Compare Supermarkets in New Zealand at Canstar Blue. New World, PAK’nSAVE, FreshChoice, Four Square and Woolworths were compared on Overall Satisfaction, Customer Service, Deals & Specials, Food Freshness, Layout & Presentation of Store, Value for Money and Variety of Products.
See our Ratings Methodology.
New World is the Kiwi grocery shopper’s top choice, rated No.1 for customer satisfaction.
Our review compares supermarkets on customer satisfaction, so you can discover what other Kiwis think about our compared supermarket brands before you do your grocery shopping. Think of it like asking hundreds of your closest friends, family and colleagues which supermarket they think is best!
Canstar Blue surveyed 2300 Kiwis who had made a purchase from a supermarket in the past six months for their feedback on their experiences.
Respondents rate their satisfaction with their choice of supermarket from zero to ten, where zero is extremely dissatisfied and ten is extremely satisfied. Brand satisfaction is rated by respondents on the following criteria:
The winning brand is the one that receives the highest Overall Satisfaction rating once all the scores from the Overall Satisfaction criteria are combined and averaged.
Brands must have received at least 30 responses to be included, so not all brands available in the market have been compared in this survey. The brands rated in this survey are listed below in order of best overall satisfaction.
Find more information on our Most Satisfied Customer methodology.
New World has done it again, securing back-to-back wins and taking home Canstar Blue’s 2024 award for Most Satisfied Customers | Supermarkets. Once again it’s the only supermarket brand to achieve a top 5-Star rating from Kiwi consumers for Overall Satisfaction.
Across all seven categories in our award ratings, New World achieves top scores in five, earning additional 5-Star ratings for Customer Service, Food Freshness, Store Layout and Variety of Products. It earns its lowest rating for Value for Money. For the second year in a row, New World earns more 5-Star ratings than all other supermarkets in our awards survey combined.
The New World supermarket brand is owned by the Foodstuffs co-operative, which also owns PAK’nSAVE, Four Square and the Pam’s food brand. However, each store is a franchise, and is independently owned and operated.
There are currently 140 New World supermarkets spread across New Zealand. As evinced by the supermarket chain’s 5-Star rating for Food Freshness, New World stores are known for their great range of bakery products, fresh meats and fish and focus on fine delicatessen foods.
This is the fifth time that New World has won Canstar Blue’s Most Satisfied Customers | Supermarkets award in the eight years that the award has been running.
The only supermarket to earn an admirable 4-Star rating for Overall Satisfaction in this year’s award ratings, PAK’nSAVE sits second on our awards table. Notably, of all our rated supermarkets, PAK’nSAVE earns the highest score for Value for Money: 4-Stars.
PAK’nSAVE earns its highest ratings, 5 Stars, for Variety of Products and Deals & Specials, and 3 Stars for Food Freshness and Customer Service. However, given the supermarket’s focus on self-service and its warehouse-like stores, its lower rating for service is unsurprising.
PAK’nSAVE is another Foodstuffs franchise. Its big yellow supermarkets are unmissable in suburbs across the country, and each is individually owned, just like New World and Four Square stores.
However, unlike its sister brands, PAK’nSAVE takes a stack-’em high and sell-’em cheap approach to its product marketing. To achieve cost savings, PAK’nSAVE stores present products to consumers on large, basic displays, and customers are required to pack their own shopping at the check-outs.
However, the supermarket’s emphasis on savings doesn’t translate to substandard products, and the quality of PAK’nSAVE’s fresh fruits, fish, meats and vegetables are of a high quality.
Sitting in third place on our supermarkets award table, FreshChoice earns predominantly 3-Star ratings, including for Overall Satisfaction, Value for Money, Variety of Products and Deals & Specials. It earns its best ratings, 4 Stars, for Customer Service, Food Freshness and Store Layout.
The FreshChoice brand is owned by Woolworths Group, one of Australia’s largest companies, which, unsurprisingly, also owns the Woolworths chain of supermarkets. In NZ, FreshChoice supermarkets feature in 58 communities across the country – 33 in the North Island and 25 in the South Island – and all are locally owned and operated.
FreshChoice’s focus on local means that its stores work directly with regional farmers and growers and, as a consequence, product ranges across stores differ to suit immediate local communities’ interests.
In this year’s award ratings, Four Square, the iconic Kiwi supermarket brand, earns a near clean sweep of 3-Star ratings, including for Overall Satisfaction. While not a top score, 3 Stars is by no means a measure of dissatisfaction. Rather it indicates Four Square customers are content with the levels of value, service and produce at their local stores. Four Square achieves its best rating, 5 Stars, for Customer Service.
