'Four inquiries a day' about potential price gouging during lockdown: MBIE
Thursday, 26 August 2021
Covid-19 lockdowns have highlighted the lack of scrutiny on New Zealand grocery prices, Consumer NZ says.
Since the country went into level 4, some shoppers have claimed that supermarkets have increased prices. Supermarkets are one of the few retail outlets allowed to have customers in their shops at the highest alert level.
A spokesman said it had received 34 inquiries between August 17 and 25, or about four a day.
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“While the reports have in general terms been mainly made regarding face masks and grocery items, the low volume and sporadic nature of these reports hasn’t indicated a market or regional trend to prompt us to consider any sector engagement at this time,” he said.
“We’d encourage businesses experiencing supply chain issues to let customers know, especially if it may affect delivery or price; and for consumers to be mindful that businesses may themselves be experiencing delays and price increases.”
Commerce Affairs Minister David Clark said concerns about price gouging were “far lower” this time.
Clark said supermarkets had advised him that they hadn't altered any of their pricing settings, with the exception of those for fresh produce.
'One said to me 'quite frankly, we just wouldn't have had time; we've been scrambling to make sure that we're providing the services necessary for customers'.
'At this stage, they were all very focused on making sure their staff were vaccinated and protected and making sure that the protocols were in place in store for keeping people safe, he said.
While Countdown stopped planned promotions for two weeks last lockdown because of stock supply concerns, both it and its competitor Foodstuffs said discounts were continuing as normal this time.
“We can confirm that our stores are still running promotions, however to ensure all New Zealanders get the best deal on their groceries we encourage Kiwis to #shopnormal and to only purchase what they need,” said Antoinette Laird, head of corporate affairs at Foodstuffs, which operates New World and Pak ’n Save supermarkets.
“We are working hand in hand with our suppliers to keep key products on the shelves across New Zealand, and want to thank our suppliers who are doing a phenomenal job keeping up with extreme customer demand.”
Consumer NZ head of research Jessica Wilson said her organisation had started to receive calls and messages from people who were worried about the prices they were paying at supermarkets.
“Last lockdown we were seeing more inquiries coming through about a range of products, particularly face masks and hand sanitiser. We haven’t seen that this year but we are starting to get complaints from people about an increase in prices for goods at the supermarket. We will look into them.”
She said there was a clear gap in the market because there was no regular, official price monitoring, despite the concentrated nature of the supermarket industry.
“That’s something that has been brought to light, not only by the lockdown but the research by the Commerce Commission – we do need regular price monitoring of the market to find out what’s going on. Not just for a particular time but over years so if there is a spike we can see that’s not just the market working, that’s something else going on.”