Ask any government energy agency, regulator or consumer advocacy body (����Vlog included) how to save on gas or electricity and they will tell you to shop around.

For those who do, Melbourne-based retailer GloBird might present an enticing option.

With rates that market watchers say can be lower than average and a promise to let you “enjoy low cost energy for as long or as little as you like,” this small provider has drawn the eye of consumers looking for a better deal.

Yet it’s this very cohort of savvy bill-watchers that GloBird is reluctant to take on as customers.

The retailer is denying service to people who use Bill Hero – a service that helps consumers compare energy providers by analysing their bills, showing them where they could be saving more and helping them switch.

GloBird says people who use services like Bill Hero might switch away too soon after joining and undermine its business model, making it difficult for the company to operate.

In taking this stance, GloBird is operating within the law, but leaving unhappy consumers in its wake.

“I thought it was anti-competitive,” says Andy King, who missed out on saving around $300 a year on gas after GloBird told him it didn’t offer plans to Bill Hero users.

“They’re obviously running a business and can pick and choose who they take on… [but] there’s just something not quite right here in terms of GloBird blanket-banning people who are actively trying to manage energy prices, especially these days,” he adds.

Andy is one of several people we’ve heard from who were told directly by GloBird that they wouldn’t be served because they were Bill Hero users. Others were given different, more vague reasons, but believe their association with Bill Hero was the deciding factor.

Most Bill Hero users were identified through their use of an email server associated with the service.

But others say GloBird rejected them due solely to their street address, suggesting the retailer kept a record of these details as another way to identify Bill Hero users.

Who are GloBird and Bill Hero?

GloBird 

GloBird is an energy company that sells electricity and gas plans to households in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.

It’s considered a smaller “Tier 2” retailer by the Australian Energy Regulator and like many retailers its size, doesn’t generate its own electricity or gas.

Rather, it enters into deals with generating companies to secure these resources for its customers.

Having operated under this arrangement for several years, it’s been recognised by some consumers and energy market watchers for offering comparatively low prices.

Bill Hero

Bill Hero, meanwhile, is a paid energy bill comparison and switching service.

Subscribers can upload their electricity and/or gas bill and Bill Hero will compare it to all other available plans to see if they could be paying less for their current use.

A unique part of the service is it provides subscribers with a dedicated email address made up of their name and the @billhero domain.

By registering this as their primary email with their energy retailer and getting all subsequent bills sent to it, users can get an ongoing analysis from Bill Hero of each bill and an indication of whether they could save by switching to a different provider or plan.

For an extra fee, subscribers can then get Bill Hero to take care of the process of switching them to a cheaper retailer.

Note: ����Vlog has a partnership with Bill Hero and may make money if you sign up to it via our website. All funds go straight back into our nonprofit mission. However, we don’t specifically endorse or recommend this energy comparison service.

Bill Hero calls blocking a “badge of honour”

“Smaller retailers [like GloBird] generally are the most price-competitive,” says Bill Hero CEO Richard Foxworthy. 

“They’ll put genuinely competitive prices into the market [and] through platforms like our own, those plans will rise to the top of the comparisons fairly frequently.”

Foxworthy says this has consistently drawn Bill Hero users to GloBird’s offers, but many are blocked when they try to sign up to the retailer.

����Vlog has heard from Bill Hero users in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland who have been denied access to the company’s plans.

Most were pulled up by the retailer when they provided their Bill Hero email address during the sign-up process.

Some users who tried to do this over the phone recall being told directly that GloBird did not offer plans to Bill Hero users.

“We see this problem as a bit of a badge of honour,” notes Foxworthy, who says GloBird has been attempting these blocks for the past few years.

“We think that we must be doing things well, if at least one of the retailers is seeking to prevent it.”

GloBird stands by rejecting customers

GloBird gives multiple reasons for why it’s refused to serve customers who use Bill Hero.

The most commonly-cited relates to the company’s model as an entity that doesn’t own its own generation assets and has to buy energy from other parties.

GloBird executive manager John McCluskey tells ����Vlog via email that most customers prefer price stability and paying a set rate for their energy for a period of time, rather than prices that go up and down with the cost of electricity or gas in the wholesale market.

In order to provide this, he says, GloBird has to purchase “hedging products” such as swaps, contracts, options and futures in wholesale energy markets, which allow it to “lock in” the cost of supplying energy to customers in advance.

McCluskey argues that if lots of GloBird’s customers used a comparison service and switched away en masse, the retailer would have less income with which to manage these supply costs – something he says would pose a “risk” to the business.

The company explains this on its website, saying customers who switch in and out frequently cause issues for its operating model, but on the very same page says customers can stay “for as long or little as they like”.

McCluskey says retailers like GloBird who hedge would have to raise their prices if too many of their customers were encouraged to switch away.

GloBird also says services such as Bill Hero prevent it from being able to “obtain Explicit Informed Consent (EIC)” from its customers and ensure that they are “verifiable’’.

Bill Hero says its arrangements don’t undermine these requirements and says it takes steps to get customers to provide information to meet EIC requirements where needed.

It says GloBird is the only energy retailer denying service to its users or claiming its systems undermine a relationship with customers.

GloBird denies having a strict policy of denying all Bill Hero users and says it takes the same approach with all comparison services.

It says it’s “prioritising” new customers with whom it can “establish a stable, ongoing relationship”.

Savvy shoppers switch more than most

Some of the Bill Hero subscribers ����Vlog spoke to said they switched gas or electricity retailers on average once a year while using the service.

This is more than average – only approximately 20% of consumers switch electricity retailers this often, according to a 2025 ACCC report examining the retail market in Australia’s most populous states.

Bill Hero CEO Richard Foxworthy acknowledges customers who closely watch and act on prices can be a headache for some retailers.

“I do have some sympathy for energy retailers. It is a competitive market. They’re under very significant regulatory restraints. It’s not an easy business to be in, but it’s the business they’ve chosen to be in,” he says.

“Any retailer who is genuinely committed to sustain competitive pricing should welcome the kind of scrutiny that Bill Hero brings.”

Is blocking customers legal?

GloBird is allowed to pick and choose who it takes as customers. But ����Vlog senior campaigns and policy advisor Jordan Cornelius notes that the company is restricting Australians who are acting on advice from government and energy regulators.

“Consumers shouldn’t be penalised for following the prevailing advice that tells them that in order to avoid paying too much for energy, they should shop around and switch plans regularly,” she says.

In parts of the country where consumers have a choice of energy retailer, only a select few larger providers are actually obliged to take you on when you’re shopping around.

These ‘designated’ retailers tend to be larger companies: GloBird is not a designated retailer in any of the jurisdictions where we’ve heard of it knocking back potential customers.

Note: In most areas, once you’re with a retailer and receiving energy from them, they become your ‘designated’ retailer and are required to continue servicing your premises. Designated retailers may also be referred to as ‘Local Area Retailers’ or ‘Retailers of Last Resort’.

Experts weigh in

Retail energy experts acknowledge GloBird’s actions as part of a need for businesses to balance customer numbers against money spent securing access to energy.

“It is not very nice, that’s just an opinion. But I also understand the logic of it… it’s difficult to be a small retailer these days,” says Guillaume Roger, an economics professor studying the electricity market at Monash University.

Professor Bruce Mountain, energy economist and director of the Victorian Energy Policy Centre at Victoria University, says smaller retailers like GloBird are often having to manage the risk of exposure to the wholesale energy market.

“[They] continually look at the profile of their customers’ demand and build or buy a series of contracts which allow them to supply those customers at the lowest cost that they think they can,” he explains.

Mountain says retailers like GloBird offer cut-rate energy plans that look good in the beginning, but are designed to turn a profit in the long run.

“They offer loss leading deals to attract customers. And their business proposition is we’ll lose on selling to you for the first period. But once you’ve linked your bank accounts to us and it’s sticky, then we’re going to make money off you,” he says.

Concerns over GloBird’s information gathering

But consumers have also voiced concerns about the information GloBird appears to have collected in order to identify them as Bill Hero users.

While most were spotted for using a Bill Hero-branded email address, others say they were denied after only providing credentials with no clear link to the comparison service.

Andy King says GloBird may have identified him as a Bill Hero user based on his residential address alone.

