Groceries are up. Petrol is up. Everyone in New Zealand is feeling the cost-of-living squeeze, and "just drive to the cheap supermarket" isn't the simple win it sounds like, not once you count the fuel and the time to get there.
Why we built this
We wanted a plain, honest answer to a question every household is asking right now: where is my shop actually cheapest, after the drive? A store with lower shelf prices two suburbs away can easily cost you more once petrol and your time are in the maths. Nobody was showing that clearly, so we built it.
is it worth the trip? prices your basket at your nearest PAK'nSAVE, New World and Woolworths from their own public shelf prices, adds the return drive and the value of your time, and tells you the all-in cheapest. That's it. Free to use, no account, no catch.
How the maths works, two real examples
For the national picture we split New Zealand into its census blocks (Stats NZ statistical areas, about 2,300 of them), and for each one we find the nearest PAK'nSAVE, New World and Woolworths by road, price the basket, and add the return drive. Here's the same calculation on two real blocks (outlined in blue), so you can see how the drive changes the answer.
In town: Kilbirnie, Wellington
All three stores are within about a kilometre, so the drive barely costs anything and the cheapest shelf price simply wins.
| Store | Drive | Groceries | + drive | All-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAK'nSAVE Kilbirnie | 1.2 km · 2 min | $300.75 | $0.49 | $301.24 |
| Woolworths Kilbirnie | 1.2 km · 2 min | $313.18 | $0.49 | $313.67 |
PAK'nSAVE wins by about $12. Worth the (tiny) trip.
Out of town: Huntly, Waikato
The nearest PAK'nSAVE is a 31 km drive to Hamilton. Its shelf prices are $12 cheaper, but the return drive costs about the same, so it's almost a dead heat.
| Store | Drive | Groceries | + drive | All-in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAK'nSAVE Mill Street | 31 km · 31 min | $300.75 | $12.45 | $313.20 |
| Woolworths Huntly | 2.5 km · 5 min | $313.18 | $1.00 | $314.18 |
A $0.98 difference, on fuel alone. Value your time at all and the local Woolworths wins. Often not worth the trip.
The whole country, coloured by who wins
Run that calculation for every block and colour it by the all-in cheapest, on fuel only, and you get the map below. PAK'nSAVE (yellow) is cheapest all-in for most New Zealanders; the towns without a nearby PAK'nSAVE go green for Woolworths once the drive is counted.
Coloured on fuel only ($0.20/km), the tool's default. Areas more than a short drive from any store, and unpopulated areas, are left uncoloured. Distances are real road distances.
Independent, and staying that way
- No retailer pays us. These are factual public prices; we don't take a side, and we'll show you when the "cheaper" store isn't actually worth the drive.
- Everything is stated in the open. Every product we compare is published, product-for-product, so you can check our working. See how it works for the full method.
- We shop here too. We're a small New Zealand team, buying the same groceries at the same prices, this is the tool we wanted for ourselves.
- Private. We only use an approximate location to centre your map. We don't need to know who you are.
Built by Iterate
We're Iterate, practical technology for New Zealand small businesses: Microsoft 365, websites, SEO, IT support and automation, and a bit of AI where it actually helps. This tool is the kind of thing we make: a real problem, solved simply, in the open.
→ iterate.nz→ How we compare prices fairly, the method and the full equivalence table
→ Cheapest meat in NZ right now, supermarkets vs Mad Butcher compared per kg