# Australian Supermarket Prices: Coles, Woolworths & ALDI (`siftwright_data/au-supermarket-prices`) Actor

Compare Coles, Woolworths and ALDI Australia grocery prices in one run. Search terms in; product prices, specials, was prices and unit prices out, plus a cheapest-store comparison per term. No login, no browser.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/siftwright_data/au-supermarket-prices.md
- **Developed by:** [Siftwright Data](https://apify.com/siftwright_data) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.50 / 1,000 product saveds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Australian Supermarket Prices: Coles, Woolworths & ALDI in one run

Search **Coles, Woolworths and ALDI Australia** at the same time and get every matching product with its **price, was-price, special flag and unit price**, plus a ready-made **price comparison** that tells you which supermarket is cheapest for each search term.

One run replaces three scrapers. Instead of running a Coles scraper, a Woolworths scraper and an ALDI scraper separately and lining up their different formats yourself, you get one clean dataset with the same fields for every store, and unit prices converted to the same basis (per kg, per litre or each) so they can be compared directly.

> This Actor is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Coles Group, Woolworths Group or ALDI. Store names are used only to describe the public websites the data comes from.

### What you get

- **Coles prices**: shelf price, was price, specials (including "save $x" and multi-buy text), unit price and stock flag from Coles online search.
- **Woolworths prices**: price, was price, specials, cup (unit) price, barcode and stock status from Woolworths online search.
- **ALDI Australia prices**: in-store prices, pack size and ALDI's per-unit price, including Special Buys and loose produce sold per kg.
- **Grocery price comparison for Australia**: one extra row per search term with the cheapest matching product at each store, ranked by unit price, and the percentage saved against the dearest store.
- **Same schema for all three chains**, so you can chart, filter or join the data without per-store clean-up.
- **Fast and light**: no browser and no login. A 3-store, 3-term run with 40-60 products per store finishes in under 30 seconds.

### Use cases

- Track the cost of a weekly shopping basket across Coles, Woolworths and ALDI
- Grocery price monitoring and inflation research in Australia
- Specials and half-price tracking for deal sites and newsletters
- Competitor pricing and range checks for FMCG brands and suppliers
- Feeding price-comparison apps, spreadsheets, dashboards and AI agents

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `searchTerms` | array of strings | (required) | What to search for, e.g. `full cream milk 2l`, `weet-bix`, `tim tam`. |
| `stores` | array | `["coles","woolworths","aldi"]` | Any of `coles`, `woolworths`, `aldi`. |
| `maxItemsPerStore` | integer | `50` | Products kept per store, per search term. |
| `compare` | boolean | `true` | Add one `comparison` row per search term. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Apify Proxy | Only used as a fallback if a store blocks a request. Datacenter proxy is enough. |

Example input:

```json
{
  "searchTerms": ["full cream milk 2l", "weet-bix", "tim tam"],
  "stores": ["coles", "woolworths", "aldi"],
  "maxItemsPerStore": 50,
  "compare": true
}
```

### Output

Each product is one row (`type: "product"`):

```json
{
  "type": "product",
  "store": "woolworths",
  "productId": "200695",
  "name": "Weet-Bix Breakfast Cereal 1.2kg",
  "brand": "Weet-Bix",
  "size": "1.2kg",
  "price": 7,
  "wasPrice": null,
  "unitPrice": 0.58,
  "unitOfMeasure": "100G",
  "normalizedUnitPrice": 5.8,
  "normalizedUnit": "kg",
  "isOnSpecial": false,
  "barcode": "9300652010794",
  "inStock": true,
  "url": "https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/200695/weet-bix-breakfast-cereal",
  "imageUrl": "https://cdn1.woolworths.media/content/wowproductimages/large/200695.jpg",
  "searchTerm": "weet-bix",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-19T18:37:19.512Z"
}
```

- `price` and `wasPrice` are in AUD. `wasPrice` is set only when the product is on special with a higher previous price.
- `unitPrice` and `unitOfMeasure` are exactly as the store shows them (for example `$0.58 per 100G`).
- `normalizedUnitPrice` and `normalizedUnit` convert that to **per kg, per L or each**, so Coles, Woolworths and ALDI can be compared directly.
- Coles rows also include `specialText` (for example `save $1.00` or `Pick any 2 for $7`). Woolworths rows include `barcode`.