“I didn’t use a Bill Hero [email] address [but they] discovered I was a Bill Hero customer through my residential address,” he recalls.

Andy says he was identified by a GloBird representative he spoke to over the phone, who asked for his street address as part of the sign-up process.

After checking this, the staff member said Andy wouldn’t be able to join one of the company’s plans because he appeared to be a Bill Hero customer.

Former Bill Hero subscriber James (last name withheld upon request) became suspicious when he was also blocked after only providing his street address.

It had been his second attempt to join the company – he was first rejected after reaching a stage where he had provided his Bill Hero address as an email contact.

Unhappy with GloBird dismissing the rejections as an “error” and advising he try another retailer, he requested any personal data the company was holding on him, specifically any criteria being used to reject his application.

After putting this in writing, GloBird backtracked and let him join, blaming IT issues for the initial denial.

Both James and Andy had previously been GloBird customers at the same time as being Bill Hero subscribers.

We asked GloBird if they retain the information of customers who are Bill Hero users, such as non-Bill Hero email addresses and street addresses, in order to identify them in the future.

The company said it wouldn’t provide any information on the “specific configuration” of its systems due to them being “commercially sensitive and constantly evolving”.

Bill Hero users still getting through

James isn’t the only Bill Hero user who was able to get onto GloBird’s books after questioning why his application was being rejected.

We spoke to one current GloBird customer who was allowed to sign-up with the company over the phone while remaining a Bill Hero subscriber after he disputed the company’s reasons for denying him service.

A customer service representative said they would “make an exception” for him if he gave a non-Bill Hero address as his email contact.

The customer, who we have decided not to name, says he’s forwarding the bills GloBird sends to this address onto Bill Hero in order to keep receiving the service’s comparisons and analysis.

Things to consider when shopping around for energy

If you live in a region where you’ve got a choice of energy retailer, shopping around and switching to a cheaper plan is still considered a good way to save on bills.

However, as highlighted above, complexities in the energy market can make this easier said than done. Here are a few tips and things to consider when shopping the energy market:

Retailers have limited obligations to new customers

If you live somewhere where you can choose between many different energy retailers, it’s worth knowing most won’t be obliged to take you on as a new customer and are allowed to deny requests for service.

‘Designated’ retailers do have to let you join, but there aren’t many of these and they may not offer the best plans. You can see a list .

Pay attention to “better off” messages

Energy retailers in most parts of the country have to include a “better off” notice on your bill that tells you if you could save money on another of your provider’s plans.

����Vlog last year revealed some retailers were rolling out multiple plans with the same name but different prices, making for confusing “better off” messages.

Following our investigation, companies in several states and territories now have to alert customers receiving same-name better-off messages that there may in fact be a cheaper version of the plan they’re on (with the same name) that they can switch to.

Look out for this messaging to cut through the confusion and save.

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If you’re prepared to switch, you have two main options:

• 1. Use a service to find the best deal and switch plans for you
• 2. Switch electricity or gas providers yourself

1. Use a service to find the best deal and switch plans for you

Using a switching service is an option for you if you’re in: New South Wales, South East Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania or Victoria. 

Find a better energy deal with Bill Hero

����Vlog has partnered with energy switching service to help you save on electricity and gas and find the right plan for you. 

Bill Hero meets ����Vlog’s standards for a consumer-friendly service: it doesn’t take commissions from energy companies and it compares every publicly available deal.

How Bill Hero works

• Choose between
  • $49 electricity or gas annual subscription
  • $79 electricity and gas combined annual subscription
• Upload your bill and compare your plan vs all of the available plans on the whole market
• Let them automatically compare every bill moving forward, and let you know when you can save
• Choose their ‘Do It For Me’ (DIFM) switching service and allow them to do all the switching admin (+$25 switching fee)
• There’s a $50 savings guarantee for either electricity or gas, or $80 for both combined.
• They offer $350 average savings for new subscribers.

2. Switch electricity or gas providers yourself

If you don’t want to pay someone to complete your switch, there are state and federal government resources that help you do it for yourself. Your choice comes down to the state or territory you live in.

ACT

NSW

NT

SA

SEQ

TAS

VIC

WA

Australian Capital Territory

You have one option in the ACT: the federal government’s  service. It lets you:

• compare all the available energy prices and plans in your area 
• refine by contract term or payment option
• upload your most recent bill for more personalised results.

You need to complete the switch yourself.

New South Wales

You have one option in NSW. The federal government’s  service lets you:

• compare all the available energy prices and plans in your area 
• refine by contract term or payment option
• upload your most recent bill for more personalised results. 

You need to complete the switch yourself. 

Northern Territory

Your choice of electricity provider is restricted: most NT customers are supplied by government-owned Jacana Ltd.

South Australia

You have one option in SA: the federal government’s  service. It lets you:

• compare all the available energy prices and plans in your area 
• refine by contract term or payment option
• upload your most recent bill for more personalised results. 

You need to complete the switch yourself.

South East Queensland

You have one option in South East Queensland: the federal government’s  service. It lets you:

• compare all the available energy prices and plans in your area 
• refine by contract term or payment option
• upload your most recent bill for more personalised results. 

The rest of Queensland doesn’t have a broad selection of energy retailers, but you can still choose between a couple.

You need to complete the switch yourself. 

Tasmania 

You have one option in Tasmania: the federal government’s  service. It lets you:

• compare all the available energy prices and plans in your area 
• refine by contract term or payment option
• upload your most recent bill for more personalised results.

You need to complete the switch yourself.

Victoria

You have one option in Victoria: the state government’s  service. It lets you:

• compare all the available energy prices and plans in your area 
• refine by contract term or payment option, or features like Green Power
• upload your most recent bill for more personalised results. 

You need to complete the switch yourself.

Western Australia

Your choice of electricity provider is restricted: most Western Australian customers are supplied by Synergy.

The post Save on your energy bill appeared first on ����Vlog.

Woolworths, Coles and the owner of both Kmart and Bunnings have all recently signed major deals with AI technology companies, but remain vague about potential changes to the shopping experience. 

How soon the advanced technology, known as agentic AI, will be rolled out is unclear, as is whether personalised pricing or surge pricing will follow. 

While there are more questions than answers about how AI technology will transform the online shopping experience, one thing is clear. It is coming. 

Supermarkets sign big deals

In October 2025, Coles announced a major deal with OpenAI, owner of ChatGPT, with a plan to roll out AI tools across its internal corporate workforce by early this year. The press release announcing the deal says the company will be using the technology for more than just back-of-house purposes. 

“Together with OpenAI, Coles is also exploring how emerging AI capabilities could reshape the shopping experience, helping customers plan, shop and check out in more personalised, convenient and connected ways,” it says. 

“Building on OpenAI’s experience with global retailers, Coles will reimagine how its teams work and how customers shop through the use of advanced AI tools.” 

In January, Woolworths said they were partnering with Google’s AI tool Gemini to upgrade the supermarket’s existing chatbot Olive to become an AI-powered “supermarket companion” capable of planning meals. 

Wesfarmers, the owner of Kmart, Bunnings, Officeworks and Priceline, has signed AI-partnership deals with both Google and Microsoft in recent months.

The transformation of how we shop

Uri Gal, professor of business and information systems at University of Sydney, says these large and complex language models have the capacity to change the way we shop forever. 

“Pretty soon you’ll be able to say ‘I’m hosting a party for eight people, design a menu for me and buy all the relevant ingredients’. The user willingly delegates responsibility from themselves onto the tool,” he says. 

Gal says the supermarkets have purchased foundational models from the major AI companies, but will be “fine tuning” the systems and training it on internal information like loyalty program data for customisation. 

Jeannie Paterson, professor of consumer protection law at the University of Melbourne, who previously sat on the federal government’s AI Expert Group, says if AI bots are allowed to autonomously put items into checkout baskets, consumer risks will increase significantly. 

“With these systems, the more autonomously they act, the more these risks multiply. They could be putting the wrong items in the basket or spending too much money and if it’s on the consumer to catch that out, there could be serious consequences,” she says. 

Coles and Woolworths respond

We sent questions to Woolworths and Coles about whether proposed AI systems could automatically place items in shopping baskets and whether customers would have the option to turn off assisted shopping technologies. 

