's not a like-for-like price, it's a like-for-like product category. Worth keeping in mind when you read the table.
Chicken breast fillets run $9.17 at IGA and $15.40 at Coles this week. That $6.23 gap on a single protein is the kind of thing that makes a real difference to a family's weekly shop.
The cherry-pick verdict
If you split your shop and buy each item wherever it's cheapest this week, the basket comes to $198.16, saving $53.24 against Woolies and $57.17 against Coles. That's real money.
Whether that saving is worth two or three separate stops depends on where the stores are relative to you. Fuel, time, and the temptation of extra spending at each stop all eat into it. The Index tracks these figures every week so you can watch the gap move and decide for yourself.
Canstar Blue's July 2025 survey found Aussie households spend around $178 per week on groceries. The $53 cherry-pick saving represents roughly 30% of that average weekly spend, so for most households, even a partial split shop pays off.
Frequently asked questions
What's in the Cuugo Grocery Price Index basket?
The basket contains 15 everyday staples priced every Friday at Woolworths, Coles, Aldi and IGA. The full list and methodology are on the Cuugo Grocery Price Index hub page. The same items are tracked every week so price movements are consistent and comparable over time.
Why is Aldi's total lower but marked 'not comparable'?
Aldi doesn't stock every item in the basket, this week two items weren't available. So their $230.58 total covers fewer products than the Woolworths or Coles totals. You'd need to fill the gaps elsewhere, which changes the real cost of a complete shop.