More than 300 'dodgy' supermarket deals uncovered by Consumer NZ

Thursday, 6 April 2023

More than 300 ‘dodgy’ supermarket deals have been reported to Consumer NZ.

Shoppers have reported more than 300 “dodgy” supermarket deals to Consumer NZ as part of its campaign to clean up supermarket pricing.

The complaints included 78 “specials”, which on closer inspection were not an opportunity to save, 54 complaints of customers being charged more than shelf price and 18 dodgy multibuys, where the products would have been cheaper if purchased individually.

Jon Duffy, Consumer NZ’s chief executive, said the volume and frequency of misleading pricing and promotions at supermarkets being reported was “concerning”.

In September, the watchdog asked for people's help to call out misleading pricing.

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“Due to the volume of complaints, it took a while for our small team to work through and categorise them all,” Duffy said.

Consumer had contacted Foodstuffs – which owns Pak ‘n Save and New World – and Countdown to share a small sample of the complaints, and to raise concerns that they might risk breaching the Fair Trading Act.

“We asked the supermarkets to take steps to improve their pricing and promotional strategies,” Duffy said.

He said Woolworths, the operator of Countdown, had taken Consumer’s concerns on board and said it was working to implement changes to improve its pricing practices.

“Woolworths also told us it has a clear and comprehensive refund policy. If a customer is charged more than the price on the shelf – the customer can ask for a full refund for the item – and keep it free of charge,” Duffy said.

Woolworths, the operator of Countdown, has taken Consumer’s concerns on board and says it is working to implement changes to improve its pricing practices.

But he said Foodstuffs largely rejected Consumer’s concerns about its pricing practices.

Foodstuffs stated the number of complaints it received about pricing and ticketing practices was low compared to the number of transactions it processed. It acknowledged some “unintended consequences” on ticketing displays but rejected the idea there were any systemic problems with its pricing practices.

Foodstuffs, owner of Pak ‘n Save and New World, is critical of Consumer’s findings.

Foodstuffs spokesperson Emma Wooster told Stuff thatif there was a mistake, the business worked quickly to amend it and refunded customers when they had been incorrectly charged.

“We’ve been asking Consumer NZ for the details of the issues they say they’ve found in our stores for several months now, and to date they’ve provided seven examples, which we promptly looked into.

“Over the same period Consumer NZ say they’ve been collecting examples, our stores will have completed 100 million customer transactions. The majority of the seven examples appear to be instances of differences between brand-wide prices and store-specific prices, which led to unintended consequences on the ticketing displays. However, the customer received the best price at the point of sale,” she said.

Duffy said the evidence collected suggested there were “systemic issues”, so it had written back to Foodstuffs, presenting a full summary of the complaints we received and asking it to take action to address the issues.

It also asked Foodstuffs to mirror Countdown’s refund policy.

“It’s our view, in the current cost-of-living crisis, pricing errors are putting further strain on shoppers,” Duffy said.

Consumer’s quarterly Sentiment Tracker surveying showed cost-of-living concerns had risen sharply over the past year, with the cost of food central to these concerns.

The cost of food now ranked second highest on a list of financial concerns, behind housing payments. A year-and-a-half ago, food ranked as the eighth-highest concern, trailing behind other household outgoings.

“We know people are doing their best to reduce grocery costs by buying products they perceive to be on special. Shoppers are vulnerable if supermarket specials cannot be relied on as genuine,” Duffy said.

“We continue to see widespread pricing issues across the duopoly. More needs to be done to protect consumers and Consumer NZ’s campaign will continue until we see evidence the sector has upped its game.”

Any pricing complaints would be shared with the Commerce Commission for its consideration, he said.