The real reasons Aussies hate supermarkets

Sometimes a trip to the supermarket can be fairly straightforward, and at other times it’ll leave you with your blood boiling.

Long queues, machine errors or store opening times, some Aussies will complain about nearly anything.

But a recent Canstar Blue survey reveals the biggest gripes that Aussies have with our supermarkets (excluding price complaints), and who the worst offenders are.

So which Aussie supermarkets are the biggest offenders?

Checkout queues are the main cause of complaint at Woolworths (27%), ALDI (26%) and IGA (26%), the survey found.

Also read: Prices to be slashed further as supermarket war continues

The exception is Coles where just 22% of shoppers get frustrated by queues to pay, while 23% say their number one grievance is items being sold out.

At Woolworths the number is 21%, while at ALDI and IGA it’s 22%.

ALDI shoppers are the most likely to complain about other customers (15%).

That compares to just 10% at IGA, 13% at Woolworths and 14% at Coles.

Shoppers at Coles and IGA are most likely to raise concerns about parking (10%), while not being able to find a store assistant is more of a complaint at ALDI (7%) than anywhere else, although there isn’t much in it.

Also read: Woolworths’ latest move in the Aussie supermarket war

“It seems we’ve been complaining about having to queue up at the checkouts forever, yet it’s an issue the supermarkets have never managed to address to everyone’s satisfaction,” Canstar Blue group executive Megan Doyle said.

“The introduction of self-service checkouts has clearly helped get customers in and out faster, but they are not immune to long queues and frustrations.”

“In fact, queuing to use a self-service checkout is arguably more annoying than queuing at a normal checkout because you expect the process to be quicker.”

“Most shoppers can probably understand a slight delay at the checkout if they see all the stations are being manned, or in the case of self-service machines, are working properly,” Doyle said.

Also read: Is Woolworths losing the supermarket war?

“But if it looks like the supermarket isn’t helping the situation by not making all checkouts available, people have every right to feel aggrieved,” she said.