Alright, this is so off topic it’s unbelievable, but we ran a poll on McDonalds vs Hungry Jacks and it went off, so I figured this might be a discussion worth having. I’ve seen people almost come to blows on this one, so I’m keen to hear what the outcome will be!
I’m not going to lie. I have a horse in this race. I have a clear cut favourite. I much prefer Woolworths. My reasoning for this is stupid.
— I think the colour green suits a supermarket better than red.
— Curtis Stone is clearly a demon from the nether realms and is not in possession of a soul.
— Woolworths always seems cleaner.
But, in Coles favour…
— It always seems a little cheaper.
— They sell Steel Cut Oats.
Let the games begin.
Comments
122 responses to “The Big Question: Coles vs Woolworths”
Coles has the veggie chips I like. But Woolies has the Honey Sponge roll I like. Argh! I choose the Korean Grocery store down the road! (or Coles…either one)
Woolworths has Veggie chips in the gluten free zone!
Which ever has the better sales of the week. Why would I be loyal to a supermarket?
This.
Alternatively which ever is closest to you at the time.
ALDI!
But between the two it’s Woolies by default pretty much because there’s no Coles around here. Though Coles does tend to have some stuff that Woolies don’t.
None of them seem to have the lemon iced tea cordial from Bickfords though. It’s always peach. WHO THE HELL PREFERS PEACH ICED TEA OVER LEMON?
I feel ya on the iced tea
My fiancée loves that Bickfords Peach Ice Tea. It is pretty awesome.
Tell her she’s a monster and I blame her for my lemonless predicament 😛
I love that I have an ALDI near home. Cheap produce which is usually better than the Woolworths stuff, cheap meat (especially their bacon), and their chocolate/desserts/cheeses are all excellent. They also have interesting random stock that rotates in and out. I have kettlebell weights at home I picked up there for cheap because they had them in stock so why not?
Buuuuut for most of my groceries it has to be Woolies. Aldi is missing a lot of the specific products and brands that I like.
I do prefer Aldi over the big two as well, and its good to see they are popping up more & more these days. Only thing that annoys me is their checkout system. I mean damn, would it hurt them to have self serve or express checkouts, I always get stuck behind oldies who are buying up their groceries for a year.
“I always get stuck behind oldies who are buying up their groceries for a year.” hahahaha. This is so true.
PEACH ICED TEA IS THE BOMB YO!
IT IS ADEQUATE
At least their ginger beer cordial is rad.
They do get that at Aldi sometimes.
I became a more regular shopper at woolies when coles started to replace everything they stocked with their own product lines. They still seem to do that more than woolies so for the moment I stick with them.
Most of my meat and veg comes from markets so quality isn’t really a huge thing for me.
they do that at woolies too, its just that woolies brands more closely resemble the things they are replacing then coles, so you dont even notice it
Yeah the whole select brand stuff. I don’t think they are doing it worse that coles, and coles was doing it much more when I made the conscious decision to favour woolies.
Although that would be interesting, to actually see the number of home brand items each of them stock
Compare continental instant pasta to the select brand, not only are they almost identical, now the select brands occupies more then half the shelf, despite the fact it taste like arse.
I’m probably still just bitter that coles replaced my greenseas tinned tuna with their own rubbish replacement. The thing that annoyed me the most was this was the first time a company had really done flavoured tinned tuna, and coles waited until they worked out which varieties people liked and then released just those ones.
No risk, no taking the hit on some things not working.
Yep, they know what sells, and what sells well, and the margins involved, its not even a case of competition, it would be like hungry jacks selling big macs at half the price of maccas, and getting away with it
Aldi sell Pole&Line caught tuna, and it’s delicious.
Woolworths is the main culprit here.
You can no longer buy any kind of lemon juice or lime juice other than Woolworths’ own brand, and theirs tastes like shit. I don’t know how you can get lemon juice wrong, but they do.
So many brands I used to buy are no longer stocked, leaving no other choice other than the Woolworths’ brand item. How is this legal??
