Countdown's 'price frozen' products have dropped in price since May
Thursday, 7 July 2022
Editor’s note: This article has been amended after errors were identified in the prices reported. Refer to the footnote for details.
It has been two months since Countdown and Foodstuffs froze or rolled back the prices of products they deemed “essential”, in response to mounting concerns about the rising cost of living.
When the two supermarket chains first revealed their promotions, Stuff filled a cart with nine items and found New World was the most expensive place to buy essential items.
We put together the same cart of nine staples to see how prices had changed, two months later. This time, Pak ‘n Save was the cheapest, with New World still the most expensive.
The cart was made up of a 1.5kg bag of apples, a 1.5kg bag of carrots, a block of home-brand butter, a 1.5kg bag of home-brand oats, 1kg of home-brand wheat biscuits, a can of Oak spaghetti, 1kg of home-brand long grain rice, home-brand white bread, and 500g of home-brand pasta. (Adjustments were required where pre-packed items weren’t available in identical weights.)
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Foodstuffs, which operates the New World, Pak’nSave, and Four Square brands, reduced the prices of some of its best-selling items to what they averaged during the 13 weeks between January 25 and April 25 last year.
At an Auckland New World, the cart came to a total of $29.91 – up by 30 cents since May.
Most of the prices of the products remained the same, apart from the can of Oak Spaghetti, which increased from $1.29 to $1.59, and the Value white bread, which was up from $1.15 to $1.19.
Pak’n Save offered the cheapest essentials in May with the cart totalling $28.09. This had now gone up to $28.49.
At Countdown, which froze the price of more than 600 essential items on May 9 until the end of winter, the nine items came to, $30.88, compared to $28.90 in May. While some items had become more expensive, some of the prices of “frozen” products had dropped.
A 2kg Odd Bunch bag of apples was $5, up from $3, while a 1kg bag of home-brand rice had dropped from $2.20 to $1.90.
A block of Countdown butter had dropped from $5.80 to $5.40, 1kg of Countdown long grain rice had dropped from $2.20 to $1.90, and a loaf of Essentials white bread had dropped from $1.50 to $1.20.
A Countdown spokesperson said when the winter price freeze was launched, there was opportunity for prices to drop.
“If we could offer a lower price on items that are part of the programme, we’d do so.
“We’re pleased to have been able to do this on some products, and we’ll continue to pass lower prices on whenever we can.”
Commerce Minister David Clark released a discussion paper on Wednesday, setting out options for a code that supermarkets would need to abide by.
He also announced he would appoint a grocery commissioner, based within the Commerce Commission, to hold the industry to account.
Clark said the mandatory code, which is now out for public consultation, would address an imbalance in the bargaining power that major grocery retailers had over their suppliers and “ensure suppliers get a fair deal”.
The deadline for submissions on the supermarket code is August 10.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said that Countdown had the cheapest cart this time, by just under $1. This calculation failed to take into account different weights in the pre-packed carrots and oats. When this was adjusted for, Pak’n Save was $2.39 cheaper than Countdown. The errors are regretted. Story corrected July 12, 3.22pm.