A Woolworths spokesperson says customers will have “full control over their cart” and “will be able to review and refine any suggestions from Olive before completing their purchase”. 

“Our approach to AI is focused on making the shopping experience easier and more personalised for our customers. We take a customer-led approach to AI, offering problem solving and shortcuts that are genuinely useful to shoppers,” the spokesperson says. 

“Once live, Olive will be able to anticipate customer needs to make life that little bit easier – from helping plan meals and finding specials, to helping them shop for specific occasions like birthday parties.” 

Coles says AI will make shopping more relevant and convenient for customers.  

“For Coles Online customers, this means helping them discover products they are more likely to need or want to buy, based on their shopping behaviour and preferences. These tools are designed to support the customer’s decisions; while ensuring they remain in control of what they choose to add to their basket,” the spokesperson says. 

Neither company responded to questions about whether customers would be able to opt out or turn the systems off. 

Bunnings and Kmart owner Wesfarmers did not respond to requests for comment. 

Competition concerns

For Paterson from the University of Melbourne, the concern is that AI tools may preference certain products or brands with more lucrative commercial relationships with the retailers over others. 

If this were the case, companies may pay a premium to be recommended more often than others, further decreasing competition in an already highly concentrated market. 

“Consumer law still applies that you can’t mislead or deceive a customer, but with these systems it may be hard to prove what’s going on,” she says. 

Geoff Olds is the managing director of Technology 360 Group, which specialises in working with pharmacy retailers, but also counts Woolworths among its clients. 

He says increased access to AI models will allow small and medium retailers to compete with the big players in ways they haven’t been able to before. 

“It’s going to level the playing field among those who adopt the technology. People who don’t adopt technology in this space drop out of the market. That’s the unfortunate part of disruptive technology,” he says. 

Olds expects to see AI technologies also move into the physical retail space in the near future. Electronic price labelling could potentially lead to surge pricing for customers who shop in stores late at night or on public holidays or even personalised pricing based on customer loyalty and other data points. 

He points out that variable pricing already exists in certain physical settings.

“If you go to the local butcher, the price of meat will change four times a day. If you go to a convenience store late at night it’s going to cost you a lot more than if you went to the supermarket.”

“It’s only a matter of time before we accept these things in the supermarket and chemist settings more broadly,” he adds. 

Big data becomes gold 

Neither Coles nor Woolworths responded to questions about how loyalty programs would be integrated with AI models either online or instore in the future, but Paterson says the massive data sets these companies hold give them enormous power. 

“Loyalty programs are a gold mine. They contain so much data on our shopping habits and behaviours over a long period of time.” 

She says while many people may find these incoming technologies convenient and helpful, scepticism and caution are important. 

“While people might not mind being nudged or prompted towards certain behaviours, if the AI is making the decisions for you, the question needs to be asked: ‘what are you really saving by having something do the shopping for you, and what is it costing?’.”

The post AI is about to do your grocery shopping. Is that good for consumers? appeared first on ����Vlog.

After two years of surveying supermarket prices, we’ve seen some clear trends emerge.

Aldi has had the cheapest overall basket each quarter, though individual product prices can be cheaper at Coles, IGA and Woolworths, especially when specials and discounts are applied.

Woolworths and Coles are incredibly closely matched on price.

And the inconsistency between the independently run IGA stores means that while overall they’re generally more expensive on average than the other three supermarkets, your local IGA may compare favourably. 

All of this means that the advice we’ve been offering since our very first quarterly report remains as relevant now as it was in June 2024: to get the best deal, use unit pricing to compare similar products, shop around to take advantage of discounts at different supermarkets, and don’t get stuck in a routine, but instead look for alternative products that can help you save.

On this page:

• The cheapest supermarket in our survey
• Base item prices
• Prices for school lunch items
• What’s in our basket?
• How closely matched are Coles and Woolies?
• How does IGA compare
• Changes in the past 12 months
• Does where you live make a difference to grocery prices?
• Freshness assessment
• What our results mean for consumers
• How we survey supermarkets

The cheapest supermarket in our survey

Without including specials, our full basket of 17 items cost $75.98 at Aldi, $90.08 at Woolworths, $90.90 at Coles and $101.84 at IGA.

It’s important to note that in order to compare the same products as often as we can, the baskets from Coles, Woolworths and IGA contain more name-brand products than the Aldi basket. 

Prices with specials

When you take into account the savings from the specials available when we shopped, at Aldi our basket cost $75.98. It cost $89.08 at Woolworths, $90.09 at Coles and $99.10 at IGA.

During our fieldwork, Coles had a special on the Sunbeam sultanas 6-pack, and Woolies had a special on the Bega cheese slices. IGA had specials on ham, bread, yoghurt pouches, tuna, cheese slices, breast fillets and milk, but these varied from store to store.   

Base item prices

In our base basket of seven items, which contains apples, bananas, strawberries, carrots, Weetbix, milk, and chicken breast fillets, and without including specials, Aldi was cheapest at $34.03, followed by Woolworths ($35.37), Coles ($35.73) and IGA ($42.65).��

Looking at the individual items on our base basket list (without specials), Aldi had the best price on all seven items, though in some cases only by a few cents. For example, a 375g box of Weetbix from Aldi cost $3.99 and the same product was $4.00 at Coles and Woolworths and $4.11 at IGA. Nevertheless, those small differences do add up. 

When we look at those same seven items with specials included, the picture remains the same, with Aldi still the cheapest for each product. 

Prices for school lunchbox items

If you’re packing a lunch for your kids for school each day, our spotlight basket of 10 items, which this quarter focused on items you might buy to fill a lunchbox, was cheapest at Aldi, costing $41.96. This basket contained five home-brand and five name-brand products.

If you’re more interested in just the name-brand items from the other three supermarkets, we found that without taking specials into account, you’ll pay $54.71 at Woolworths and just $0.46 more at Coles ($55.17), showing once again how closely matched the big two are on most prices. At IGA, you’ll pay $59.19 for the same 10 items on average. 

When we include the special prices available at the time of our survey, the price at Aldi remains the same but changes slightly at Woolworths, Coles and IGA, where we paid $53.71, $54.36 and $56.72, respectively. 

While most prices at Aldi, Coles and Woolworths were fairly consistent around the country, the variation in pricing at IGA means the average cost of our basket of goods was higher than at the other three stores. While this is an accurate reflection of the data, you may find prices at your local IGA to be closer to what you’ll pay at other supermarkets, such is the significance of the variation between prices at different IGA stores.

What’s in our basket?

In this quarter, our basket included six fresh and 11 packaged items. The products we purchased were:

• Chicken breasts, bulk pack
• Carrots
• Royal Gala apples
• Cavendish bananas
• Strawberries
• Baby cucumbers
• Blueberries
• Full cream milk
• Yoghurt pouches 
• Cheese slices
• Ham
• Weetbix
• Vegemite
• Sultana 6-pack
• Wholemeal sandwich bread
• Multipack chips
• Canned tuna

For all items we chose, we considered a range of factors such as ingredients, country of origin and packaging similarities to ensure we made fair comparisons. When items were unavailable, we looked for the closest alternative, just as you would when shopping for your family. Fieldworkers priced groceries at 104 supermarkets in 27 locations across Australia in December 2025.

You can see the full list of the exact items purchased at each store by clicking on the blue arrow below.

Store by store lists

How closely matched are Coles and Woolies?

In the first eight quarters of our ongoing quarterly supermarket research, Coles and Woolies have remained similarly matched on price. While Woolworths was cheaper when we shopped in March 2024 and September and December 2025, Coles was the cheaper of the two in June, September and December 2024 and June 2025. 

This close contest is reflected in the total basket costs we saw in our latest survey. Without specials Woolies was $0.82 cheaper than Coles in our basket of 17 items. That difference increased only very slightly to $1.01 when comparing prices with specials. 

Eight of the items in our full basket of 17 items were priced identically at the two supermarkets. 

How does IGA compare?

IGA stores don’t have the same chain-store model as Aldi, Coles and Woolworths, with individual stores operating as independently owned franchises. That means we see quite a lot of variation between the stores in the IGA network, often due to variation in store sizes and the effect this has on the ranges.

