Coles and Woolworths together control approximately 67% of Australian grocery retail. When two companies dominate that much of what you eat, drink, and clean with, the consequences go far beyond price.
# Australia Has Two Supermarkets
Australia has 26 million people. We have two supermarkets.
Coles controls around 27% of grocery retail. Woolworths controls around 37%. Together: roughly 67% of everything Australians buy to eat, drink, and clean with flows through two companies that, despite appearing to compete, operate in a market so concentrated that genuine competition is a fiction.
In a functioning market, competition drives prices down and quality up. Suppliers have choice. Consumers have power. Entrants can compete.
In Australia's grocery market, none of this applies.
- Suppliers negotiate with two buyers, or they don't sell - New entrants face distribution costs that make national scale impossible without the duopoly - 'Choice' at the supermarket often means choosing between two different Coles or Woolworths controlled products
Both companies have created extensive ranges of brands designed to look independent. Coles has approximately 72 wine brands that appear to be from boutique wineries but are Coles-owned labels, produced at contracted wineries with no actual independent identity.
Woolworths, via Endeavour Group (which it spun off but in which it retains a major shareholding), controls another 147+ wine labels through Pinnacle Drinks.
When you think you're choosing between competing producers, you're often choosing between two Coles products.
Farmers and food producers regularly report being forced to accept below-cost pricing, absorb packaging costs, and fund promotional discounts for the privilege of having their products stocked. The alternative — not being stocked — is often not commercially viable.
A 2024 Senate inquiry into supermarket pricing found extensive evidence of what economists call 'monopsony' power: when a buyer is so dominant they can dictate terms to sellers, just as a monopoly can dictate terms to buyers.
This isn't a call to shop at a specific competitor. It's a call to be informed. Use the Corporate Camouflage scanner to identify which brands are independently owned and which are duopoly labels. Support independent retailers where you can. And understand that the price you pay at Coles or Woolworths is shaped by a market structure that has no parallel in comparable developed economies.
Australia's duopoly didn't happen by accident. It was built, over decades, through acquisition, through exclusivity arrangements, and through the quiet exit of competitors who couldn't match the scale. Knowing this is the first step to changing it.