Countdown charges online shoppers twice as much for broccoli

Monday, 27 February 2023

Broccoli was $2.50 per head at Countdown Spotswood on Thursday.

Countdown is standing by its pricing after shoppers in New Plymouth noticed broccoli cost twice as much online as in-store last week.

People buying broccoli as part of an online order from Countdown Spotswood were charged $4.99 a head on Thursday, while those buying in-store paid $2.50.

A sign on the in-store display said it was a “fresh deal” but did not indicate it was an in-store only offer.

The discrepancy left a bad taste in the mouths of online shoppers, including one who said she would be “pretty pissed off” if she saw the lower price while collecting her online order.

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The same customer had recently received a code to claim $50 off if she shopped online at Countdown three times before March 1 and felt “like [Countdown] are just getting that $50 back through higher prices”.

While the supermarket said it was within its rights to charge different prices online and in-store, Consumer NZ said it risked misleading customers.

A Countdown spokesperson said the lower price was an in-store only offer which it had “from time to time, for example when we’re trying to clear stock”.

The same vegetable was $4.99 per head if included in an online shop from the same store on the same day.

Asked why broccoli wasn’t also discounted online if stock needed to be cleared, the spokesperson said stores could implement in-store only specials at their discretion.

The specials did not need to be advertised as such “as the only place people can see it is in-store”.

“It's common for people to look online and then shop in-store. That's why we mark online-only specials as online-only – we're not required to do this,” she said.

“People do not tend to look in-store and then shop online, so we don't mark in-store only specials as such, and we are not required to do so.”

Consumer NZ spokesperson Jessica Walker said most people would expect pricing to be the same in-store and online and differences risked misleading shoppers.

“We can understand why someone would be upset if something they have just bought online is half the price in store,” she said.

“Transparency is key here – people need to know prices can differ online versus in store. Given products are coming from the same store we are concerned the pricing technology doesn’t exist to enable online shoppers to benefit from in-store offers. This doesn’t seem right.”

Walker said many people had no option but to shop online, and it was unfair that they would be penalised.

The latest pricing complaints come after Countdown admitted specials shown on its website were in some cases substantially lower than those actually on offer both in-store and online.

In January, the supermarket said an error in its system was to blame for price discrepancies of up to $5.