All of this means that while some IGA stores might be more competitive, overall our basket of 17 items (without specials) cost just over $10 more on average from IGA than the same basket of goods cost us at Woolworths.

Changes in the past 12 months

Our base basket of seven items contains chicken breast fillets, carrots, Royal Gala apples, Cavendish bananas, strawberries, Weetbix and full cream milk. We’ve been surveying the price of these products since the start of our second year of quarterly surveys in June 2025.

Overall, the cost of our seven base items has fallen since last quarter. Strawberries, as would be expected for seasonal produce, fell the most, and the cost of milk rose at all four supermarkets.

The biggest total reduction was seen at Woolworths, where the price of our basket dropped by 16%. At Aldi, it fell by 11%, at Coles it dropped by 6% and at IGA the cost was 4% lower compared to the last time we shopped.

Most of the reduction in prices was due to the average 57% decrease in the cost of strawberries. Woolworths also had a large reduction in the cost of breast fillets, as they were on special (21%). Milk rose on average 6% and the price of bananas fell at all stores except IGA, where they rose by 18%.

Does where you live make a difference to grocery prices?

Our analysis found that the state you live in does make a difference to how much you pay, and we also see variations between the different stores. 

The prices varied very little between Aldi stores, although South Australian customers paid slightly more than customers in other states. ACT had the cheapest Aldi basket, followed by NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia. The difference was only $0.87 between the cheapest and most expensive Aldi baskets across the country. 

Western Australians paid less at Coles than shoppers from other states. For IGA shoppers, Victoria had the best prices, and at Woolworths, ACT residents paid less than those in other parts of the country. Aldi’s ACT shoppers also got the best price. 

Proving once again how much variation exists between IGA stores, the difference between the cheapest and most expensive baskets by state for this chain was over $15; it cost $92.50 in Victoria versus $107.60 in the Northern Territory.

At Coles the variation was just $2.33 (Queensland vs Western Australia) and at Woolies it was $2.95 (Tasmania vs ACT).

Freshness assessment

One concern we often hear is that buying cheaper means getting poorer quality, and frequently, fresh fruit and vegetables are cited as being of a better quality and lasting longer at one supermarket or another. 

So, which supermarket really has the freshest produce? While we can’t answer that question for every item you might wish to purchase, in this quarter’s survey, we asked our mystery shoppers to look at a product that often shows signs of decay more quickly than we would want: strawberries.

Our first freshness survey in June 2025 also looked at strawberries. At the time, Coles had the best result in our assessment, followed by Woolworths and Aldi, with IGA earning the poorest scores.    

As with the previous survey, we asked shoppers to assess the freshness of the strawberries they bought on day one and then again on the fifth day after purchase. Shoppers were instructed to store their punnet of strawberries in the container they were bought in, and to keep them in the crisper section of their refrigerator. After five days, they were asked to examine the berries and tell us how many showed signs of decay. 

In this assessment, Coles once again beat the other supermarkets for its initial results. On day one, 91% of the Coles punnets assessed were found to contain no fruit with signs of decay.

Woolworths came in next with 87%, followed by Aldi (80%) and IGA (61%).

After five days, Woolworths led for freshness: 35% of punnets contained no fruit with signs of decay. Coles followed, with 23% of punnets showing no signs of decay.

Only 15% of punnets purchased at Aldi and 9% of those bought at IGA had no signs of decay after five days.

Aldi had the highest number of punnets (20%) that were assessed to have no remaining fresh strawberries after five days.

What our results mean for consumers

Our shopping baskets provide a general picture of prices in the different stores and locations we visit, but they can’t reveal the whole picture. 

Smaller ranges, as we saw at some IGA stores, and special pricing can make a big difference to overall costs. We also know that between the time we survey and the time we publish our results, prices will inevitably fluctuate.

What our findings continue to highlight is that small changes add up to significant savings, particularly over the course of the year. 

That doesn’t only mean changing the store you shop at. We also recommend you think creatively and carefully about what you choose to put in your shopping trolley. 

There are lots of ways to save money on your weekly shop. Here are three of our top tips to help you reduce what you’re paying at the checkout. 

1. Check the unit pricing: It can be hard to compare prices of different-sized products from different brands, but unit pricing lets you compare prices based on the price per unit e.g. 100g or 1L. All supermarkets are required by law to include this information in labelling, both online and instore.
2. Shop around: Switching between stores and shopping at different supermarkets to take advantage of specials can deliver significant savings. 
3. Change your routine: Swap expensive cuts of meat for cheaper alternatives, look at frozen fruit and veg, particularly if shopping for produce out of season, and give the ugly or imperfect fruit and veg on special a go. Also, don’t be afraid to try home-brand products. Our expert testing often finds these ranges outperform more expensive options at all the supermarkets. 

It won’t change the fact that we are still paying significantly more for our groceries than we were just a few years ago, but making these small changes can add up.

How we survey supermarkets

Supermarkets and locations

We sent undercover shoppers into 104 supermarkets – 27 Woolworths, 27 Coles, 23 Aldi and 27 IGA stores – in 27 locations across Australia in December 2025.

Supermarket locations were chosen to give good coverage of socio-economic status based on ABS Indexes and geographic spread across the country. We survey supermarkets in clusters so that each store has local competition, and we calculate the average price of the basket of goods, both with and without specials.

A price was deemed to be a special when we had evidence of a temporary price reduction. There were 17 grocery items in each basket (6 fresh and 11 packaged items).

For more details on how we survey, see How we survey supermarket grocery prices.

The post Which supermarket has the cheapest groceries? appeared first on ����Vlog.

Whether you love, hate, or feel indifferent towards the Anko brand, its popularity shows no sign of waning. But are Anko products any good? Yes and no.

Anko products keep surprising us, often rivalling – or even outperforming – the big brands in our tests.

But while some Anko buys deliver premium performance at low prices, others aren’t really worth the (admittedly small) price.

����Vlog experts have put dozens of Anko products through their paces in our labs over the past year. Here are some of the best and worst performers from our tests.

On this page:

• Laundry and cleaning
• Kitchen
• Babies and children
• Luggage

Cheap appliances may not last as long

While some of the appliances listed below performed well in our testing, it’s important to consider the lifespan of cheap appliances. They may be made with cheaper parts and have shorter warranties than more expensive products. 

It can also be harder to find replacement parts (if they’re available at all), and the design can make them difficult to repair (either by yourself or a professional), so they could end up in landfill sooner.

If things go wrong with your cheap appliance, you might have better luck with customer service from an established brand rather than a discount retailer.

A cheap appliance might save you money at the checkout, but if you have to replace it sooner because it breaks, it’ll cost you more in the long run. 

Laundry and cleaning

Vacuum cleaners

Worth buying? – No

Kmart and Target sell a range of different Anko-branded stick and barrel vacuum cleaners, priced from about $30 up to $250.

Although we do love it when we find a bargain appliance that really shines, in the case of Anko vacuum cleaners, it’s sadly not so.

All of the Anko vacuums we’ve recently tested were among the lowest scoring overall. The best (or rather, the best of the worst) model scored a mediocre ����Vlog Expert Rating of just 63%. 

In fact, Anko vacs regularly make our lists of stick vacuums to avoid and barrel vacuums to avoid. 

If you’re on a budget, you’re better off checking out our recommendations for the best stick vacuums under $250.

Robot vac

Worth buying? – No

If you’ve been longing for a robot vac but can’t justify the high price, seeing the bargain $169 Kmart Anko Robotic Vacuum hit the shelves in Kmart or Target probably set your heart a-flutter.

But we suggest you swipe left on this cheap date: it’ll only leave you heartbroken.

Considering that the best robot vacs in our tests cost more than $1500 at a minimum, our expectations of a bot this cheap were low, but wow – it really disappointed.

Our experts rated it just 36% overall, and were hard pressed to find anything positive to say about it: when asked about the bot’s good points, they said “none to mention”.

Avoid this dud date and use the cash to take yourself out for a nice dinner instead.

Steam mop

Worth buying? – Yes

This is one appliance that Anko gets right! Our experts found the Anko 1300W Steam Mop easy to use, and it didn’t leave much water behind after cleaning the floor. 

At $52, it held its own against far more expensive products – even some costing more than $500. 

Before you buy, though, ask yourself: Is a steam mop worth it?

