Australia really only has two supermarket chains -Â Coles and Safeway (now known as Woolworths/Woolies but I'm still living in the 90s). You shop at one or the other, and that's the supermarket you're stuck with for life.
We were a Coles family growing up, and I just never found a reason to move to Safeway/Woolies even when I moved out of home. Coles is just that bit brighter, lighter and cleaner, I think. So this Coles is in Mentone which is probably the closest supermarket to my parent's house (not counting IGA, but then, IGA just doesn't even rate as an actual supermarket). We needed to do a bit of shopping for our Australian Christmas celebrations and aside from the fact that I couldn't find anything (I've been shopping in UK supermarkets for too long and they put things in different places) we were happy enough with the selection here. They had a good range of Aussie chocolates and snacks (we were stocking up), and the prices were reasonable as far as Australian prices go.
So yeh, Coles, you go alright. read more