The final report on our supermarket giants from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) inquiry has dropped. The headline item has generally been the conclusion that Woolworths and Coles are comfortably among the most profitable supermarket retailers on Earth, and that the market dominance that allows for this is most likely entrenched for good.
In the latest Paint by Numbers, Crikey gets into the stats, new and old, that demonstrate where our supermarket duopoly gets us.
***
Related Article Block Placeholder
Article ID: 1176983
Combined grocery market share of Woolworths and Coles by the 1960s: 31%
Percentage of national supermarket retail sales made by Woolworths and Coles in 2024: 67%
Woolworths’ market cap* as of March 2025: $34.39 billion
Coles market cap as of March 2025: $24.87 billion
Increase in the price of milk since 2019: 34%
Increase in the price of eggs since 2019: 47%
Percentage of people in remote areas who told the ACCC the reason they shopped at the grocery stores they did was because they had “no other option”: 56%
Average cost of a basket of essential groceries in Australian cities: $44.70
Average cost of the same basket in remote areas: $99.38
How much a Woolworths store worker earns in a year: $41,595
How much former Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci earned in the 2022-23 financial year: $8.6 million
How much a Coles store worker earns in a year: $49,934
How much former Coles chief executive Steven Cain earned in the 2022-23 financial year: $10.2 million
Number of products the ACCC alleges Woolworths marketed with misleading discount campaigns over a 20-month period: 266
Related Article Block Placeholder
Article ID: 1162983
Number of products the ACCC alleges Coles marketed with misleading discount campaigns over a 15-month period: 245
Increase in Woolworths’ average product margin between 2019−20 and 2023−24 financial years: 2 percentage points**
Increase in ALDI’s average product margin over the same period: 1.9 percentage points**
Increase in Coles’ average product margin over the same period: 1.5 percentage points**
Estimated increase in Woolworths’ Australian food gross margin in the five years leading to the 2023–24 financial year: 294 basis points or 2.94%.
Decrease in real wages in Australia between 2019 and May 2024: 4.8%
***
* Short for market capitalisation, i.e. the total value of a company’s outstanding shares in the stock market.
** ACCC analysis “suggests that increased product margins did not solely recoup increased costs of doing business, and that retail prices increased at a greater rate than costs”.
Have something to say about this article? Write to us at letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.