Irons

Worth buying? – Yes

Ironing is one household task that many of us loathe. And if you’re ironing-averse, you probably don’t want to fork out a fortune to buy a decent iron. 

Fortunately, Anko does come to the rescue in this situation. 

Its irons are inexpensive and the $29 Kmart Anko 2400W steam iron performed well in our irons test. 

But the highest scoring iron from the brand is a $7.50 Anko cheapie that outclassed irons costing many times more. 

So, if picking up an absolute steal will help beat those ironing blues, hot-foot it to Kmart or Target for the Kmart Anko 2000W Steam Iron.

Or if you’d like to invest in an iron with more features and even better performance, check our expert iron reviews. 

Garment steamers

Worth buying? – Yes

While they didn’t quite earn a recommendation from our experts, Anko’s $40 handheld garment steamer and $55 garment steamer performed solidly in our tests. 

They do have some wrinkles to iron out, however: the handheld model struggled to steam away creases in cotton, linen and poly-cotton, while the full-size model bombed out on linen. 

The handheld version doesn’t have an auto shut-off and its small tank means you’ll be running back and forth to the sink to fill it up if you have a large pile of clothes to steam.

Since our tests, a $29 Anko compact garment steamer has been released. Stay tuned for our next garment steamers review to see how it performs.

Kitchen

Air fryers

Worth buying? – Maybe

Anko air fryers have won many fans, most notably because they’re significantly cheaper than air fryers from many of the leading brands. 

Prices range from just $39 for a mini version through to $129 for a 24L air fryer oven. (Although at the time of writing some products were out of stock online so they may have been discontinued – it’s hard to say, considering how rapidly Kmart brings out new products.)

Our experts have had mixed feelings when testing them in our labs: there have been some dazzlers and some real duds. 

A now-discontinued Kmart Anko 9L twin air fryer fell into the latter camp.

“Not only did it receive a low score in our testing, but the Kmart Anko twin air fryer was also fairly large and heavy, and not very easy to use due to its controls, which were rated as only OK,” says ����Vlog kitchen expert Fiona Mair.

There are a few new Anko air fryers on the block that we haven’t tested yet, but keep an eye out for our next air fryer review to see which ones are the best.

Other Anko air fryers have fared better in our testing in the past, with one even scoring highly enough to be recommended by our experts. Unfortunately it’s since been discontinued, but its results go to show that some Anko models could be worth considering.

Check our detailed air fryer reviews to find out which one to grab off the shelf and which to avoid.

Coffee machine

Worth buying? – No

While a previous Kmart coffee machine we tested made pretty tasty coffee, the most recent machine we tested – the $79 Kmart Anko Compact Espresso – failed to impress.

It scored just 55% on our taste test and 40% for milk frothing. Overall, our experts gave it a ����Vlog Expert Rating of 57%.

If you’re looking for a cheap coffee machine, a pod machine might be a better bet for your money.

Cookware

Worth buying? – Yes and no

Kmart’s cast iron casserole pot ($25) compared fairly well with big-name brands such as Le Creuset, Chasseur and Staub when we tested casserole pots and Dutch ovens – and at a tiny fraction of the cost.

In a previous test, a $20 Anko 24cm frypan scored top marks, performing as well as – and even better than – more expensive brands including Tefal, Scanpan, Chasseur and Essteele.

Unfortunately it’s been discontinued, and the currently available Anko frypans we’ve tested have been somewhat half-baked.

A $19 stone-blast frypan scored 71%, which isn’t bad, but isn’t comparable to the top performing frypans in our review, which score 85% and above.

In terms of saucepans, a 20cm Anko stainless steel saucepan ($20) received top marks in our tests, ranking higher than products costing hundreds of dollars.

Premium performance at a bargain-basement price? That’s definitely a winner in our book!

But don’t just pick up any old Anko pan: the 20cm Stainless Steel Saucepan with Lid ($14) was half-baked, scoring just 66%.

The Anko 24cm Aluminium 4 Layer Non-Stick Frypan ($15) failed to sizzle in our tests, scoring a ����Vlog Expert Rating of just 54%, while an Anko 28cm ceramic non-stick frypan ($22) only managed a lukewarm 57%.

Food processors

Worth buying? – Yes

If you’re after a cheap and cheerful food processor that’ll do the job, you can’t go wrong with the $79 Kmart Anko food processor. 

“This food processor is a very good performer that’s great for chopping, slicing, mixing and emulsifying,” says Fiona. 

“It is a compact unit so it’s easy to store, and all blades are stored in the unit. It is quite noisy though.”

We’ve also tested a smaller Kmart Anko 1.2L food processor, which was the cheapest product in our test. Our experts weren’t as impressed by this one, finding some functions frustrating to use, but at $52, it’s a decent low-cost option if you’re looking for a smaller unit.  

Rice cookers

Worth buying? – Maybe

With prices for rice cookers running as high as $350, there’s a lot to like about affordable Anko models.

One of the cheapest is the petite 1.5 cup Kmart Anko mini rice cooker that costs just $15.

Sure it’s basic, but that’s to be expected for the price. And it definitely delivers: it scored a solid 80% overall in our tests, emphatically beating models costing many times more. 

If you want to size up, the $69 Anko 10-cup version could also be a winner, with similar scores across the board in our tests. It’s relatively expensive for an Anko appliance, but it also scored well in our testing.

While our experts were impressed with the Anko rice cookers we’ve tested, we suggest you check our rice cooker reviews for other brands before you shop. 

Or you could always cook your rice in a different appliance altogether: Is a multifunction air fryer the kitchen appliance you never knew you needed?

Microwaves

Worth buying? – Yes

At $99, the 28L Kmart Anko microwave certainly delivers bang for your buck. 

Our experts recommend it, giving it excellent scores for defrosting mince and a whole chicken, plus very good scores for cooking vegetables, melting chocolate and overall cooking performance. 

“If you’re looking for an affordable microwave that cooks well and is great for defrosting, then the Anko 28-litre model is a good buy,” says Fiona. 

Our experts also recommend the Kmart Anko 25L microwave ($89).

The larger Kmart Anko 34L microwave ($119) scored well overall but was marked down on its ease of use so can’t be recommended by our experts.

At these prices, some Anko microwaves are worth considering for your kitchen, especially if you’re on a budget, but make sure you’re buying one that scores well across all our tests.

Kettles

Worth buying? – Maybe

Anko kettles aren’t always impressive, but they’re not a bad purchase either. 

While only one Anko kettle we’ve ever tested has been recommended by our experts and none of the others scored higher than 74%, they’re always among the cheapest, so they’re not bad value for money. 

If you’re after something cheap and cheerful to make a simple cup of tea, you could do a lot worse than an Anko kettle. 

However, if you’re after something with fancier features or sleek aesthetics, you’ll probably need to spend a bit more.

There were more than 30 kettles on the Kmart and Target websites at the time of writing, with new models added to the range so often that we can’t always keep up with them in our testing! 

To see which Anko kettles are the best we’ve tested and find other hot buys, check our expert kettle reviews.

Bench mixer

Worth buying? – No

Competition in the benchtop mixer market is stiffer than the egg whites for your meringue, with the likes of Kitchenaid, Breville, Kenwood, Smeg and more jostling for shoppers’ attention. 

But big-name mixers come with big price tags. 

If you’re thinking of nipping down to Kmart or Target to pick up a cheap bench mixer, you’re probably better off waiting a little longer to save up for a model that performs better. Your patience could also pay off in the longer term since a cheaper appliance may not last as long.

The Anko white bench mixer is only $79 but you do get what you pay for with this one.

There’s a $69 Anko retro bench mixer now available, but we haven’t tested it so we can’t say whether or not it’s a good buy. However, we can say that the Anko mixers we’ve tested in the past haven’t always wowed our experts. 

Unfortunately, the mixers that scored the best in our testing tend to be at the upper end of the market, but you can pick up a stand mixer recommended by our experts for less than $450 – just check our review first to make sure you’re buying the best benchtop mixer for your money. 

Slow cookers

Worth buying? – Yes

When our experts put Anko slow cookers to the test they were impressed with the results.

They may lack the features of some more expensive brands like Sunbeam, Breville and Cuisinart, but these budget slow cookers perform quite well. 

