Compare the Market’s Chris Ford revealed how much you could save if you exclusively bought home brand products from Coles or Woolworths. (Source: Instagram\/Getty) <\/p>\n
Australian shoppers<\/a> could be wiping thousands of dollars a year<\/a> off their grocery bills by doing one thing. While some might be loyal to certain brands because of the company, branding, or the item’s flavour, it could be costing them more than they think.<\/p>\n A poll of nearly 2,900 Yahoo Finance readers found 27 per cent refuse to buy home brand items<\/a> because they can “tell the difference”. But Compare the Market<\/a> analysed 20 everyday household items at Coles and Woolworths<\/a> to see what the price difference was between home brand and more well-known brands.<\/p>\n Compare’s Chris Ford said the savings can be huge if you pick the cheaper option.<\/p>\n RELATED<\/p>\n \u201cThe proof is in the pudding,” he said.<\/p>\n “We found that a shopper could stand to save up to $81 on by ditching the big names with pretty packaging.<\/p>\n “If they did the same shop every week over a year, that\u2019s an annual difference of $4,212.”<\/p>\n If you purely picked brands that aren’t home brands, your bill for the 20 items would be $164.<\/p>\n The home brand trolley’s bill came to just $83.<\/p>\n The Compare team bought everything you might need or want during the week, including chicken tenders, milk, cheese, peas, tea, yoghurt, eggs, butter, toilet paper, and cleaning products.<\/p>\n Do you have a story? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com<\/p>\n The investigation found the difference between the two types of products could be as low as 30 cents or as high as $23.<\/p>\n Compare the Market found laundry powder had the biggest price gap, followed by instant coffee ($9.50 difference), body wash ($7.20), mouthwash ($6), and multipurpose cleaning spray ($5).<\/p>\n Ford said this analysis is more important than ever as Aussies’ grocery bills continue to climb.<\/p>\n Research<\/a> showed people are spending close to $200 every week at the supermarket, which works out to be $10,304 per year.<\/p>\n That’s a 3.39 per cent or $338 lift on figures from last year, with one in five shoppers saying the supermarket was their most concerning household bill.<\/p>\n Coles recently revealed it was reducing its non-home brand stock<\/a> by as much as 10 per cent in an attempt to rival Aldi, which mainly stocks these types of items and is why it can be cheaper than its bigger rivals.<\/p>\n Woolworths also explained<\/a> that it was increasing shelf capacity to offer more home brand stock.<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n The two supermarkets have also created different tiers of in-house items, with some being in plain, boring plastic, while others look almost like luxury brands because of fancy packaging.<\/p>\n Consumer group CHOICE noted<\/a> that this range of home brand items means many shoppers might not even be aware they’re buying something created by Coles or Woolies.<\/p>\n But this trend could end up seeing your favourite non-home brand product edged out.<\/p>\n Coles said it regularly reviews the products on its shelves and if they’re not performing, including home brand items, they’ll be removed.<\/p>\n \u201cOur team is always working hard to bring innovative new products to the shelves and we consistently review our range to ensure we stock the products customers want to buy, while creating shelf space to invest in new products and minimise waste associated with products that don\u2019t sell,” a spokesperson told Yahoo Finance<\/a>.<\/p>\n Woolworths boss Amanda Bardwell added that they will follow where their shoppers go.<\/p>\n “Customers are switching from brands to own brand. We\u2019re seeing a shift in terms of customers increasingly looking for value in multiple different ways,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n As for whether small-name products would be on the chopping block with Woolies’ expansion of home-brand items, the supermarket told Yahoo Finance that it couldn’t elaborate further.<\/p>\n Get the latest Yahoo Finance news – follow us on Facebook<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n