Aldi loses top spot as Australia’s favourite supermarket … SMEs being “gouged” by energy prices … Costco expands in Queensland

By Dominic Powell and Emma Koehn. 

German discount supermarket Aldi is no longer the consumer favourite when it comes to shopper choice, according to Canstar’s supermarket satisfaction survey.

Instead, South Australian supermarket chain Foodland, owned by Metcash, has taken the crown, scoring five stars for overall satisfaction, beating out Aldi’s four star score and knocking the retailer off its three-year pedestal at the top of the rankings.

The retailer excelled in almost all areas of the survey, scoring five stars for customer service, store layout, product variety and food freshness, where Aldi performed strongly for the strength of its private label products and its deals.

When it comes to supermarkets, all you ever hear about is the so called ‘price war’ between the big three – Coles, Woolworths and ALDI – with price reductions on anything from fruit to meat often deemed worthy of the evening news,” Canstar said in the survey.

“But in South Australia at least, another supermarket chain is making its presence felt, to the extent that it has now dethroned ALDI at the top of our national customer satisfaction ratings.”

The rankings were rounded out with IGA also scoring four stars, and Coles and Woolworths scoring three stars respectively.

SMEs “gouged” by energy prices

Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell has called for action on the electricity and gas price hikes affecting Australia’s SMEs, saying “business as usual is no longer an option”.

In an opinion piece for Fairfax, Carnell called upon the government to “get on board with a national approach” to solving Australia’s energy prices, lest they drive more and more SMEs out of business.

“While governments blame each other and strike deals for big business to minimise cost impacts, small businesses are being gouged and hung out to dry. High energy users like manufacturers and hospitality businesses are casualties of a failed system,” Carnell said.

“If we don’t fix the policy settings there will be small business closures and job losses, it’s that simple. The only growth will be in high-polluting diesel generators and off-grid generation.”

Costco expands further up East Coast

The Whitsunday Times reports Costco’s head office has confirmed it will start work on a second Queensland Costco store at an abandoned Masters site in Bundamba.

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