Summary: You can find cheap energy drinks online or purchase them from your local convenient store or supermarket.
Some people like to have coffee in the morning to help themselves wake up. Others like a nice cold shower or a run.
But for some, an energy drink at the right time can help them perform at their peak. If you drink an energy drink a day then you’re obviously after the best price. You want value for what you’re spending your hard-earned dollars on.
We wanted to look at the most cost-effective way to buy energy drinks from different locations. We started looking at different places that sold energy drinks and different ways to buy energy drinks, eg. in bulk.
Our mission is to find cheap energy drinks for you so let’s start at somewhere to avoid, the petrol station.
Petrol Station Robbery
While you’re filling up, you might have the need for a quick energy boost.
As most of us know though, prices for food and drink at petrol stations are ridiculously high. They do usually offer energy drink deals which may entice you to think that it is a good idea.
“Two for the price of one” or “Get it for $2 when you spend $30 on fuel” might sound like a great buy.
The petrol stations buy them at a ridiculously low price so can easily still make money when charging a lower amount.
Tying together buying more fuel with cheaper prices means that you are still giving them more money than intended.
Although it might seem that they have cheap energy drinks because it’s on sale, they are really making you spend more to get less.
The average price of an energy drink at the petrol station came to $4.70. If you end up buying a can a day while getting petrol on your way to work, it’s going to add up very very quickly.
Big convenience, big price tag
Convenience stores or corner stores are just that, found on the corner or in a convenient spot. They are closer to you than the big supermarket to make shopping easier.
However, their prices just can’t compete with the bigger brand markets out there. During our research, we found one thing lacking at all the stores we checked out. All of them only have a limited range. This limits you from your favorite energy kicks and the prices were not spectacular.
While one place didn’t even have listed prices, the ones that did were quite high. 250mL cans started at around $3.50 with most of the larger cans being upwards of $4, some (Red Bull 473mL can at 7/11) even reaching close to the $6 mark.
You might get lucky and find a market that sells out-of-date energy drinks for as little as 50c. If you are banking on that though, you’re going to be leaving there without an energy drink 9 times out of 10. Although they might be convenient on location, they’re definitely not convenient for your wallet.
Battle of the brands: Woolies VS Coles VS Aldi
In the money-conscious world, we always look to the big supermarkets for our everyday shopping needs, including our cheap energy drinks. They just offer a price that cannot be beaten and usually some great specials.
Let’s start with the cheapest, Aldi.
Aldi
Although Aldi does have the cheapest-priced energy drink, at 99c for 250mL, there is only one choice and it doesn’t taste great.
Personal preference might mean that you really enjoy Flying V but otherwise, I’d say to steer clear of this one.
They do sometimes get name-brand products, like Red Bull or V energy drinks, at a cheap price but more often than not they are very similar prices to other supermarkets.
Better to stick to the other big supermarkets for cheap energy drinks.
Woolworths
Woolworths comes in strong with some decently priced energy drinks compared to what we’ve already looked at.
Not counting specials due to their fleeting nature, Woolworths’ cheapest energy drinks come in at around $2.59 for a Rockstar.
Unfortunately, the drinks at the lower end of the scale are of course the smaller varieties. At 250mL, less than an average can of Coke, you end up paying quite a bit of money for not a lot of energy. The larger cans come in at a much more decent price, around $3-$3.50 for a 500mL boost of energy.
However, some still can’t come down that low, with Red Bull, one of the large brands, sticking to $4.40 for 473mL (not even 500mL).
What Woolworths and Coles have that the other stores don’t is larger packs of energy drinks. Starting just under $10 (4 packs of V Energy Drink for $9.33) and moving all the way up to $16.40 (Mother 6 x 500mL) bulk buying energy drinks seems like a great idea.
However when we compare these to the price per individual can, you aren’t saving that much. While I could buy a 4-pack of Mother for $10.95, I could also buy 4 individual Mother cans when I need them for $11.20 together.
Coles
Coles is often seen as the cheaper of the big supermarket chains in Australia.
With a big range in almost all stores, you would think that buying energy drinks from Coles would seem like a better idea. Through our research, we found that their prices barely differ from those of Woolworths.
With the smaller cheaper cans starting at $2.70 and the average 500mL can being around $3.45, there is very little difference. The only difference we found was the variety of bulk buying options. There were a few more options at Coles (including a huge 15 x 375mL Mother cans for $20) compared to Woolworths.
Yet again, the prices of the bulk purchases are very similar to buying the product individually. While it is still cheaper to buy energy drinks in bulk, it is only very slightly cheaper so consider what you need it for before purchase.
Online: The way of the future?
Everything is online nowadays. Even energy drinks can be brought online. However, there are very limited places selling energy drinks online.
Woolworths and Coles both offer online shopping but we’ve already been unimpressed by their prices.
The only real place to buy cheap energy drinks online is eBay.
When looking through their listing however there was only really one cheaper option, bulk buying a case of energy drink. While this may seem like a good idea, the price of a case is quite large.
Maybe if you were holding a party, this would be the place to go. But if not, buying energy drinks online is not a cheap option yet.
So where’s the best place to get cheap energy drinks?
Woolworths and Coles are definitely your cheapest option for buying energy drinks and often have energy drinks on sale to make them a bit cheaper.
They also offer bulk options which are a slightly cheaper way to stockpile enough energy drinks to get you through the week.
However, the cheapest place to get your energy drinks in Australia has to be REIZE. Of course, being on this site you already must know how cheap it is.
But compare our most expensive option to the supermarkets and it’s easy to see the winner. REIZE starts from well under $1 per drink and that includes free delivery.
If you want to save money when buying your energy drinks, ignore the supermarkets and get yourself some REIZE.