And at $29 for the Anko 3L slow cooker and $47 for the Anko 6.5L digital slow cooker, those prices are hard to beat.

There are two other Anko slow cookers on the market but we haven’t tested them yet. Stay tuned for our next review.

Our slow cooker reviews are available exclusively for ����Vlog members. 

Babies and children

Bicycles

Worth buying? – No

Kids seem to grow out of things almost as soon as you’ve bought them, and bikes are no exception – so it’s understandable that you might not want to spend a fortune on a new bike that’ll be too small for them in no time. 

When we compared cheap Kmart bikes with similar ones from bike shops in 2024, the Kmart bikes just didn’t pass muster. 

They were poorly assembled, rusted quickly, had faulty parts, needed more replacement parts more quickly, and had to be serviced more frequently. 

When you add up the maintenance costs of a cheap Kmart bike, it quickly becomes a much more expensive ride. And some bicycle mechanics won’t even touch cheap bikes from big-box stores like Kmart, so you might struggle to get it repaired or serviced. 

We suggest you save up to buy a better-quality bike or look for a decent second-hand model rather than going for a cheap product from Kmart if you want to have a more enjoyable riding experience. 

Strollers

Worth buying? – Yes and no

The Kmart Anko Layback Umbrella Stroller may not have the looks or the street cred of a Bugaboo or Stokke, but what it lacks in aesthetics it more than makes up for in value for money. 

It’s just $65 but scored better than strollers costing hundreds (and even thousands) of dollars more. Importantly, it passes all our safety and durability tests, and it’s light and compact, weighing in at just 5.8kg. 

It’s cheap, easy to use and safe – what’s not to like about that?

However, when we tested a $179 Anko Compact Stroller it failed our safety tests and scored just 33% overall. It’s no longer available on the Kmart and Target websites.

A full explanation of the safety failures and Kmart’s full response are both detailed in the Kmart Anko Compact Stroller review. (See below for Kmart’s responses to our safety test results.)

Since we tested the compact stroller, several more Anko strollers have been released, but we can’t comment on their safety as we haven’t yet tested them.

Bassinet

Worth buying? – No

A cheap bassinet can be a tempting buy, but our expert testing reveals that many bassinets fail on basic safety features and can pose serious risks to little ones. 

Until recently, there hasn’t been an Australian safety standard for bassinets that manufacturers must adhere to, so our expert testers had to create ����Vlog safety tests based on established Australian standards for cots and portacots. These tests are what our current results are based on.

Thankfully, a new mandatory standard that covers bassinets has been released. It came into effect in January 2026.

Unfortunately the $149 Kmart Anko Bassinet with Canopy didn’t impressive our testers from a safety perspective – it scored a ����Vlog Expert Rating of just 49% due to the lack of continuous breathable zones around the edge of the bassinet, which could be a suffocation risk, and the mattress thickness not matching with safety recommendations. 

There are more newly released Anko bassinet and co-sleeper products on the market, but we’re yet to test them for safety.

See our full bassinet reviews for all the risks we found in our testing.

Cots

Worth buying? – Yes

We’ve tested the $139 Anko White Wooden cot and the $259 Anko 2-in-1 wooden cot, which both passed our safety tests and are recommended by our experts, so you can save money and be confident that your baby is safe in one of these cots. 

If you’re considering another brand, check our expert cot reviews before you shop to make sure you’re buying a safe product for your baby.

Cot mattress

Worth buying? – Yes

If you’re thinking of buying the $89 Anko cot spring mattress from Kmart or Target, you can rest easy knowing that it’s safe and firm, and recommended by our experts.

Since our tests, an Anko pocket spring mattress has come on the market, but we haven’t yet had a chance to put it through our rigorous testing.

A new mandatory standard for cot mattresses and other infant sleeping surfaces was introduced in July 2024, and from January 2026 all products such as cot mattresses must comply with this standard.

We’ve assessed 50+ cot mattresses in our labs to make sure they pass our stringent safety testing. See the full results of our cot mattress tests for all the details. 

High chairs

Worth buying? – Yes

The $29 Anko Prandium High Low Chair and $149 2-in-1 Wooden Highchair passed our key safety tests with flying colours and are recommended by our experts. 

The $45 Flat Fold High Chair also passed key safety tests, but didn’t score quite well enough for our experts to recommend it, as it’s a bit difficult to clean. 

To find the safest high chairs that are easiest to use and clean, check our detailed high chair reviews. 

Playpen

Worth buying? – Yes and no

Almost a third of the 25 playpens we tested failed key safety requirements – but all the Anko playpens we’ve ever tested have passed.

There’s no Australian standard for playpens, but we test to international standards and use in-house methods based on existing Australian standards for other baby products.

The $145 Anko playpen is the pick of the bunch, with our experts saying it’s easy to use as well as being safe. It’s easy to set up and pack down, and comes with a latched gate so you won’t hurt your back when reaching over the fence to pick up a heavy toddler.

The $99 Anko playpen with base passed our key safety requirements, but is only rated 60% overall as it’s hard to assemble and disassemble.

See our full playpen reviews.

Luggage

Worth buying? – Yes

There are only two Anko carry-on suitcases in our current review, but they’re both pretty good buys for the money. 

At just $39, the Anko Carry-on Hard Case 4 Wheels ranked alongside premium brands such as Samsonite, American Tourister and Antler, some of which cost hundreds of dollars.

“You could buy the $39 Anko carry-on plus return flights from Sydney to Melbourne, and you still wouldn’t have spent as much as if you’d bought the most expensive suitcases in our test,” says ����Vlog luggage tester Matthew Tung. 

Carrying too much for carry-on? The $99 Anko Premium Hard Case 72cm 8 Wheels is a decent option for check-in luggage. It didn’t score quite as well as its smaller sibling, but for the price it’s a durable suitcase that performed as well as other suitcases costing nearly 10 times as much. 

The Anko suitcase range has expanded and we haven’t had the chance to test them all yet, but they’ve typically performed well in our previous tests, with more hits than misses. 

Learn more about cheap vs expensive carry-on suitcases. 

The post Kmart Anko: Best buys and what to avoid appeared first on ����Vlog.

Another year, another round of shrinkflation for Australia’s favourite Easter treats. ����Vlog has found chocolate eggs and hot cross buns that have become smaller and more expensive in the past 12 months.

To add insult to chocolate-coated injury, the cuts are being made by brands that already put the shrink on their Easter products last year. 

In a standout case, Cadbury Dairy Milk has doubled down on its shrinkflation strategy, hitting the same product for a second year running.

For the second Easter in a row, its largest box of hollow chocolate eggs designed for Easter hunts has become not only smaller but more expensive too, costing a whopping 73% more per 100 grams than it did in 2024.

Cadbury and other manufacturers are still blaming high cocoa prices for the cuts. Even though wholesale prices have dropped significantly, agribusiness experts say consumers may not see the cost of chocolate come down anytime soon.

Chocolate egg boxes getting smaller

Last year, we revealed several lines of Easter egg products from global snack giants and supermarket homebrands had been hit by shrinkflation in the preceding 12 months.

Now, a close look at products currently on shelves reveals manufacturers have resurrected the practice in time for Easter 2026, unafraid to make further cuts and raise prices higher for products already given the shrinkflation treatment previously.

Cadbury drops some eggs

In the past 12 months, all of the products we looked at in Cadbury Dairy Milk’s range of boxed hollow hunting eggs have become smaller and more expensive – each box now comes with at least one egg less than it did last year.

The 15-egg box currently on sale for $15 at major retailers has replaced an 18-egg box that sold for $13.50 last year.

Meanwhile, the 10-pack is one egg lighter and almost $2 more expensive than it was 12 months ago, and last year’s 9-egg box has been replaced with an 8-egg version.

But the biggest crack in value for money comes in the form of the ‘largest’ box in Cadbury’s hollow hunting egg range.

Last year, we revealed that the then-22-pack had lost two eggs and gone up in price by $2.50 since 2024.

Seemingly unconcerned with exposure as a serial shrinker, Cadbury has come back for more, cutting two more eggs from the product, while its price at major retailers has increased by another $3.

All up, the 68g downsizing and $5.50 price hike since 2024 means shoppers are now paying almost 73% more per 100g for this box of eggs than they were two years ago.