I bought home brand simmer sauce once. It was so bland I actually emailed them to complain. I think they sent me refund money.
Even though it costs more and is less convenient, I’d still take fresh lemons over any bottled lemon juice. You end up appreciating it more. If you really like your lemons, it’s pretty easy to grow one in a pot or in your yard.
I do grow lemons, and buy lemons as well, but a bottle of lemon squeeze in the fridge for cooking and for adding to drinks was always a staple. Berri Lemon squeeze is fantastic, I still can’t believe they are allowed to not stock competing brands. It is shithouse.
Plus I have 4 kids and a 30K income, we can’t always afford to go fresh, especially out of season.
A topic like this is why you get paid the big $, Mark 😛
I grew up in a family that always shopped at Safeway/Woolies but these days I prefer Coles. The brand appeals to me more and, as you said, they seem to be marginally cheaper in general.
I shop at Woolies most of the time because its easier to park there, but the Coles bakery is way better. Dem cookies.
Replaced oat and raisin with inferior oat and muesli as the last remaining reason to favour coles is gone.
I agree – Oat and Raisin were much better.
Woolworths.
I pretty much refuse to shop at Coles ever since they started going down the “Hey, let’s be as annoying as possible in our advertising because then people will remember us!” route. I’m not going to reward that kind of asshattery with my shopping dollars.
Seriously. That “down, down” campaign was the last straw.
And they only got worse from there! The “celebrate specials” and “whatever annual fee Master Card” and every single other thing they put on television. I want to gouge my eyes and ears out with a spoon.
Coles, just because it’s close by.
Both Coles and Woolies have their pros and cons, Coles have better donut and cake selections where Woolies have a better bakery. Throw in a locally owned supermarket that has a yoghurt bar.
I buy my meat, fruit and veg from a local butcher and fruit and veg shop, both coles and woolies are quite expensive for their meat and veggies.
I always thought there was something a little off about him. I think you’ve nailed it.
I shop at Coles simply because our local Woolies is still stuck in the 80’s. Whereas the Coles is much bigger and has just been given a makeover.
I thought he just had a unusually large head and that was what bothered me…… but now Mark has raised the issue I tend to agree !
I don’t wont to shop anywhere near Curtis Stone ……. Heeees the Deeeevilll ! (read in heavy southern accent)
Come on, you know it’s definitely NOT a two horse race in Oz anymore. ALDI FTW !
Well to be quite fair, Aldi is not in every state & territory. They’ll be moving into South Australia as of next year apparently, and I don’t believe they’re in Western Australia yet either.
True dat. ‘N they don’t sell liquor in all locations yet either (crazy) 🙂 So you’re right … still places where it IS a two horse race. One could technically argue IGA should also be involved in the poll but they were never a serious competitor to the big two even before Aldi entered the fray.
A fair point! and sadly Aldi will never sell alcohol in QLD unless they want to have a separate store just for alcohol, and I can’t see that happening..
I’m not sure about the laws in QLD but technically couldn’t they just open a store within ALDI – ie A bottle shop inside a supermarket – and therefore not need to open a separate store at another location?
I prefer Woolworths but to be honest I shop at both. I live in lane cove which has a Coles and Woolworths in an extremely close proximity. My girlfriend prefers the Coles brand plain chocolate coated vanilla ice creams to the woolworth homebrand one so I tend to do all the shopping at Woolworths then go to Coles to get her ice-cream and then I go to the fruit shop underneath Coles for my fruit/veg. I must say I’ve been much happier with the quality of fruit at the fruit shop compared to both Coles and Woolworths. I started buying oranges to squeeze my orange juice and there’s really no comparison.
Woolworths because it’s closer, but get all fruit and veg at the market.
woolworths because the staff at coles near me are terrible and their fruit and veg is always half rotten on the shelves.
I have really switched to shopping at ALDI for as much as possible. Really great prices and the food is pretty excellent…
But otherwise its Coles, there are more within range of me and I tend to buy fuel at Shell so I use their dockets there. But Woolies is also fine, generally their stores seems a bit nicer than Coles.
