Angus Kidman – anguskidman.show

ALDI has a well-deserved reputation for being the cheapest of Australia’s main supermarket chains, trouncing Coles, IGA and Woolworths in the discount stakes. But what’ s the single cheapest product it sells?

For this investigation, these are the rules:

• I’m only looking at regularly-stocked products with a fixed price sold at ALDI Australia. Instinctively, that means they’ll have to be under $1.
• This means no special buys, whether at regular price or when marked down to clear. I’ve never seen a special buy for under $1 even on clearance, but I guess it could happen with close-to-expired food products.
• It also means no sold-by-weight fruit and vegetables. Given much of ALDI’s fruit and veg is pre-packed, it’s unlikely to qualify. And given current prices, even by-weight items aren’t likely to be that cheap. But we’re not considering them in the first place.
• I’m not counting ALDI’s paper carrier bags, which cost 25 cents each and can be seen stacked under all the counters. If you think those should be included, then they’re the clear winner. But I don’t think they count. No-one is going to ALDI solely to buy a paper bag.

With the rules established, I roamed through multiple ALDI stores in several states to find the answer.

So I can confirm the winner of ALDI’s cheapest product is a 16-pack of Hedanol paracetamol, an ALDI store-brand painkiller that will set you back just 59 cents.

Oddly, if you had asked this question last November, 59 cents would have not have been the answer. At that point, Hedanol came in a 20-pack and cost 75 cents. It was not the cheapest product on offer at ALDI.

At the time, that honour went to a single Chupa Chup, which was priced at 65 cents. But now the pain relief has overtaken the sweet relief.

Pedant note: the Hedanol price change is not a case of shrinkflation. At the old price, each tablet cost 3.75 cents. At the new price, each tablet costs 3.56 cents. So the unit price has in fact gone down.

It seems fitting that ALDI’s cheapest product is a brand of its own, not something you can buy In another supermarket.

For more ALDI investigations, check out where Australia’s most remote ALDI supermarkets are and why you should never buy vinyl records special buys at ALDI. For more stupidly cheap products, check out everything IKEA Australia sells for under $1.