It’s worth noting that some brands have made the unexpected decision to turn back the clock on shrinkage this Easter.

Case in point, last year we called out Aldi for shrinking packets of mini milk chocolate eggs sold under its Dairy Fine homebrand label.

These packets have since been restored to their former size, albeit with a 33% accompanying increase in price.

Price hikes across multiple brands

We’ve noticed many Easter-themed products that have stayed the same size, but simply gone up in price instead.

A Cadbury Dairy Milk deluxe egg we exposed for shrinking last year is still 340g, but at $23, now costs $3 more than it did last Easter.

Data from price comparison tool Zyft reveals this to be a broad trend across the market – the platform found the costs of Easter bunnies and eggs from Cadbury and Lindt have increased by as much as a third in the last 12 months.

‘Shrunk cross buns’

Nothing is sacred when shrinkflation is concerned – case in point, hot cross buns have also become smaller and more expensive since last Easter.

Packs of Rocky Road and Banoffee-flavoured buns sold under Aldi’s Bakers Life homebrand label are both 20g lighter than they were this time last year.

But with no subsequent cut in price, if you do decide to stump up for these novelty versions of an Easter staple, you’ll be paying nearly 7% more per 100g than you would have in 2025.

Why is this happening?

Manufacturers making the cuts say the rising cost of the goods and services they use in the making of these products and bringing them to consumers is the key reason for the downsizing.

When contacted, Cadbury owner Mondelez told us it’s made “adjustments” to its products in order to keep retail prices within a certain range while it “navigates significantly higher cocoa and input costs globally”.

Aldi similarly responded by saying the commodities it needs to produce hot cross buns have risen in price and that it’s made the decision to shrink some products to “keep prices consistent for customers”.

But haven’t cocoa prices come down?

High cocoa prices have been a reason perennially put forward by chocolate manufacturers shrinking their products, ever since costs for the key commodity spiked by almost 200% in early 2024.

However, after almost two years of elevation, these prices have dropped in recent weeks to levels close to what they were in 2023.

This is largely due to better weather and bigger harvests in key growing regions, says Michael Whitehead, Executive Director of Food, Beverage and Agribusiness Insights at ANZ.

But the cocoa price crash comes too late to provide any relief from this year’s Easter egg prices.

“The egg that you buy off the shelf now is probably from last year’s very expensive bean,” Whitehead explains. “The cocoa bean or the cocoa pods picked for that [egg] were probably picked over a year ago.”

Whitehead and other experts say the current lower cocoa price could start to flow through to consumers later this year or early 2027, but other factors could still scupper the prospect of lower or more stable chocolate prices.

“Cocoa is just a small part of the Easter egg that appears on a shelf,” Whitehead says.

“Can consumers expect … some kind of a price reduction? It depends on all those other components: the price of milk, sugar, packaging, power [and] the diesel to run the truck that gets it there.”

Mondelez, one of the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers, did not say if lower cocoa prices would have an impact on its products, confirming only that it buys cocoa well in advance and that shifts in the price of this commodity won’t immediately change prices seen in stores.

What’s being done about shrinkflation?

����Vlog has been shining a light on shrinkflation in Australia for several years, leading to the federal government turning its attention to the issue.

“The government is considering the adoption of notices telling shoppers when a product has undergone shrinkflation,” explains ����Vlog senior campaigns and policy adviser Bea Sherwood.

Similar requirements have already been put on grocery retailers in some countries overseas, including France.

The Commonwealth has spent several months considering how such notices could work for Australian consumers and businesses and ����Vlog has been putting forward its views.

“These notices should be clear and eye-catching and located close to the product for a reasonable period of time, long enough for consumers to be aware of the change,” Sherwood says.

“Shrinkflation is hard to spot, so these notices would be crucial in helping consumers avoid being caught out by this practice, but when and how they appear in stores and online remains to be seen.”

How to spot shrinkflation

In the meantime, adopt these three practices for a better chance of noticing if your favourite product undergoes shrinkflation.

1. Check if you’re getting fewer items when the product promises to come with a set number.
2. Keep an eye on unit pricing and watch for any changes in the cost per unit.
3. Beware of “new & improved” or other slogan rebrands known to accompany shrinkage.

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It’s pretty straightforward really. Under Victoria’s Payment Difficulty Framework, energy retailers have a statutory duty to provide payment plans to customers having trouble paying their bills on time.

In states and territories under the jurisdiction of the Australian Energy Regulator (ACT, NSW, Qld, SA and Tas), energy retailers are also legally required to allow customers in financial difficulty to stretch out their payments.

Some retailers honour these hardship support obligations, while others have a record of ignoring them.

It’s a serious matter. At the moment, an estimated 460,000 households across Australia are at risk of falling into energy debt.

Engie Energy’s poor track record

In the 2025 Rank the Energy Retailer report produced by Financial Counselling Victoria (FCVic) and Financial Counselling Australia (FCA), Engie Energy was ranked dead last among 18 energy retailers by financial counsellors for its handling of hardship cases.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that, as of June 2024, Engie had the fourth-highest percentage of electricity customers disconnected (0.34%) among retailers regulated by the AER. 

Or that the retailer had the highest number of complaints to the Victorian energy ombudsman between April 2024 and March 2025.

ESC’s special Engie task force

Now Victoria’s Essential Services Commission (ESC), which regulates the energy sector in the state, has launched a court case against Engie for running roughshod over the hardship requirements outlined in the Victorian Energy Rules.

The ESC has charged Engie with failing to assist customers experiencing financial difficulties, failing to provide family violence protections, failing to follow rules designed to prevent bill shock, and collecting debts from customers who were receiving financial difficulty assistance. The common thread is that customers in these situations who reached out to Engie for help between January and November 2024 got none.

Leading up to the legal action, the ESC had set up a task force to investigate Engie, after the ombudsman tipped the regulator off about the string of complaints. The task force is still operating and is ready to take further enforcement measures if warranted, the ESC says.

 Chairperson and commissioner, Gerard Brody, says Engie doesn’t seem to have learned from previous mistakes.

“This is the third enforcement action the commission has taken against Engie in the past 18 months. We fined them $1.7 million in September 2024, $1.2 million last November, and we believe these latest allegations warrant the court’s attention,” Brody says.

“Energy retailers in Victoria have a responsibility to assist customers struggling to pay their bills. These customers are often doing everything they can to keep their head above water, so when support fails them the effects can be outsized and ongoing.”

Engie has 180,000 residential electricity and 155,000 residential gas customers in Victoria.

The ESC is seeking financial penalties as well as a range of other court orders.

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Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate, but I don’t love paying more money for less of it, especially when it often tastes inferior to the original product it’s spawned from (hello Kit Kat eggs!). 

If you look past the pretty packaging and hollow hype, it’s clear the Easter Bunny and Big Choc are banking a sweet surcharge on our festive sugar rush. 

The worst offenders

Need some eggs-amples? Let’s start with that shady frog Freddo. At the time of writing, his 124g egg (which contains two Freddo treats inside) costs $11.50 at Woolworths, which equates to a unit price of $9.27 per 100g. 

By comparison, the usual 35g Freddo costs $2 at Woolies, or $5.71 per 100g. That’s a hefty hike of 62.35%, proving Freddo is pulling a fast one indeed. 

Over at Lindt, the EST (Easter Services Tax) is in full effect, with wildly different prices for 100g of milk chocolate. 

Their standard block costs $8.50 at Big W, while their famous gold bunny form sells for $12 for the same 100g weight. 

Okay, maybe the bunny’s cute ribbon and bell justifies the extra cost, but then there’s Lindt’s 93g milk chocolate ‘casket’ combo (containing one medium egg and 12 small eggs) which goes for a whopping $15, almost twice the price of the 100g block.

You can’t tell me whipping out an egg mould once a year justifies that kind of increase. 

It’s even more maddening when you realise some Easter items are losing weight at the same time (unlike me at Easter time). ����Vlog has exposed numerous cases of year-on-year “shrinkflation”, with popular products selling less chocolate for the same price, or even more. 

For example, in 2024, Cadbury Dairy Milk hollow eggs cost $12.50 for a 408g 24-egg pack ($3.06 per 100g). A year later, a box of 22 eggs cost more at $15 for 374g ($4.01 per 100g).