With `compare` on, each search term also gets one comparison row (`type: "comparison"`):

```json
{
  "type": "comparison",
  "searchTerm": "full cream milk 2l",
  "comparedPer": "L",
  "cheapestStore": "aldi",
  "cheapestProduct": "Full Cream Milk 3L",
  "cheapestPrice": 4.95,
  "cheapestUnitPrice": 1.65,
  "savingVsMostExpensivePct": 2.9,
  "ranking": [
    { "store": "aldi", "comparableUnitPrice": 1.65 },
    { "store": "coles", "comparableUnitPrice": 1.7 },
    { "store": "woolworths", "comparableUnitPrice": 1.7 }
  ],
  "stores": {
    "coles": { "productId": "439693", "name": "Coles Full Cream Milk 2L", "price": 3.4, "unitPrice": 1.7, "unitOfMeasure": "1l", "comparableUnitPrice": 1.7, "isOnSpecial": false, "matchedProducts": 17 },
    "woolworths": { "productId": "888137", "name": "Woolworths Full Cream Milk 2L", "price": 3.4, "unitPrice": 1.7, "unitOfMeasure": "1L", "comparableUnitPrice": 1.7, "isOnSpecial": false, "matchedProducts": 11 },
    "aldi": { "productId": "000000000000398894", "name": "Full Cream Milk 3L", "price": 4.95, "unitPrice": 1.65, "unitOfMeasure": "1L", "comparableUnitPrice": 1.65, "isOnSpecial": false, "matchedProducts": 7 }
  },
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-19T18:37:18.379Z"
}
```

The dataset has two views in the Apify Console: **Products** and **Price comparison**. Export either as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them through the Apify API.

### How the comparison works

1. For each store, products whose name contains every word of your search term are kept (sizes such as `2l` are ignored for matching).
2. Products where the term appears near the start of the name are preferred, so a search for `bananas` compares bananas, not banana bread.
3. The comparison uses the unit most of those products share (per kg, per L or each), and picks the product with the lowest unit price at each store.
4. If a store sells the item in a different unit (for example loose bananas priced each rather than per kg), that store gets a `note` instead of a misleading price.

Specific search terms give the best comparisons: `full cream milk 2l` beats `milk`, and `cavendish bananas` beats `bananas`.

### Tips and limits

- Prices are the stores' default online prices. Coles and Woolworths prices can differ slightly by state or store; ALDI prices are national in-store prices.
- ALDI's search matches each word separately, so multi-word searches can return extra ALDI products. They stay in the product rows but are filtered out of the comparison.
- Every product found is a row. To keep a run small, lower `maxItemsPerStore`.
- If one store fails, the others still return data and the run log says which store and term failed.

### FAQ

**Is this a Coles scraper, a Woolworths scraper and an ALDI scraper in one?**
Yes. Pick any one, two or all three stores in `stores`.

**Do I need a login, API key or residential proxy?**
No. The Actor reads the same public search results shoppers see, without logging in. The default Apify datacenter proxy is only used as a fallback.

**Can I schedule it?**
Yes. Use an Apify schedule (for example every Wednesday, when new specials start) to build a price history for your basket.

**Is scraping supermarket prices legal?**
This Actor only collects publicly available product and price information. You are responsible for how you use the data, including any rules that apply in your jurisdiction and the websites' terms.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Products to look up at every selected supermarket, one per line, e.g. <code>milk 2l</code>, <code>weet-bix</code>, <code>bananas</code>. Each term is searched at each store and gets its own price comparison.

## `stores` (type: `array`):

Which chains to search. Leave all three ticked to compare them.

## `maxItemsPerStore` (type: `integer`):

How many search results to keep from each supermarket for each term. 3 stores x 2 terms x 50 = up to 300 product rows.

## `compare` (type: `boolean`):

For each search term, add one row naming the cheapest matching product at each store by unit price (per kg, per litre or each) and which store wins.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Only used as a fallback if a supermarket blocks a request. The default Apify datacenter proxy is enough; residential proxies are not needed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "full cream milk 2l",
    "weet-bix"
  ],
  "stores": [
    "coles",
    "woolworths",
    "aldi"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerStore": 50,
  "compare": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All rows saved by the run: type 'product' rows and type 'comparison' rows.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "full cream milk 2l",
        "weet-bix"
    ],
    "stores": [
        "coles",
        "woolworths",
        "aldi"
    ],
    "maxItemsPerStore": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("siftwright_data/au-supermarket-prices").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "full cream milk 2l",
        "weet-bix",
    ],
    "stores": [
        "coles",
        "woolworths",
        "aldi",
    ],
    "maxItemsPerStore": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("siftwright_data/au-supermarket-prices").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "full cream milk 2l",
    "weet-bix"
  ],
  "stores": [
    "coles",
    "woolworths",
    "aldi"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerStore": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call siftwright_data/au-supermarket-prices --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,siftwright_data/au-supermarket-prices"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/bpI9MZ1eCnZiAE6y1/builds/X2pPyO4ySuRnTRLzL/openapi.json