A supermarket’s Google rating can make or break a weekly grocery run, and new data suggests some NSW shoppers have more reason to complain than others.
According to research, Coles Tanilba Bay, in the Port Stephens region, is NSW’s lowest-rated Coles supermarket, scoring 3.58 stars from 406 Google reviews. Coles Edgecliff, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, also makes Australia’s 10 worst-rated list, with 3.64 stars from 337 reviews.
The study ranks 830 Coles supermarkets nationwide using Google review data collected on October 5, 2026.
Tanilba Bay is the lowest-rated Coles stores in NSW
- Coles Tanilba Bay, Port Stephens — 3.58 stars from 406 reviews. It ranks second-worst nationally.
- Coles Edgecliff, Sydney — 3.64 stars from 337 reviews. It ranks fourth-worst nationally.
Tanilba Bay takes the dubious title of NSW’s lowest-rated Coles, while Edgecliff is the only Sydney store to feature alongside it in Australia’s 10 worst-rated supermarkets. Neither quite hits the bottom nationally, but both have attracted enough mixed reviews to land among the country’s lowest scorers.
The findings point to frustrations with waiting times and checkout options among some of the lowest-rated stores. One shopper at Coles Edgecliff noted there was “No option for someone to scan your items”.
Schofields is the highest-rated Coles stores in NSW
- Coles Schofields, Sydney — 4.34 stars from 626 reviews. It ranks among Australia’s 10 best-rated Coles supermarkets.
- Coles Huntlee, Branxton — 4.33 stars from 387 reviews.
- Coles Mayfield, Newcastle — 4.32 stars from 487 reviews.
Schofields leads the NSW pack among the country’s highest-rated Coles, followed by Huntlee in Branxton and Mayfield in Newcastle. All three earned a place in Australia’s 10 best-rated stores, with Schofields topping the state with an impressive 4.34-star average.
How NSW compares with the rest of Australia
Across the 246 NSW Coles stores included in the research, the average rating was 4.02 stars. That placed NSW second-lowest among the states and territories, behind the ACT at 3.92 stars.
Queensland recorded the highest state average at 4.08 stars, while Victoria averaged 4.03. Nationally, Woolworths averaged 4.07 stars across 1,044 stores, slightly ahead of Coles at 4.04. Aldi recorded the highest average of the three chains, at 4.25 stars across 545 stores.
The research analysed Google Maps listings for Coles, Woolworths and Aldi supermarkets across Australia, using data collected on 5th October 2026.
For the Coles ranking, researchers included open supermarkets and Coles Local stores with at least 200 Google reviews. Separate liquor, petrol, online and express listings, closed stores and duplicate listings at the same address were excluded.
Researchers calculated each store’s average using its individual one-, two-, three-, four- and five-star reviews, rather than relying on Google’s rounded display score. The final Coles dataset covered 830 stores and 622,155 Google reviews. State and territory averages gave every store equal weight.
