Coles, Woolworths, Aldi: We hate them, and here’s why

The biggest issue that most over 60s have with supermarkets? Queuing up.

Consumer research company Canstar Blue has released the results of a survey of 3000 supermarket shoppers – asking them to name their biggest issues with shopping at supermarkets. This, of course, did not include prices because that’s always our number one concern – how to shop cheap and save money.

When it comes to what ticks us off, men and women were angered by different things. Men were more likely to complain about queues at checkout, and when they can’t find an assistant to help them find something. Women are more likely to get annoyed by other people because they’d prefer not to share ‘their’ space, and they’re also more likely to be stressed about something they really want being sold out.

While checkout queues were the main gripe for customers all over the state, at Woolworths (27 per cent), Aldi (26 per cent) and IGA (26 per cent), the biggest problem for Coles customers was sold out items (23 per cent). The introduction of self-service checkouts seems to have been a preemptive measure to tackle these issues, but queues will be a problem there too.

Aldi shoppers were also the most likely to complain about other customers (15 per cent) – which just goes to show – money can’t buy happiness.

The most common issues stated were:

Queues at the checkout — 24%

Items being sold out — 22%

Other customers (includes blocked aisles, misbehaving children etc.) – 12%

Self-service machine errors — 10%

Trying to find a parking space — 9%

Store layout (not being able to find what you want) — 7%

Not being able to find a staff member to assist — 6%

Store opening/closing times — 2%

Other reasons — 6%

Are there any other reasons you’d like to add?