3 things to avoid buying at Kmart – and 7 that are great

Anyone who has walked into Kmart for one thing and walked out with a bunch of extras knows there are a lot of bargains to be found.

But not everything with Kmart’s Anko brand on it is gold. Our testing uncovered these three duds. If you’re a Consumer NZ member, you can also see 7 Kmart items that we think are fantastic buys.

3 products to avoid

1. Anko Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner EV-PH666-S222 43324965

Price: $119

This is the stick vacuum with the lowest score in our test. While it’s good on hard floors, it’s terrible at doing a quick carpet clean and poor at a full carpet clean. It doesn’t do a good job around corners or along edges. It also scores poorly for repairability because if the battery dies, you won’t be able to replace it, so you’ll have to throw out the whole vacuum.

We’ve tested two other Anko stick vacuums, but they don’t do much better. If you’re a Consumer NZ member, you can check out which we think is the best affordable stick vacuum.

2. Anko 1.2L Food Processor FP9053KB-GS 42939696

Price: $69

Although it was excellent at making breadcrumbs and emulsifying mayo, food processors are meant to be all-rounders, and this one was just average at slicing carrots and grating cheese. We also didn’t like that you can access the blade through the large chute and the parts were tricky to clean.

Use our food processor test results to find one that’s far better and not much more expensive.

3. Anko Carbon Zinc batteries

Price: $6.50 for a pack of 24

There are 3 disposable AA batteries that we recommend you don’t buy, including these Anko ones. They’re cheap but they performed terribly in our tests.

You’d be much better off choosing some of the batteries we recommend so you’re not having to buy new ones so often.

7 great buys we found at Kmart

3 don’t buys at The Warehouse – and 3 absolute bargains

There are some bargains at The Warehouse, but our testing has found there are also some ‘don’t buys’, as we call them.

Find out more