About HalfPrice AU

Why the site exists

Coles and Woolworths between them account for most of the grocery shopping done in Australia, and both run a new set of specials every week. A meaningful share of those specials are genuine half price deals — the sort where buying the thing you were going to buy anyway, one week later, saves real money.

The problem is that finding them is tedious. Each retailer only shows its own catalogue. Within those catalogues, half price items sit alongside "Down Down", "Prices Dropped", "Low Price Always", member-only pricing and multi-buys, all of which are presented with the same visual weight and none of which mean the same thing. Comparing the two chains means opening two apps and reading two catalogues that are deliberately not comparable.

HalfPrice AU exists to do that reading once, filter it down to the actual half price lines, and put them on one page you can sort and search.

Who runs it

The site is built and maintained by an independent developer based in Australia. It is a small, self-funded project rather than a company: there is no editorial team, no investors and no commercial arrangement with any retailer. If you email us, a person reads it.

Where the data comes from

The listings are assembled from promotional information that Coles and Woolworths publish publicly — their weekly specials and the special-price listings on their own websites. Nothing here is supplied by the retailers under an agreement, and neither retailer reviews or approves what we publish.

Each record keeps the product name, the brand where one is given, the promotional price, the stated regular price, and a link back to the retailer's own page for that product. Products are sorted into categories automatically by matching keywords in the product name, which works well for most items and occasionally puts something in an odd place. Where that happens, the contact page is the fastest way to get it corrected.

How often it updates

Both supermarkets change their specials on a Wednesday. The list is rebuilt to match that cycle, so what you see reflects the current week's promotions. It is still a snapshot: products sell out and promotions are occasionally pulled mid-week, which is why every deal links straight through to the retailer so you can confirm the price before you buy. Our disclaimer sets out the limits of the data in more detail.

What we publish beyond the listings

Alongside the deals we write guides about how supermarket promotions actually work in Australia — the weekly cycle, what the different catalogue terms mean, how to read a unit price, and which categories are genuinely worth buying ahead in. We also publish an insights page that summarises the current week's data: how many deals there are, which categories are discounted most heavily, and where the biggest dollar savings sit.

How the site is funded

Advertising, displayed alongside the content. We do not charge readers, we do not take payment from retailers or brands to feature products, and we do not earn a commission when you follow a link to Coles or Woolworths — those links are plain links. That matters for the integrity of the list: nothing is ranked or included because it pays better.

Our editorial approach

• Only genuine half price lines. If it is not promoted at roughly 50% off the stated regular price, it does not go in the list.
• The retailer is the source of truth. Every product links out so you can check the live price yourself. We never ask you to take our figure on faith.
• We say when a deal is not worth chasing. A 50% saving on a $1.20 item is 60 cents. Our guides are honest about which categories reward attention and which do not.
• Corrections are made quickly. Automated data has errors in it. Tell us and we fix it.

Get in touch

Corrections, questions, or a category that is clearly wrong: contact@halfpriceau.com, or use the contact page.