Safeway and Bi-Lo for me
So, both, since Bi Lo is part of Coles.
Yep
I used to shop at Coles, but it just pissed me off more and more over time. It seemed every week the range of available products got smaller and smaller and smaller until there are very few options for any particular product. In my experience, Woolworths are very similar in that regard.
About 2 months ago I finally decided enough was enough, said they can both piss off and have been doing my shopping at Foodland ever since. And I’m really happy with it – much greater variety of products, a hell of a lot more locally sourced products and really not much more expensive… maybe $2-3 extra on my total shop each week and well worth it to keep some real competition in the market place, I reckon.
I wish we had that option, only Coles and Woolies in our town, and both have stopped stocking so many lines, replacing it with their own stuff that tastes like arse.
I refuse to purchase their brand stuff any more, but it means a two hour drive to the nearest competitor.
Woolworths for the weekly shop due to it being closest to home.
Coles if I need to get things before or after work coz it’s close to work and quicker to get in and out. Also it’s directly on my way home.
About 3-4 years ago I had a housemate that worked at Woolies, then left there to work at Coles. We lived next door to the Woolies, but he needed to catch a train to get to the Coles since it was in the next suburb over. I asked him why, seeing as the Woolies was much easier to get to; he said that Coles treated their employees better, gave them more opportunities to advance a career with them if they wanted it, and were just generally better to work for.
So I would pick Coles. Plus it’s closer to me now, and I like the selection a bit better.
Coles, but only because it’s more convenient for me to get to and they sell the water filters I use.
We never shop at Woolies, but I concede they have certain foods you just can’t find at Coles. The reverse is also true.
Also, I always get petrol from Shell, so I always get food from Coles, makes sense.
I don’t favour either for just about anything, it’s whoever has the better price and has it in stock, apart from fresh bread, the Woolies bakery where I live do some of the best bread in town that’s a reasonable price for fresh baked bread and the baker is a great bloke.
Also saying that where I live i’m lucky to have 4 Coles, 3 Woolworths, 4 independent fruit & vege stores, 6 independent butchers, 2 independent bakeries & 2 Aldi’s all within about 5 minutes drive of where I live. It’s great having such a choice and 95% of the time the quality & price of the independents here for fruit, vege & meat is vastly superior over Coles & Woolies.
I also live a 2 minute walk from a large shopping centre with all those listed apart from Aldi, which is about a 10 minute walk away or 2 minute car drive.
Edit: if we’re also extending to the duopoly’s other brands we mostly buy booze from a Woolworths brand if Aldi are out of stock of their beers, which are competitively priced and pretty decent, and fuel mostly from Caltex because we found Shell’s diesel to be very poor value and ran dirty, plus our local Woolies Caltex sell the vortex diesel which just runs cleaner. Same goes for the petrol, and Shell are always that few cents more than Caltex, which is amusing.
I prefer Woolies. I may be biased since I used to work there and my mum still does, but I also find their stores are more sensibly laid out. The signage in Coles is ridiculous! Three vague items are listed on the boards hanging from the ceiling at the ends of the aisles but the aisle actually contains wildly varied and unrelated items. Frustrating. Woolies has those convenient laminated info sheets at the ends of each aisle to find items more easily.
Also Curtis Stone is The Worst and Heston’s face annoys me.
My preference is really based on proximity. The small Coles is closer so I head there if I just need a few generic bits and pieces, but off to the larger Safeway if it is the weekly shop
Shocking how many people are picking Coles or Wollies. Neither for me. Local fruit shop for veg, fruit, meat, dairy and almost everything else. It’s cheaper and waaaaay better quality. For anything else they dont sell I go to Aldi.
I picked in the context of the question, personally. I do the majority of my shopping at a local market, and whatever isn’t available there gets purchased at Woolies.
Currently Woolies, but I base my selection on who has the least annoying ad campaign. That fucking dot and down down down thing still annoys me.
Coles.
