Dodging the duopoly: can three shoppers avoid Coles and Woolworths for a week?

Archived version: https://archive.li/6efBd

Could you dodge the duopoly? We asked three people to try shopping for a week without visiting Coles or Woolworths and keep a diary of their results.

All three spent less money than they typically would, but that’s where the similarities ended.

Depending on your location and your existing grocery habits, shopping without the big two can either be a breeze, or an enormous inconvenience.

‘I desperately wanted to flake’: Molly Glassey, inner Melbourne

I’m a farmers’ market snob who supplements any weekend shortsightedness with a post-work Coles or Woolworths trip. So when I ditched the big two for a week, I thought it would be as simple as buying a bit more fruit and veg on my days off and dining out on self-satisfaction if all else failed.

I thought it would be easy.

But less than 24 hours in, sticky date pudding in the oven and no ice-cream in the freezer, I desperately wanted to flake.

IGA just doesn’t discount junk food like the big two do. Funky gelaterias aren’t an option in a cost-of-living crisis. All I wanted was half-price Connoisseur from Coles. Day two and it happened again; I set out to make tacos, forgetting we didn’t have taco shells, grated cheese or sour cream (don’t judge my obsession with Tex-Mex). Every day for my entire week of abstinence there was something I needed to top off a meal that I didn’t have on hand; dry pasta, tinned tomatoes, tissues! I thought about going to a chemist to stock up on tissues for my snotty toddler but felt awful paying on card for something under $5; a guilt I’d never faced at Woolies or Coles, let them cop the fee. Fight the power.

It was shockingly hard. Not because we have a toddler, but because I’m just so used to “popping” out and grabbing something. I wish I could blame the monopolistic capitalist entities, but I suspect the problem is me. Maybe it’s a hangover from Covid lockdown when going to the shops was a chance for fresh air: “Sorry darling, I need to pop out as we’re dangerously low on moth balls.”

But I definitely saved money this week. I’m a sucker for specials and end up spending more than I intend when I go to Woolworths and Coles. In fact, when I did “pop out” to IGA, I wasn’t at all wooed into buying more than I needed. These small grocers really need to work on their sneaky spending tactics.

While I despise Coles and Woolworths for their bright lights, cheap tricks and huge profits, I also find myself there multiple times a week, falling for it all and loving it.

Did you save any money? Yes, I definitely get sucked into buying more than I need when I go to Coles or Woolies.

Did you save any time? No.

Would you do this again? Sure, but not willingly.

‘I’m a convert’: Jasper Peach, regional Victoria

Where I live in regional Castlemaine there’s no Coles or Woolies. There is a massive IGA and its smaller counterpart that locals affectionately call the IGB. In our lovingly shambolic household with my social worker spouse and two little kids, Woolies deliveries usually arrive fortnightly. We buy pet food, cleaning supplies, dairy, freezer, pantry items and lunchbox snacks from the supermarket online.

Forgoing that online order this week has been a pleasant surprise.

I discovered my local shops have chivalrous staff to carry everything to your car. I felt like a cast member of The Sullivans, but with a slightly discounted bulk buy box o’ Bonsoy. The groceries I usually order online at great expense were widely available and not as pricey as I expected.

I usually shop for fresh produce at Harvest and their neighbour Sprout for bread, so no habit change was needed there. Both stores are open a couple of days a week and the proprietors run a soup kitchen on Monday nights. Having a relationship with shop owners such as Jo, Ro, Patricia and Paul is a special part of small-town life.

Vegetables used to languish in the crisper after I’d shopped for an impossible menu plan. I’ve found combating perishable supplies one or two days at a time is far thriftier than buying things that disappear from my field of vision (and thus my memory) the moment they’re put away.

We were already buying toilet paper in bulk and using period undies rather than buy disposable period products. We shopped for meat from our freezer stash, a mix of items bought on special and a monthly organic meat delivery from the nearby Jonai farm.

I routinely go hog wild at the discount shop Cheaper Buy Miles whenever I’m in Melbourne. Fighting food waste! Fellow tightarses! Discount wheels of fancy cheese! I was in town for a writers’ group this week and picked up this bonanza of goodies for $81 on the way.

There were building blocks for many of the week’s dinners here. Cheaper Buy Miles’ $3 meal kits are often to solution to the “you want dinner again?” problem. You just add protein, veg and $1 noodles.

So long as the icy poles and snack plates are plentiful (chopped raw veggies, cheese, crackers, salami, fruit) the kids really don’t give a hoot about dinner. The kids just want to watch Bluey, eat mostly carbs then drink some milk and go to sleep.

Did you save any money? Yes, this week $197!

Did you save any time? Yes! Even though Woolies delivery sort of saves time, the reasons for delivery aren’t applicable once you shop a few times a week and stop prepping for the apocalypse.

Would you do this again? Absolutely – I’m a convert.

‘I’ll always need a major to cover the gaps’: Mostafa Rachwani, western Sydney

Western Sydney is still awash with ethnic grocers, from Lebanese to Indian, Indonesian, Greek, Nepalese or Turkish, and I believed I was well-equipped to go a week depending on them.

As a single man living alone, I thought it would be a breeze, especially considering I usually visit my local Lebanese grocer, Fruitopia, on shopping trips anyway.

I am lucky in that my local shopping centre, Lidcombe, has three independent grocers, and a spice shop thrown in for good measure.

My initial plan was to get as many fruit and vegetables at Fruitopia as possible, back it up with a visit to the iconic (it has its name in lights out front, so people can take selfies there) Fresh Asiana for anything I’d missed, then hope for the best.

Fruitopia was well stocked when it came to fresh produce. I picked up most of my usuals, including lettuce, tomatoes, onions, radishes and chilis.

I was pleasantly surprised to see it also had a fantastic dried pasta selection, plenty of cheeses, a lot of sauces and dips, and an incredible snack aisle, including a surprisingly extensive range of Cheetos, and Lotus Biscoff biscuits (a Muslim community favourite).

It also had a predictably good selection of spices, although the only canned tuna was chilli-seasoned, which says a lot of its expected clientele.

By then I was just missing some minor cleaning goods, paper towels, bread and some fresh herbs, which I prefer to get from Asiana anyway.

And while Asiana had more fresh herbs than I could use, as well as the kimchi and sesame oil I was looking for, they didn’t have bread or paper towels.

This is when doubt set in. While I found some sliced bread at the local BreadTop, I ended up walking away without paper towels, and felt strangely sad about it.

I don’t normally do one big shop a week, preferring to shop when I need something, so it’s hard to do a direct comparison, but I would say I normally spend between $70 and $80 on a big stock-up.

The groceries, alongside a quick stop at my local halal butcher (my regular anyway) amounted to just over $60; but it took roughly 15 minutes longer than usual and I had to spend a week mopping spills up with face tissues (expensive and inferior).

Did you save any money? Yes, roughly $10

Did you save any time? Nope! Going up and down the stairs between the different grocers and hunting for a final few items added about 15 minutes to my shop.

Would you do this again? I really wanted to do it all, and I really enjoyed the wider selection and slightly cheaper options at the independent grocers, but I think I’ll always need a major supermarket to just cover the gaps.