The Commerce Commission has received more than 330 complaints so far this year about supermarket promotions, as NZ’s not-for-profit consumer watchdog calls on the public to dob in supermarkets’ dodgy price deals.
The Commission said between March, when its market study into the sector was released, and June of this year it had received 154 complaints with 18 about promotions.
For the year to September, the Commerce Commission had 333 complaints with 53 related to promotions, compared with 429 complaints and 122 related to promotions for the same period in 2021.
The Commission said those complaints covered issues with deals where promotions were the same or more expensive than the normal price, issues with stock of promotional items, issues with stock of promotional reward items and confusing signs which might led shoppers to think a different product is on sale.
Consumer NZ has asked the public to let it know when they see examples of unclear or misleading pricing and promotions so it can hold the supermarkets to account.
The call came after a New Zealand shopper posted a photo on social media of feta cheese on "sale" at a Countdown store with regular pricing stickers showing the special was actually 10 cents more.
Consumer NZ Chief Executive Jon Duffy said in a statement it was crucial supermarkets were honest with pricing so consumers could confidently compare prices and trust they are getting a good deal when they purchase something on special.
Consumer NZ had called for new rules to clear up confusing specials pricing by the supermarket duopoly, Woolworths-owned Countown and Foodstuffs are the two big players, and stop them from using promotional and pricing strategies that make it harder to work out what is a good deal.
The Commission didn’t make this recommendation in its March report, and Duffy said Consumer NZ was not convinced supermarkets would change their ways without pressure from consumers.
“Retailers know shoppers are more likely to buy a product if it’s on special – this leaves consumers vulnerable if specials are not genuine. We have seen plenty of examples through complaints we receive.”
The Commission's report said consumers were confident and more inclined to shop around when they could compare product offerings both within store and between retailers, and they need an accurate "perception of value" to help choose where they would like to shop.
But pricing and promotional practices used by supermarkets including loyalty programs make it more difficult for consumers to compare prices and make informed purchasing decisions (both when deciding where to shop and which products to buy), reducing the effectiveness of price competition between the major grocery retailers, the Commission said.
Among the Commission’s recommendations are that the duopoly players must open up their wholesale supply chains to competitors.
The Commission found competition wasn’t working well in the grocery sector, and supermarkets were extracting excess profits from NZ shoppers to the tune of $1 million a day.
25 Comments
Yes there seem to be a range of issues around pricing.
- Sale/reduced items priced at >= the regular price.
- Sale/reduced item labelled, but regular price charged at checkout.
- Sale item RRP is inflated.
- Sale item has price rise immediately before the sale.
- Pricing labels showing different compare prices.
And that's just the pricing, we then have to move on to
- labels positioned to hide spoiled, damaged, and substandard product.
- Sale items that were never in stock.
- Shrinkflation
- The wastage where overpriced products are binned rather than offered at a lower price.
- Inaccurate weights and measurements (An interesting experiment is to weigh everything on the produce scales, the checkout scales and your scales at home.)
It used to be that you popped into the shops for 5 minutes and simply purchased what you required, it was all legit.
Now it is an hour long mission that requires in-depth analysis and calculations combined with multiple research points, decades of experience, and constant hyper-vigilance, finished up with a QA assessment and written documentation to use for next time, just to ensure that you ended up with a) what you paid for, b) at the price you expected, and c) with enough actual food to hopefully make a complete meal.
I don't know much about finances but I do know gardening. Sow some tomato seeds inside now and then another lot in 1 month. Keep them warm, they hate big swings in temperature. They are so easy to grow. Once they are bigger put them outside in a warm area. There's no rush - they are tough. Save some freezer space and pick them when they are about to go red. They will ripen inside and the birds can't eat them there. Then freeze. Vege gardening isn't complicated and doesn't need space. It is so cheap when you grow stuff from seed. Good luck.
Good article, but I don't hold my breath for any meaningful change. We see the same pattern, over and over. Weak consumer law, followed by poor enforcement, and joke penalties.
The NZ way is simple.
- Good/service becomes available in NZ. Monopoly forms. Prices increase.
- Monopoly gets forced to split. Duopoly appears, prices increase.
- Duopoly gets opened up. Cartel appears, prices increase.
Yeap, every week I notice the price increases, sometimes the same thing get bumped up multiple times. The increases aren't small either, where they range 5%-30% the average seems to be well over ten percent.
The CPI figure is BS, it's diluted by non-essential items. The the core items you need, power, food, insurance, phone, trade services have gone up 20-40% on average this year.
My wages have gone up no where near that. No where near that at all.
And this is only beginning. Core inflation is going to continue upwards.
None of the govt departments actually want to get caught doing something about anything (other than reporting and recommending). Firstly if they act on something it might show up all the other departments (no career prospects in welly then!) but secondly (and worse ) it would set a precedent meaning they may actually need to do something else in the future.
Nope. Its way better for them to take more of our taxes and spend them on reports to tell us what we already know .. with some recommendations to do some more work about it all and to report on it all later.
So nothing really ever changes. Supermarkets put prices up.. sometimes the staff randomly stick some sales labels on some to make us feel we are saving money.. the odd new supermarket set up the odd store for a while.. then shuts down as its all too hard... and on we go.
Probably best to buy into a new world or paknsave store or get a job as a govt PR consultant and join the gravy train.. than try to fight it
Went to Lidl last night and picked up the following.
250 g of grated Gouda cheese for 1.99 euros ($3.31 NZD), loaf of bread for 1.29 euros ($2.18 NZD), 4.5 kg of Basmati rice 8.99 euros ($15.19 NZD), 200 g of sour cream for 0.65 euros (1.09 NZD).
People are crying bloody murder over here because the grocery prices have risen so much over the last year. Apparently poor people cant afford to buy groceries any more. I think I'm going to have a heart attack when I come back to NZ.
I am from UK originally, VAT (GST) not on food however luxury foods have VAT on them things such as chocolate biscuits because they have chocolate on them. There is also an anomaly where take out foods have VAT on it. So if you buy a cold pie in a supermarket it has VAT but it does if heated.
The traffic effect will be spectacular. Partner and I have agreed that we are staying home that day and will not even attempt to navigate the local area. Amazing that these are the same roads Wayne Brown wants all of our port traffic to be ferried along (from a freight depot in North West Auckland) as well as supporting another few thousand houses over the next five years. It's already a congested mess at the best of time, yet the North West Light Rail/Rapid Transit line has become a footnote in political history that no one talks about. The rush hour commute is already back to pre-Covid levels even with increased WFH. Throw Costco and the other Westgate big-boxes opening in the mix and it will become an absolute bunfight.
Can't wait to try their pizzas though.
Always really annoying when they have a special price, but don't tell you the special price as a unit price. Countdown seems to be the only Supermarket that does give you a unit price for specials, but they also seem to be about as expensive as New World (I'm a Pak n Save man...).
I'm the same - I used to go to our local Countdown, but find it more worthwhile to travel a little further to Pak n Save. My complaint with Countdown is that the staff make a lot of 'errors' when placing items on the shelf or sales tags. I have picked up items when I see that they are on sale, only to discover that the particular item I was paying for should not have been placed under the sale sticker - it was placed there in error. I've experienced so many of these 'error's at Countdown, I no longer shop there.
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