I have always found Woolworths stores to be cluttered and busy. The aisles seem narrower and I whenever I go in there I always end up thinking “Why have they put this here? It should be over there”
My current local has three different dairy sections; Butter section, Milk section and Other dairy section. Why? Why is that necessary!?
a lot of the issue with multiple cool sections has to do with storage and availability of cooling etc. mostly you will find the milk in a separate area now as the milk displays back on to the coolrooms where the milk and other dairy is stored, makes it easier to fill as you are not having to wheel stacks of milk around the store.
I don’t mind multiple cool sections; just don’t put them in different parts of the store.
My local Coles has multiple cabinets of dairy, but they are all next to each-other.
have generally always been a woolies shopper, even worked for them for a couple years as my first job many many years ago
but we now live extremely close to a coles, so we go there… also have an iga very close by too if they don’t have something we want
Neither, in SA we have Foodland.
100% of their home-brand products are from Australian manufacturers, with 50% of them being SA manufacturers.
This. I’ve found that while Coles/Woolies may have lots of stock, it’s generally only the well known brands, while Foodland have much better variety. Plus, my local is open til 10pm every night. Cop that, Colesworths!
I reward whoever has the least annoying commercials that week.
There must be weeks you grow your own food cause they are both pretty annoying!
Then it’s stockpiling at Costco for me! 😛
Fresh food market and ALDI for non perishables. These days the only time I go to Coles it’s because they’re open later and I was too lazy to leave my house before 8pm.
As a woolies employee I kinda have to go with woolies, that said, coles doesn’t have a monopoly on creepy celebrity chef reps
Curtis Stone may be a demon from the nether realms but Jamie Olivers grimace/smile is the nightmare fuel that keeps small children quaking by their nightlights through the wee hours of the morning.
The usual quality of woolies meat is often below par, as a rule I would recommend avoiding any meats with a reduced to clear sticker on it. Produce however is mostly decent, keep a nose out for large bags of potatoes though, smell them before putting em in your trolley, if there is any hint of funk, set em aside or if there is staff close by, bring it to their attention.
Other tips for saving loads of time while shopping at woolies
If you are buying eggs, flip the carton over and look for dark patches, it indicates a busted shell and leaking yolk. If you grab a homebrand pack of eggs and it is broken, it is a fair bet that some 50% of the rest of the stock are also busted
Use a reward card, grab a temp card if you don’t have one, you don’t need to register it but if you do, you will get posted free shit and $$ off vouchers. I call this a tip because if you don’t, and you query the price of something as scanning through incorrectly and then we need to run around checking prices up isles before asking you if you have a rewards card as it is one of those specials only to have you say you don’t but don’t want one, but then have to decide if you want the item at full price or to put it back, it is a headache for both parties involved.
read the ticket, properly. A scanning policy (whereby you get something for free) only extends to an incorrect price on the correct ticket for the item you are buying, not the correct price on a ticket for the incorrect item that you aren’t buying that was in the wrong spot (though depending on the store, we may be willing to reduce down the item you did get to the price you thought it was if there is reasonable grounds to believe that was the price based on arrangement of stock etc on the shelf near the ticket)
If you have picked up a perishable item and later decided you don’t want it, bring it to the service desk and we will return it, don’t leave that pack of chicken breast stashed behind the chips because that was where you were when you changed your mind, it’s unhygienic and when that thing starts warming up…
And a handy tip for getting free shit “and” money back. we have a fresh or free policy whereby if you get an item from a fresh food department (produce, deli, meat) and it is no good, we give you a refund on the item “and” a replacement item free of charge. If you do pick up a not so nice item and you notice it while in the store, buy it anyway, go unload your groceries then bring it back. Drop the words fresh or free in there somewhere, politely, and you get a refund on whatever you paid for them and you can go get a replacement item of similar price or type free of charge.
Coles always seem to be a bit cheaper.
Maybe it’s just my local stores too, but I find if Coles get busy they call out stock people to help serve on checkouts, but Woolies just make people line up forever.
IGA!
The Woolsworth, based purely on the convenience factor of them being closer to home.
