Breaking up the supermarket duopoly.

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freitasm

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#3198124 21-Feb-2024 08:07

The real question that no one is asking though: "what happened to Marie biscuits?"

These just disappeared from our shelves in the last six months.

MurrayM

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#3198299 21-Feb-2024 12:53

freitasm: The real question that no one is asking though: "what happened to Marie biscuits?"

These just disappeared from our shelves in the last six months.

It seems that whenever I find something that I particularly like it then promptly vanishes from the supermarket shelves. This has happened over and over for me... 😞

ezbee

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#3198444 21-Feb-2024 16:59

Australians concerned they are getting ripped.

Woolworths boss Brad Banducci quits following interview walkout
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/509778/woolworths-boss-brad-banducci-quits-following-interview-walkout

""
Woolworths boss Brad Banducci has announced his resignation, amid scrutiny over alleged price-gouging tactics used by the Australian supermarket giant.

The pressure on the chief intensified this week after what has widely been described as a disastrous interview.

Banducci walked out on a reporter after bristling over the line of questioning.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-19/woolworths-ceo-banducci-walks-out-of-price-gouging-interview/103482724

Australia has one of the world's most concentrated grocery markets. Woolworths - the nation's largest retailer - and its rival Coles control 65 percent of the market, and both have been facing intense criticism over their business models as the country battles a cost-of-living crisis.
""

freitasm

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#3250731 19-Jun-2024 09:30

Press release today:

The Commerce Commission has filed proceedings in the Wellington High Court against Foodstuffs North Island, alleging that anti-competitive land covenants were lodged by the supermarket operator with the purpose of blocking competitors from opening rival supermarkets at particular sites and developing existing ones at several locations across the lower North Island.

The Commission and the defendants have entered into a settlement to resolve the proceedings on terms acceptable to both parties. The High Court will determine any orders to be made in relation to Foodstuffs North Island in due course.

Commission Chair, John Small, says that while historical, the Commission considers the conduct to be serious enough to warrant proceedings under the Commerce Act.

“This is a vital $25 billion sector, which impacts every Kiwi consumer. The covenants were of long duration, and we allege were lodged with the purpose of hindering competitors in local towns and suburbs where Kiwi consumers buy their groceries.”

The proceedings follow an investigation into the conduct which came to light during the Commission’s market study into the grocery sector, completed in March 2022. The study identified that the use of covenants on land, or in leases by the major retailers was limiting the number of sites available to competitors.

Dr Small acknowledged that in August 2021, Foodstuffs North Island committed to stop using restrictive land covenants and exclusivity provisions in leases and in June 2021 had already started a process to identify and remove any such clauses in existing tenancy contracts. The Commerce (Grocery Sector Covenants) Amendment Act 2022 has also made certain grocery-related covenants prohibited and unenforceable. This legislation was a recommendation from the Commission’s market study into the grocery sector.

Dr Small says this case against Foodstuffs North Island is important in demonstrating that the Commission will continue to pursue companies in any industry who use land covenants to stop rivals entering local markets.

“Land covenants have the potential to harm competition by raising barriers to entry or expansion in a market, making it harder for rival businesses to compete effectively and gain scale. Ultimately, the loser here is the Kiwi consumer who is deprived of the benefits that come from a more competitive market.”

“I encourage all companies who have previously lodged land covenants that restrict the use of sites by their competitors to consider whether they comply with the Commerce Act.”

As the proceedings are before the Court, the Commission cannot comment further at this time.

freitasm

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#3272198 15-Aug-2024 18:49

From Commerce Commission:

The Grocery Commissioner is challenging the major supermarkets to improve and publicise their refund policies which the Commerce Commission believes are either inadequate or unknown to Kiwi consumers. Pierre van Heerden says this will create the commercial incentive for supermarkets to improve the accuracy of their pricing.

Mr van Heerden says accurate and clear pricing is a consumer right and expectation of a competitive market, but the Commission is “still hearing about too many examples of misleading or inaccurate pricing in New Zealand supermarkets”.

“Kiwi consumers expect and deserve better. The continuing level of pricing errors happening across the major supermarkets is simply unacceptable, and I don’t believe the major supermarkets are doing enough to fix these problems and get it right for the future.”

Mr van Heerden says the responsibility for fixing the issues sits squarely with the senior management of Foodstuffs and Woolworths NZ, and the Commission had sought a commitment from the Chief Executives of each of the three companies.

Mr van Heerden says he will be introducing a mandatory disclosure standard that wil require the major supermarkets to regularly disclose information about customer complaints, including around pricing and promotional issues. Making this information visible will help consumers be better informed and have more confidence their complaints will be dealt with.

“Consumers should be able to trust that the price advertised is what they will pay,” Mr van Heerden says. “The groceries sector is a $25 billion a year business, so even if errors only make up a very small percentage of sales, the total overcharge paid by Kiwis at the checkout would run to tens of millions of dollars every year and this is unacceptable.”

The Grocery Commissioner has also called out the major supermarkets’ processes for recording customer complaints – saying the lack of clarity and reporting means supermarkets can’t identify potential compliance issues within their businesses.

“Complaint data is a helpful source of information to identify trends and issues so they can be remedied.” Mr van Heerden says there is a general lack of clarity in how customer complaints are escalated and remedied.