Four Square has been part of the New Zealand grocery landscape for close to a century. Founded in the 1920s as a collective with the aim of delivering the best prices to Kiwi consumers, Four Square is now part of Foodstuffs, the country’s largest grocery retailer.
Nationwide, the Four Square chain comprises more than 230 locally owned and operated businesses. The stores range from small corner dairies, to larger urban stores, each delivering the great prices and customer service Kiwis have come to expect from the iconic brand.
Formerly branded as Countdown, Woolworths is one of New Zealand’s largest supermarket brands. However, on our ratings table it places bottom, with a mix of 3- and 4-Star ratings. It earns its best ratings for Store Layout, Variety of Products and Deals & Specials. For Overall Satisfaction, Value for Money and Customer Service it has 3-Star ratings from its customers.
Woolworths is owned by the Australian supermarket company Woolworths Group, and many of the store’s own-brand products are the same as those sold across the ditch in Aussie Woolworths supermarkets. However, unlike the group’s other supermarket brands in NZ, Woolworths stores are not franchises and are controlled from the company’s head office in Auckland.
Over the past year, Woolworths has rebranded and relaunched its loyalty program, which through its card and app offers regular discounts and deals, as well as fuel discounts. Additionally, some Countdown locations have in-store chemists, which offer a full pharmacy service.
Not all supermarket brands in the market qualify for our ratings (based on minimum survey sample size), but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth considering. Here is another supermarket to check out before making your final decision.
Originally founded in 2006, Farro was created with the goal to provide Kiwi’s with fresh, high-quality food, while supporting local producers. In addition to everyday groceries and deli foods, Farro also provides ready-made meals and personalised gift hampers. This supermarket may be the right choice for the environmentally conscious shopper, as Farro works alongside organisations to redistribute, repurpose and recycle food. The brand’s seven stores are spread across Auckland, however, nation-wide delivery is available via their website.
SuperValue stores have been part of the Kiwi retail landscape since the 1960s. Now owned and operated as individual franchises by the Australian Woolworth’s Group, there are 16 SuperValue stores around New Zealand: 10 stores in the North Island and six in the South Island. Because they are locally operated, SuperValue stores are able to change the range of products they stock to reflect the shopping habits of individual communities.
What do you look for when you’re supermarket shopping? For those in our survey, it’s all about value at the checkout. The biggest driver of supermarket satisfaction is Value for Money, the No.1 concern for almost a third (31%) of those in our survey.
The importance of value is reflected in our respondents shopping habits, too, well over half of those in our survey (63%) always choose money-saving options, and nearly a third (29%) are influenced by loyalty promotions.
But the fact that Layout & Presentation of Store rates more highly that Customer Service shows that Kiwi consumers still appreciate the whole shopping experience as we cruise the aisles with our trolleys!
Here’s the full rundown of what the consumers in our survey rate as the most important factors when it comes to their Overall Satisfaction levels with their supermarket choices:
This report was written by Canstar’s Editor, Bruce Pitchers. Bruce has three decades’ experience as a journalist and has worked for major media companies in the UK and Australasia, including ACP, Bauer Media Group, Fairfax, Pacific Magazines, News Corp and TVNZ. Prior to Canstar, he worked as a freelancer, including for The Australian Financial Review, the NZ Financial Markets Authority, and for real estate companies on both sides of the Tasman.
Always choose money-saving options: 63%
Cutting back on non-essential food items due to rising cost of staples: 56%
Happy with choice of supermarkets in neighbourhood: 50%
Grocery choices influenced by loyalty promotions: 29%
Increasingly shop online: 14%
Environmental issues guide supermarket choices: 12%
Under $100: 18%
$100-$199: 43%
$200-$299: 24%
$300-$399: 9%
$400-$499: 3%
$500 or more: 1%
Canstar Blue surveyed 2550 New Zealand consumers across a range of categories to measure and track customer satisfaction, via ISO 26362 accredited research panels managed by Qualtrics. The outcomes reported are the results from customers who had made a purchase from a supermarket in the past six months. In this case, 2300 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 by mean overall satisfaction. A rated brand may receive a ‘N/A’ (Not Applicable) rating if it does not receive the minimum number of responses for that criteria.
The past winners from Canstar Blue’s Supermarket ratings:
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