Coles

The Australian Supermarket world is something of a farce as far as the consumer goes, as there are only two main players in the game, Coles and Woolworths, this duopoly is probably the reason why food prices have risen so quickly over the past few years in Australia, as their is little real competition.

For some reason Coles is seen as the 'higher' end of the market by many, and a certain snobbery exists in this, for instance I often hear "I only shop at Coles", but never hear "I only shop at Woolworths", I'm sure the Coles shoppers are actually saying, "I never shop at Woolworths".

Coles Marketing people must know this, and their advertising plays on this, putting a glossy 'celebrity chef' shine on the advertising, such as the "Curtis Stone's feed your family for under $10", these advertisements caused controversy, when it was discovered it was assumed that most of the ingredients for such a scheme were already in your cupboard.

In reality Coles and Woolworths are in real world terms exactly the same, from the food they stock on the shelf to the way they are taking over the Australian retail petrol industry, Coles just seem to have elevated themselves a step up the supermarket snobbery ladder.