Markets and small, locally-owned businesses are where these shoppers prefer to spend their dollars.
It's elbows out at Auckland’s Avondale Market. Throngs of shoppers are sniffing, squeezing and studiously examining the mounds of fresh fruit and veg.
Billie's manning the scales behind piles of carrots, onions and other locally-grown produce.
"Eggplants are $5.99 per kilo. I reckon it's cheaper than the supermarket. Yeah, everything is cheap."
"You can also pick up a kilo of carrots from his stall for $1.50."
Many browsing the markets tell RNZ they aim to avoid the supermarket duopoly, preferring to spend their money here or at small, locally-owned businesses.
Twins Amber and Reece Howard come to Avondale Market most Sundays for supplies and lunch - today it was a hotdog on a stick and a pork bun each.
"I like the variety and I can see sort of what's in season,” Amber says.
“I've gone to the new wonderful New World in Point Chev and their apples are like $5 a kilo and then you come to the market the next day and they're like $1.49.”
"I'm not a big fan of the huge duopoly that control the prices of like everything," Reece says.
"It's limiting. We have limited products and one price."
Shoppers Justin and Anna have been coming to the market for two decades.
"One of the things when you come to the markets is that there's like 10 people, 15 people selling apples, not one. So the prices are truly competitive and I think that's why the prices are so cheap. And I think if that was extrapolated out into the broader marketplace, you'd end up with prices coming down," Justin says.
As well as the affordable prices, Anna enjoys the sense of community.
"You come here every week you get to know people and some of those relationships are enduring," she says.
"Also people give you discounts and stuff, they'll throw in a bit of extra this or that, or they'll round down or they'll they'll give a bag of curry leaves or something like that so it's quite nice."
It's not just the markets. Independents like Ellerslie Meats owner Ian Groves says he's got plenty of customers who don't like spending their money at the big supermarkets, although it's hard for smaller operators like him to compete.
"You can to some degree with the New Worlds, but the Pak'nSaves are just too high in volume. It's pretty hard when they buy a pallet load or something at a discount price."
But he says he's increasingly hearing from customers disgruntled with the big supermarkets.
"Mainly [they're complaining about] the quantities they've got to buy. They've got to buy a kilo of mince if they don't want a kilo of mince [also] the quality of the meat, because they do such high volumes."
By coincidence, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Cameron Brewer, appears outside the butchery window. He’s out campaigning for National's MP for Maungakiekie, Greg Fleming.
"Where you can support your local butcher, your local bookshop, your independently owned chemist shop, then we really encourage that," Brewer says.
"The good news is that every time you're supporting a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker, you're putting a bit more competition on the big supermarkets."
Tresor Niyon Zima and Gio Vernon buy a lemongrass-marinated chicken from Ellerslie Meats. They have been to the local green grocer, too. For them, avoiding supermarkets is about more than just the price.
"I care about what goes in my body, I care about how the food is cleaned, I care about how it's packaged and I care about the process," Tresor says.
"To be honest, I feel better about myself and also health-wise when I eat from local butchers that actually tell me where they get the meat from and actually know how it's cleaned and all the good stuff."
Gio says the extra effort is worth it.
"You just say hello to people walking past, actually have conversations with your local grocers."
Tresor says shopping locally "makes you feel like you're living in the real world again".
Chanchal Deol, who runs the the Howick branch of wholefoods and specialty grocer Bin Inn, says despite being surrounded by large supermarkets, many customers actively avoid them.
"Most of our customers are pissed off from mainstream supermarkets," he says.
A major point of difference for them is the quantities people are able to purchase. For example, they could spent 50 cents buying a tablespoon of chilli powder or cardamon for a meal they're making rather than forking out for a whole packet at the supermarket.
Bin Inn customer Caitlin Meredith says she enjoys shopping at local, smaller businesses, even though it's a bit more effort.
"For me, it was a quality thing and also a lot cheaper. I found that at the Fruit World next door and then the Bin Inn here, I was getting things a lot cheaper than what I would at Woolworths."
