On the odd occasion, Tara Matkovich will visit a supermarket to pick up a few basics. But her weekly shopping dollars are largely spread between her local Harris Farm Markets and an online delivery business.

''I don't like that there are only two big supermarkets and I don't like what they do with prices, which just hurts the farmers,'' Matkovich, from Paddington, says.

''The reason I use the online shop that I do is for convenience but also because they get their produce from NSW farmers.'' She also prefers the quality of the produce she finds elsewhere.

Steve Ogden-Barnes, a retail industry fellow at the Deakin graduate school of business, says it is difficult to quantify how much the supermarket price wars influence consumer behaviour but there are some obvious trends.

He says the price wars definitely lure shoppers in the door, but consumers are spreading their spending to different retailers.

''For many years Coles was the sleeping giant and Woolworths was always the main player but Coles have clearly come out with value and price messaging, literally all over the shop,'' Ogden-Barnes says.

''That seems to have been attractive to shoppers just based on the recent performance of Coles … they have had some of the strongest growth for the last 10 quarters so you'd have to say that shoppers like the price marketing.''

He says retailers are now ''almost exclusively playing a price war'' which is appealing to consumers but shoppers were now ''much wiser, more price conscious and more price sensitive''.

''People will save the dollars in the big stores and then use what's left at a local store or for a more genuine shopping experience,'' he says.

''I think the dollar is being spread around, but in a strange kind of way whatever supermarkets do to bring down the price of things … gives consumers a little more to perhaps buy more local, more indulgent or more speciality purchasing.''