This year, a box costs $18 but it’s slimmed down again to 20 eggs at 340g ($5.29 per 100g). That’s a 73% increase in unit price over two years, with some serious Easter Ozempic going on too. 

Boycotting the Easter Bunny

It might all be worth it if these eggs actually tasted better than the original products, but let’s be honest, most don’t. We all know deep down that a Crunchie egg with its tiny honeycomb crumbs is no match for the delicious classic bar. 

How long will we put up with confectionery companies cashing in on our cacao-fuelled comas? Not to mention the extra packaging (aka landfill) this festive feasting generates, or the huge carbon miles some products clock up (the Lindt ‘casket’ is manufactured in Switzerland, Germany and Australia!). 

Maybe it’s time to boycott the Easter Bunny and demand a better deal because at the moment, these over-hyped, under-sized eggs aren’t worth shelling out for. 

In the meantime, I’m happily sticking to my old-school Crunchie bars.

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Chocolate may be the most commonly spruiked item at Easter, but you can expect businesses to sell all manner of goods to attempt to cash in on this seasonal holiday.

This month has already seen retailers including Aldi, Big W and Kmart pushing Easter-themed plush toys, pyjamas, baskets and costumes, alongside everyone’s favourite chocolate eggs.

Easter is also a time when more than a few of us are snapping up showbags stuffed with novelty knick knacks and buying various travel and entertainment products to see us through the holiday period.

With retailers rushing to roll out all this stock, there’s a lot that can go wrong and Easter favourites haven’t been immune from previous safety scandals.

With research showing Australians tending to think we’re more protected from dangerous products than we really are, we’ve got tips on how to stay safe this Easter.

Easter items not always safe

Previous years have seen several Easter products called out for posing a risk to consumers.

Bunny-themed hoodies coming without required fire hazard warnings, light-up baskets with unsecured button batteries and chocolates and hot cross buns contaminated with undeclared allergens and even glass are some of the cases that have emerged since the beginning of last year.

Other holiday staples including beach tents, outdoor chairs and child car seat accessories have also been recalled from shelves in recent years.

In a sign of 2026 being no different, the first few months of this year have already seen several light-up novelty toys labelled risky for not meeting button battery safety standards.

Easter is also a time when parts of New South Wales and Queensland host local agricultural shows, and the Royal Easter Show is held in Sydney. 

Showbags are a must-have for many at these events, but these have been found to contain unsafe toys in the past.

Australians overestimating product protections

All this comes in the midst of many Australians believing we’re better protected from dangerous merchandise than we really are.

Previous ����Vlog surveys have found that most of us believe businesses are legally required to make sure the products they sell are safe before making them available to consumers.

This isn’t the case – currently, only some products have to be checked by suppliers to ensure they meet national mandatory safety standards before they’re sold in Australia.

Other products, including toys deemed to pose a significant suffocation risk or items made with harmful materials, are banned from our shelves altogether.

How to avoid dangerous products at Easter

It’s worth knowing that while Australia may not require safety testing for all products before they’re sold, there are established processes in place for withdrawing a product from sale if it turns out to be dangerous.

The ACCC’s arm regularly manages recalls of such items and (FSANZ) issues alerts for similarly dubious foodstuffs.

And protections are improving – previous work by ����Vlog has helped result in new safety measures, such as those for button batteries, being added to Australia’s raft of mandatory standards.

Authorities also often scrutinise products more closely at Easter events.

For example, state consumer affairs agencies regularly conduct inspections of showbags, removing items and warning vendors when non-compliant products are found.

Sydney’s Easter Show – one of Australia’s largest agricultural shows – is a regular target of sweeps by NSW Fair Trading, with every showbag on offer being inspected to ensure none contain any unpleasant surprises.

Still, it’s useful to get familiar with ways you can stay safe while buying and using products at this time of year:

1. Stay across the latest product recalls and safety warnings for food, toys and other items from and . Following these organisations on social media or signing up to their emails is an easy way to keep an eye on updates.
2. If an item contains button batteries, make sure they’re properly secured and not easy for young hands to remove. These small batteries can be deadly to children if swallowed and we’ve seen products missing important features designed to prevent kids accessing them.
3. Avoid buying children’s toys, baby safety items and electronics from cheap overseas websites. We’ve seen many of these items fail Australian safety standards.
4. Learn how to spot a fake review. These can be used to spruik dodgy products.
5. to ensure you don’t end up with any items deemed to pose serious risk of injury, illness or death.
6. Keep up to date with ����Vlog reviews and our regular rundowns of products to avoid to stay informed of any unsafe items.

����Vlog calling for new safety requirements

For years, ����Vlog has been calling for a “general safety provision” covering all products sold in Australia.

This would make it illegal for retailers to sell unsafe items and place obligations on businesses to ensure that all products are safe before they’re sold.

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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the federal government have responded with increased monitoring of prices, a beefing up of penalties for unlawful conduct, and promises to come down hard on any fuel companies caught taking advantage of the disruption to global oil supply chains. 

But will this work to prevent petrol retailers from trying to cash in? And how can consumers avoid the worst of the effects every time they fill up their cars? 

Price-gouging allegations 

Queensland’s peak motoring body, RACQ, has referred a number of major fuel retailers to the ACCC for allegedly taking advantage of drivers by hiking prices significantly in less than three days after the war broke out. 

“There is no good reason for fuel companies to be increasing their prices just days after conflict broke out in the region,” says Ian Jeffreys, RACQ’s principal economic and affordability specialist. 

“Yes, we’ve seen an increase in the global oil price, but that usually takes around two weeks to flow through to bowsers here in Australia, not two days,” he says.

“South East Queensland is already at the expensive phase of the price cycle. Before this additional hike, many fuel stations were already charging more than 50 cents per litre above the average wholesale price.” 

Meanwhile, NSW motoring group NRMA has called the level of price hikes “completely unjustifiable”.

“With prices in Australia’s three largest cities already at the top of the regular cycle, half of the stations in our three biggest cities are effectively inflating that margin to take advantage of the community,” says NRMA spokesperson Peter Khoury. 

“Australians are doing it tough with cost of living pressures, and now is not the time to be ripping the community off – we urge the ACCC to act.” 

What the government is doing

The federal government says it’s increasing scrutiny and surveillance of the fuel sector, shoring up fuel supply and increasing penalties for misconduct. 

“The conflict overseas shouldn’t be an excuse to profit off Australians,” says Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. 

“We’re putting petrol companies on notice. We won’t cop big corporates treating Australian consumers like mugs.” 

Companies will face penalties of up to $100 million per offence for misleading conduct and cartel behaviour. 

Professor David Byrne, an expert in energy and resource markets at the University of Melbourne, says research has shown that during the COVID pandemic, the government talking tough on petrol companies and putting them on notice did have a small positive price impact for consumers. 

“The ACCC has gotten very good at actively monitoring the situation. They have the resources, the data and the people in-house to monitor the wholesale price, what customers are paying and the split. In the past, we have seen fear of prosecution work to drive down prices,” he says. 

Missed opportunity

����Vlog head of policy Morgan Campbell says when sudden prices rises happen, regulators are often limited in what they can do. The federal government last year giving the regulator new powers to tackle price gouging in the supermarket sector was welcome, he says, but also a “missed opportunity” to go further. 

“When the government was looking at price gouging last year, we made two recommendations: ban it wherever it happens, not just in supermarkets, and specifically outlaw unfair price rises during shortages,” Campbell says. 

“The government missed an opportunity, but as global disruptions cause prices to skyrocket again, it’s time to revisit this and give regulators the power to tackle potential price gouging across the economy.” 

Fuel apps

Meanwhile, state governments have been talking up the importance of price comparison apps to help customers shop around and find the best deal on fuel. Melbourne University’s Byrne says the more customers use price apps, the bigger impact it has on competition in the marketplace. 

“The more, in effect, that we’re able to pit the companies against each other to bid for your business, to keep the prices low for your demand, the more we are going to be able to keep the companies in check,” he says. 

“We can’t know how long this war will go on and we can’t stop global oil prices going above $100 per gallon, so some of that we are going to have to eat at the bowser. But there are some things we can do,” he adds. 

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