“Now it’s become a five-minute drive.

“From a planning perspective, it’s good to have these neighbourhood centres.

“It’s a place for people to meet and you don’t tend to get that sort of experience at a bigger centre.

“They are more than businesses - they are necessary to the identity of neighbourhoods.

“With society becoming as detached as it is, we need to get back to being able to go to the local shop.”

Ms Nichols said shoppers needed to consider the overheads for smaller stores, such as rent or, if they owned the building, business rates, while supermarket giants were lured to shopping centres with low rents.

“People need to have both; they need to have convenience and they need the bigger supermarkets,” she said.

Price watching has become important to consumers in a climate of high interest rates, petrol prices and an ever increasing cost of living.

Two months after the launch of the Federal Government’s GroceryChoice website in August, which aimed to expose the cheapest - and dearest - places to shop, there have been more than 3.75 million hits.

The website provides a monthly snapshot of grocery prices in 61 regions across the country covering eight different baskets of goods, ranging from fresh food to household and personal care.

In Newcastle, Aldi again recorded the cheapest price for a basic staples basket at $63.43, followed by Woolworths ($75.71), Coles/BiLo ($77.37), Franklins ($80.25) and independent retailers ($81.21).

The Government will also introduce a mandatory, nationally consistent unit pricing regime to help customers compare the value of similar products.

Choice magazine media spokesperson Christopher Zinn said the findings in Maitland were similar to towns and cities across Australia.

He said that, generally, there was only a degree of difference between the major retailers - Woolworths, Coles and IGA, a cheaper result from Aldi and a more expensive outcome from neighbourhood supermarkets.

“That’s the price of convenience and I think people know that,” he said.

But he said convenience shopping had its place.

The cost of petrol, and wear and tear to drive to a major supermarket chain often offset the dearer price for a simple loaf of bread and litre of milk.

Those who unable to access major supermarkets needed to be smarter about how they spent their money.

“If you don’t have wheels and a lot of money, you don’t have access to the big supermarkets, and you can’t afford to buy in bulk, which is much cheaper,” Mr Zinn said.

“Those people have to shop more wisely.”

His advice to all grocery shoppers in Maitland was to be organised.

“It is a question of planning to do the shopping and to consolidate the shopping,” he said.

“Use the convenience stores where appropriate, and take advantage of specials if you can.”