F*ck Coles.
Every time I hear one of their annoying “down down” or “little red quote” songs I want to stab someone in the face. It really is just so annoying that I don’t want to shop in their stores.
I honestly wonder what would happen if one of their own employees lodged a lawsuit against them for playing those songs on repeat in the stores for the entire time they’re at work. If you did that to someone locked in Guantanamo Bay people would consider it abhorrent.
I normally shop at Woolworths since that’s what most of my local supermarkets are, but I have no reason not to shop at Coles if that’s what’s convenient. 90% of the groceries are the same.
They both win by not being IGA.
IGA cause it’s open later than 5pm on Saturdays. Seriously, why the hell do supermarkets close so early on weekends? Drives me batty. (Not sure if this is just a silly Queensland thing)
Pretty sure it is a queensland thing. So stupid.
it’s just a qld thing. I was amazed when I moved down to melbourne and saw that coles and woolies are open 6AM to Midnight most days of the year
Sydney resident here: my local Woolies closes at 11pm every day. Might be 10pm Sundays but I’m pretty sure it’s still 11pm.
I try to get to coles, I’ve found their fruit and vegies tend to be fresher and less bruised, the meat seems to be slightly worse but I don’t really get that much from them.
Admittedly, I’m kind of biased because I worked as a checkout chick at Woolies for 4+ years and it was awful about half the time, so I try not to go there. Plus the cheerios are better at Coles and that’s all that really matters
Also 10 years Woolies Employee, rather jaded, willing to bend rules to help customers who aren’t being total dicks about something going wrong AMA >.>
I voted Woolies only because – if they weren’t a cluttered, festering cesspool of misery I’d rather shop there for the Qantas Frequent Flyer points. Truth is – I’m probably with most people here and whore myself to whichever supermarket is closest at the given time.
Woolwoth. Mainly for the same reasons as what Mark has listed in the article. I also am sick of Coles pushing us to eat their own brand. Woolwoth do do it as well but I find their brand stuff less as forced on us.
Down, down prices are down. What a catchy song.
Coles because its closer.
Wollies all the way. I don’t trust a supermarket that can’t make a half decent chicken nugget.
well. i shop at the local IGA. but between woolies and coles? woolies cause they have the kalamata sour dough i really like. petty, i know.
Woolworths. Coles is part of Westfarmers group that owns Target.
My little protest against GTA debacle. No longer shop at Wesfarmers stores if possible.
Woolies 4 Life
The 3 closest supermarkets to me are Coles, they win my coin
I do most of my shopping at Coles, some things I want are only available at Woolworths. And I’m gradually moving towards picking things up from ALDI.
My biggest problem is I take my (elderly) mother shopping, she does not deal well with change and so refuses to shop any where but the one Coles that was here when she moved here. Afterwards they opened 2 Woolworths and a Coles all closer but she refuses to shop at them. Or if she does can’t find anything.
So by default I do most of my shopping at Coles, go to Woolworths for the handful of items they have that Coles don’t.
For most shopping I choose Woolworths, but only because I have two Woolworths and a Safeway closer than any Coles store. I choose Aldi if I can be bothered shopping during daylight hours.
However for bread I go to Coles Express, because between the two house brand high fibre breads, Coles is cheaper and tastes better.
Contrast milk, where Coles always tastes like it’s been sitting out at room temperature for too long, which makes sense because they use open fridges rather than closed ones that often back onto the dairy coolroom (as at Woolworths).
Coles is cheaper, but it is a hassle to get out to one or to buy online. I even work at Coles, but I don’t drive.
Hj’s but only just !
Wait why is everyone looking at me funny …. ohhh I see, late to the party again
(ill just show myself out now)
OK, Woolies for everday shopping. But the Coles near my work has an awesome detached Deli counter (seperate from the store) that has some decent cheap hot food options for a quick breakfast or lunch on the work days (Ranging from Hashbrowns etc in the morning to Hot Chips, nuggets and even cooked chicken in the afternoon and evenings)
NEITHER!
