A cheaper store is only cheaper if the drive doesn't eat the saving. This tool weighs the whole cost of a shop, groceries + petrol + your time, at your nearest PAK'nSAVE, New World and Woolworths, and tells you if the cheaper store is worth the extra kilometres.
As of 25 Oct 2026, we track the prices of 40,492 products at 386 NZ supermarkets (57 PAK'nSAVE, 149 New World and 180 Woolworths), refreshed every night.
How it works
- We read the same shelf prices you'd see on each retailer's own public website, no login, no account, nothing behind a paywall.
- Prices refresh overnight, once a night, with light, well-spaced requests. We read politely and never hammer a site.
- When you drop a pin we find your nearest store of each chain, price the basket at each, add the return drive (your ¢/km) and your time (your $/hour), and compare the all-in totals.
How we compare fairly
- Identical products only, national brands matched on brand + exact pack size + name, compared on normalised $/unit ($/kg, $/L, each).
- The headline compares your nearest PAK'nSAVE and Woolworths, counting only items stocked at both (New World is shown too where it stocks the item).
- Prices are what you'd pay at the till, specials included, Woolworths Club price where it applies.
- We never silently match house brands. Pams is not Woolworths' own brand. Where a staple only exists as each chain's own brand or fresh produce, milk, butter, eggs, meat, veg, we don't guess. We use the published equivalence table below, so you can see exactly what we treated as equivalent.
As of 25 Oct 2026, PAK'nSAVE is on average 9.2% cheaper than Woolworths across 7,723 products both chains sell in the same brand and pack size (typically 4,501 in any one area), about $9.20 in every $100. Woolworths is still cheaper on about one product in five. New World (same owner as PAK'nSAVE) is shown in the tool for completeness. Figures refresh nightly from public shelf prices.
The equivalence table
Every product we compare is declared in the open, each chain's comparable line, its pack size, and the normalised price. The cheapest of the three is marked ★. National = the exact same brand at all three; House = each chain's own brand (e.g. Pams ↔ Woolworths); Commodity = fresh produce and meat by the kilo.
Everyday staples
Browse every comparison
Our principles
- Transparent, everything we compare is stated. If you can't see how a number was reached, we haven't done our job.
- Independent, no retailer pays us. These are factual public prices; we don't take a side.
- Polite, we read lightly and overnight, and respect the sites we rely on.
- Private, we use only an approximate location to centre your map; we don't need to know who you are.
→ Cheapest supermarket in NZ right now, by region, island and category
→ Cheapest meat in NZ right now, supermarkets vs Mad Butcher compared per kg
→ IRD mileage rate 2026, and what a detour really costs per km
→ Why we built this, the story behind the tool
Common questions
How often are the prices updated?
Every night. Prices are read overnight, once a night, with light, well-spaced requests. The prices on the site right now are from 25 Oct 2026.
Which supermarkets do you compare?
PAK'nSAVE, New World and Woolworths: 57 PAK'nSAVE, 149 New World and 180 Woolworths stores across New Zealand. The meat map also compares Mad Butcher, per kg. Woolworths Club prices are off by default, because you need an Everyday Rewards card to get them; turn them on if you have one.
How is the cost of the drive worked out?
When you set your location we find your nearest PAK'nSAVE, New World and Woolworths by road and work out the return drive to each. The distance is charged at your running cost per km ($0.20 a km for fuel only by default, up to $0.83 for the full cost of running a car, or nothing for an EV) and the drive time at what your time is worth (nothing by default, or $15, $30 or $60 an hour). Both are added to each store's grocery total to give the all-in cost. How that compares with the IRD mileage rate.
Should I cost a supermarket detour at the IRD mileage rate?
Usually not. IRD's kilometre rates are for business vehicle claims, and the higher Tier 1 rate covers a vehicle's fixed costs as well as its running costs. A short detour to a cheaper store adds to the running costs only, mainly fuel and some wear, so our fuel-only and fuel-plus-wear rates are closer to what it really costs you. The IRD rates next to ours.