AUSTRALIA | CHOICE has released the latest results of its quarterly grocery basket survey, including a spotlight on a basket of popular school lunchbox items.
This quarter, CHOICE compared the price of 17 products across Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and IGA. This included the usual base basket of 7 items, plus 10 products that might be bought to fill a lunchbox, such as yoghurt pouches, cheese slices, Vegemite, and multipack chips.
Working out what to put in your child’s lunchbox every single day of the week is hard enough without also having to figure out which supermarket has the best deal on school snack essentials.
CHOICE Editorial Director, Mark Serrels, said that this quarter, CHOICE has done the hard work by including items like baby cucumbers, packs of sultanas, and yoghurt pouches in the basket survey.
Full basket
Without including specials, the best deal was found at Aldi, with the full basket of 17 items coming in at AUD 75.98. When including specials, Aldi was still the most cost-effective option, with their full basket costing exactly the same at AUD 75.98.
At Woolworths, the basket cost AUD 90.08, followed very closely by Coles at AUD 90.90, and IGA at AUD 101.84.
For specials, Woolworths again came in second, with a basket costing AUD 89.08. At Coles, the basket with specials cost AUD 90.09, and at IGA the basket came in at AUD 99.10.
School Basket
The basket of just 10 school lunch products (without specials) was still cheapest at Aldi, AUD 41.96. At Woolworths, it was AUD 54.71.
Coles was marginally more expensive at AUD 55.17, while shopping at IGA would cost AUD 59.19.
Special prices would save consumers about 80c at Coles, AUD 1 at Woolies and AUD 2.47 at IGA.
Serrels mentioned that this survey marked the last of CHOICE's second year of quarterly surveys and its seven-item 2025 base basket comparison, which included bananas, strawberries, apples, carrots, milk, chicken and Weetbix.
From March to December, CHOICE found the average cost of this basket rose by 7 percent, with strawberries experiencing the most price volatility across the year.
Milk, chicken and carrots had the smallest increase in price and apples rose the most, increasing 47 percent between the first and fourth quarterly surveys.
Supermarkets and locations
CHOICE sent undercover shoppers into 104 supermarkets (27 Woolworths, 27 Coles, 23 Aldi, and 27 IGA stores) across 27 locations in Australia in December 2025.
Grocery basket items
The base basket includes:
- Full cream milk
- Sanitarium Weetbix
- Royal Gala apples
- Carrots
- Cavendish bananas
- Strawberries
- Chicken breast fillets, bulk pack
School lunch essentials for this quarter:
- Baby cucumbers
- Blueberries
- Yoghurt pouches
- Cheese slices
- Ham
- Vegemite
- Sultana 6-pack
- Wholemeal sandwich bread
- Multipack chips
- Tinned tuna
At Aldi, the school basket included five name-brand and five home-brand items. At Coles, Woolworths and IGA, CHOICE compared the same 10 name-brand products at all three stores.