Support local business and go to oyour local butcher and fruit/veg store. It’s all so much better and quite often cheaper (not true for the butcher, but more delicious).
Coles for me. I find all there stores are always bathed in near perfect lighting where I can clearly see all the items on the shelves, the shelves aren’t over stocked or aren’t too tall and the theme of the store with the whites, Brown’s and wood just feels a whole lot more inviting to me.
Again with these crazy questions… why do we have to choose?
Whichever one I happen to be closer to at the time…
Something like 75 cents out of every dollar are spent in Australia at either Woolworths or Coles (and their other owned stores, such as Kmart, Big W, Myer, Dick Smith, etc).
Kinda scary when you think about it.
Coles. I used to be a Woollies fan but they put the price up on a lot of things, and a lot of the Coles and Coles-brand products are really good quality vs price. There’s a Super IGA that has cheaper meats near me, and I still do a lot of shopping at Woollies because I usually buy fuel from the Woollies petrol station.
Never was a Woolies fan until this year. They have steakettes that are awesome for stir fry and their chip selection is more extensive. Their coffee is always on special which is good as I go through a jar almost fortnightly.
IGA, cos it’s between the train station and home. Ie. as others have said – convenience is a huge factor.
I generally prefer Woolworths just because it’s a bit closer and a bit cleaner. But Coles has it’s place. When I go to Noodle Man I go to Coles since they’re closer and I save a few dollars.
I used to be a baker at Coles and they treat their staff like fkn shite. I always try my absolute best to avoid Coles like the plague. All my fruit and vegetables are organic and delivered to my door and the remainder of my shopping is done from Aldi.
I guess I have to say Woolies cus I’m currently employed there. But BASED COSTCO.
Woolworths
Most times I don’t have a clue what store I’m in. It’s either the one on the high side of the road or its the one near McDonalds. I have no idea which is Coles or Woolworths.
Woolworths because the stores are a lot nicer and where I am at least is like double the size of Coles and stocks a lot more. The lighting in Woolies is heaps better too.
Coles however has 100x better bakery items and ice cream so I go there too.
I picked Coles, but only because of staff discount (which also works for target and kmart and a couple others), plus flybuys is rather good.
I hope both sides of this anti competitive duopoly crash and burn, and take their petrol price fixing to their graves.
+1 for someone mentioning a small part of the grief this duopoly is causing. I don’t know which company is worse but they harm Australian producers with their bullying.
Iga.
Has
The nearest one to where I live or work. Coles on both counts.
Actually that works out pretty well, because on the ultra-budget items, they’re usually cheaper.
SupaBarn. It’s owned by IGA but it’s huge and has everything like Coles/Woolworths.
When did that happen? I thought they were totally independent.
I guess “owned by” isn’t right. “Is part of” is probably better.
IGA is Independent Grocers Association. Collective bargaining. Essentially a union for businesses. SupaBarn is part of that whole dealie.
Costco. Got to love the whole ‘MTV Teen Mom’ vibe.
Coles, because it’s closer.
The Foodland/Drake supermarkets in SA are fantastic! loads of imported good quality specials and locally made items. Not just the Coles/Woolies range.
IGA as they actually stock monster absolute zero where as the two big ones don’t. Also ALDI for a big shop.
Franklins FTW!!
The lesser of the two evils IMO is Coles.
Woolworths own 12000 poker machines, four times more than Wesfarmers and more poker machines than six of the largest casinos in Las Vegas combined.
Woolworths has been a large opponent of more restrictive gambling laws of which the function was to tackle problem gamblers.
I prefer to buy from places like IGA – I may spend a little more but my conscience is cleaner.
IGA for the win, because fuck the major retailers and their anti-competitive behaviour! I take every opportunity I can to avoid shopping at either of these supermarkets.
Here in WA, Woollies has started rolling out trollies with vertical handles and a cup holder. These are just so far superior to Coles trollies. I’d make the change to Woollies simply because of their trollies (except that there is not a Woollies within cooee for me).