How Cheap is Aldi?

On a weekly shop at Aldi, the total bill came to $157.77. I’d bought quite a lot, but it still sounded high. I couldn’t help but wonder whether or not Aldi still represented good value compared to Woolworths. If my shop had been at Woolworths instead that day, how much would I have spent?

This is an attempt to reconcile the cost of the items I purchased between the two. The prices are compared against the prices on Woolworth’s website. I was then going to reduce the woolworths online price by 10%, since I’ve found in the past that they were higher than the in-store prices. Woolworths however guarantee prices are the same so I am leaving the totals unchanged See here

Each item purchased from Woolworths is the Home brand or Woolworths Select if we buy a luxury item available at Aldi.

Some items are difference sizes. For example a tin of beans being 420g in one store and 400g in another. Where a difference like this occurs, I convert the woolworths price to a per 100g price and calculate what the price would be at the Aldi size, though where Woolworths only sell 500g versions of a 1kg item I bought at Aldi, I selected two at Woolworths.

We saved $ on this bill, or put another way, you’d pay % more for the ‘same’ stuff at Woolworths. A similar study at choice found the difference to be closer to 30%. However, they compared against Woolworth’s Select brand in most cases, while I compared against the cheaper home brand in most cases and in only a few cases - like toilet paper opted for the Woolworth Select.

Certainly, the results have surprised me. I had the impression that I would be saving a lot more on a basket of over $150. Though I suspect it won’t change my purchasing habits much.