More for less: Wagga's shifting grocery habits still bear hefty price tag

Every Thursday, Rayleane Birch lifts her one-year-old son up into the supermarket trolley and starts filling it with the essentials: nappies, wipes, potatoes, ham and canned soup.

"Just going and getting our necessities ... and it's going up so quickly," Ms Birch said.

"It's quite a lot more than I expected, definitely. And that's a weekly thing."

The $338.53 grocery haul from South City Coles included items such as frozen fruit and vegetables, canned soup and frozen meals.

The receipt said Ms Birch had made a total saving of $49.09 for herself and her two sons aged one and five.

The rising cost of living in Australia has had the flow-on effect of changing many consumer's weekly shopping habits.

Continued cost pressures reflect the increase of the consumer price index (CPI) by 1 per cent at the end of the March 2024 quarter.

"I've switched up a lot of things," Ms Birch said.

"I use to shop at the butcher's here, but I can't afford it anymore."

Major supermarkets Coles and Woolworths have come under public and government-commissioned scrutiny for profiting off the cost-of-living crisis.

A parliamentary inquiry into supermarket pricing handed down recommendations that would ban price gouging and would back laws to break up major supermarket giants in the sector, on May 7.

Manager of Turvey Park FoodWorks Emily Moran said since the recent inquiries into the major supermarkets, she has seen a handful of customers choosing to shop away from Coles and Woolies.

She also said some customers have changed their habits because they value assisted checkouts and independent groceries.

The Daily Advertiser spoke with Mary Thomson in the fresh fruit section of Turvey Park Foodworks.

Ms Thomson works as an aged care worker and does the groceries for elderly clients, who often give their special requests.

"She's [client] been shopping here for the last 20 years and she's happy, just the honesty," Ms Thomson said.

"They know her by her first name and things like that, she likes customer service."

Ms Thomson also works a second job at a supermarket in Wagga. In that space, she has noticed "families are struggling" and are buying fewer luxury products.

"I think people are cooking a lot more, so more staple foods now, definitely, definitely," she said.

"It's worse now than in COVID."

Owner of Turvey Park Butcher Greg Tooze said he has seen a shift away from bulk-buying meats, to people purchasing their meats day-to-day.

"They just like to buy for a day or two because of their budget, they don't want to splash out," he said.

"We use to have a lot of people coming to buy a whole scotch or a whole rump, but none of them any more.

"It's just two sirloins, or two t-bones, or 'what do you have on special?'"

He's had to increase his prices to consumers due to higher wholesale prices on meat.

Mr Tooze said that customers are also buying more sausages, crumbed meats, mince and rissoles.

However, despite current cost-of-living concerns, after 21 years in the same shop, Mr Tooze says his customers have always been looking to save money.

"People are looking for bargains up here," he said.

"The demographic of this area, there's a lot of battlers."