2017 Supermarkets
Compare supermarkets in New Zealand at Canstar Blue. New World, Countdown, FreshChoice and PAK’nSAVE were compared on value for money, customer service and accessibility of staff, variety of products, layout and presentation of store, deals and specials available, freshness of fruit, vegetables and meat, quality of private label products and overall satisfaction.
Canstar Blue research finalised in March 2017, published in May 2017.
See our Ratings Methodology.
Most Satisfied Customers | New World
New World takes top honours in Canstar Blue’s customer satisfaction ratings for NZ supermarkets. New World rated five stars for its store layout, customer service, product variety and overall satisfaction.
Supermarket special offers keep us keen
You’re walking down the aisle of your local supermarket – we say local because it turns out 59% of us shop closest to where we live – when you see those two little words, ’Special Offer’. Who can resist? Turns out not that many of us!
Canstar Blue’s latest survey found that more than two thirds of us (68%) shop for special offers. While this can save us money on the items we usually buy anyway, we’re guessing it also means a few impulse buys are reaching their use-by dates before they’ve reached our stomachs!
Loyalty cards
These little things are also seen as a big plus for many shoppers, but Baby Boomers are the biggest fans, with 50% reporting that they think supermarket loyalty cards offer good additional value.
There’s been quite a lot of movement in the NZ loyalty card market over the last 12 months. Countdown has teamed up with AA to create a hybrid Onecard/AA Smartfuel Card, FlyBuys split with Airpoints, and New World (who team up with both FlyBuys and Airpoints) extended availability of its card to the North Island. Previously, the New World card had only been available in the South Island since its initial launch in 2014.
It’s worth bearing in mind that apart from enabling you to take advantage of ‘in store specials’, your supermarket loyalty card may also open up point boosting or money saving opportunities with other partner organisations such as power or fuel companies, so keep an eye on the promotional flyers and emails to squeeze out that extra value. But remember, the bottom line is that you need to spend large amounts of money to see a return on any loyalty card, so overall your driver for any purchase should always be based on need and price.
Plastic not so fantastic
The other plastic to feature in our survey were the bags we carry our shopping home in. Nearly half of us think shops should offer paper bags instead, while 28% of people believe shops should charge a levy on the 1.6 billion plastic bags used in New Zealand every single year, in order to reduce the impact on our environment. There has been an increase in the number of countries that have introduced levies or taxes on plastic bags recently, and as a result many of these countries have seen usage plummet. In New Zealand, no such scheme has been put in place, but a soft plastics recycling facility available through retailers such as New World, provides collection points for shoppers to drop off their old plastic bags.
Supermarket value
As we said earlier, one of the biggest draws to where we shop is locality to where we live, but once we are there, what is it that we like about our supermarkets? Our research identified the following drivers of overall customer satisfaction:
- Value for money
- Layout and presentation of the store
- Customer service and accessibility of staff
- Variety of products
- Freshness of fruit, vegetables and meat
- Deals and specials
Frequently asked questions
Canstar Blue commissioned I-view to survey 2,500 New Zealand consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction. The outcomes reported are the results from New Zealand who have made a purchase from a supermarket in the last six months – in this case, 2,478 New Zealanders.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included. Results are comparative and it should be noted that brands receiving three stars have still achieved a satisfaction measure of at least six out of 10. Not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The ratings table is first sorted by star ratings and then alphabetically. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criteria.