Mr van Heerden says customers can play an important role in bringing pricing issues to the attention of supermarkets. However, current refund policies across the major supermarkets are either absent, inadequate in the benefits they offer, or not advertised clearly and prominently. “A generous and well-promoted refund policy will help empower and motivate customers,” he says.

The Commission has stated the following expectations of the major supermarkets:

• Review and amend refund policies to ensure they demonstrate a commitment by the supermarkets to pricing integrity and motivate customers to bring any pricing integrity issues to their attention. For instance, offering a full refund of the purchase price of mispriced goods.
• Prominently promote their refund policies – in-store, online and through direct mail communications
• Ensure there are comprehensive policies, systems and processes to record and categorise all complaints about pricing and promotional issues, and appropriately train staff in these policies, systems and processes.

Mr van Heerden says these expectations of supermarkets are forward-looking to contribute to mitigating potential compliance issues in the future. These are separate from the ongoing investigations underway under the Fair Trading Act.

The major supermarkets have responded positively to the Commission, but Mr van Heerden says “we’ll be watching to see if they follow up their words with action.”

Personal anecdote: I visited a Countdown/Woolworths last week and found some discounted wine - champagne, $30 a bottle, down from $60. So I took a photo and sent to a group chat, mentioning I would get a couple of bottles.

Sure enough, ring a bottle in the self-checkout and the price was still $60.

Luckily I had the photo I had just taken, so I showed it to the woman. She was trying hard to find something - "Is this the same 750ml?" as if there were any other size of champagne and wine in a supermarket.

In the end, she changed the price for all the bottles I had but didn't seem very happy. It wouldn't affect her at all. I'm not sure why she was so grumpy about fixing a pricing error by a multi-billion dollar company if the product was at a discount (which still was a few days later when I visited again).

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#3272203 15-Aug-2024 18:58

I get my groceries delivered and I do find if Woolworths screw something up (ie, missing/wrong thing) they're usually fairly quick at refunding.

They were constantly missing out stuff for quite a while - a few weeks ago an entire order of meat - but the last two deliveries have been pretty good.

I get the same guy doing my deliveries most of the time and he was commenting a few weeks ago that even he thinks the prices are too high - and he works for them!

ezbee

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#3285481 23-Sep-2024 16:21

If no one here is looking maybe we have this too.
Electronic price tags mean prices can change every day, I once saw one do its little dance while I was looking at it.

ACCC sues Coles and Woolworths over allegations of ‘illusory’ discounts on common products
Competition watchdog alleges supermarkets briefly increased prices on hundreds of products before placing them in discount promotions
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/23/accc-suing-coles-woolworths-discounts-misleading

""
The major retailers are accused of inflating the prices of groceries for a short period, before placing them in their “Prices Dropped” or “Down Down” promotions.

The promotional prices were misleading, according to the regulator, because they were higher than or the same as the product’s regular long-term price before the temporary price spike.

“We allege that each of Woolworths and Coles breached the Australian consumer law by making misleading claims about discounts, when the discounts were, in fact, illusory,” Cass-Gottlieb said.
""

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gzt

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#3285486 23-Sep-2024 16:38

The annoying thing is when electronic pricetags show "no stock, product available soon, ask staff member for assistance" and no price.

and there are hundreds right there on the shelf!

It happens often. The missing price sometimes feels like a transparent attempt to steer shoppers towards other products. I wonder what is really happening in that scenario. The issue feels too frequent for a simple malfunction. It is my perception it is strangely more likely to happen with high stock levels but perhaps that is just when it is most frustrating ; )

sir1963

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#3285679 24-Sep-2024 09:51

ezbee:

If no one here is looking maybe we have this too.
Electronic price tags mean prices can change every day, I once saw one do its little dance while I was looking at it.

ACCC sues Coles and Woolworths over allegations of ‘illusory’ discounts on common products
Competition watchdog alleges supermarkets briefly increased prices on hundreds of products before placing them in discount promotions
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/sep/23/accc-suing-coles-woolworths-discounts-misleading

""
The major retailers are accused of inflating the prices of groceries for a short period, before placing them in their “Prices Dropped” or “Down Down” promotions.

The promotional prices were misleading, according to the regulator, because they were higher than or the same as the product’s regular long-term price before the temporary price spike.

“We allege that each of Woolworths and Coles breached the Australian consumer law by making misleading claims about discounts, when the discounts were, in fact, illusory,” Cass-Gottlieb said.
""

New World locally is great for that one. Raise the price of Coke branded soft drinks to near the same price as I can get from my local dairy, then drops it down to the same price that PaknSave have all the time and claim its a "special"
They do the same with Yoghurt, one week its $7 plus, the next its $5 something.

freitasm

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#3318664 10-Dec-2024 07:23

From Commerce Commission:

The Commerce Commission today announced it will be filing criminal charges against Woolworths NZ, Pak’nSave Silverdale, and Pak’nSave Mill Street for what the Commission alleges was inaccurate pricing and misleading specials that may have breached the Fair Trading Act.

“Shoppers should have confidence that the price they see will be the price they pay, and specials really are special,” Commerce Commission Deputy Chair Anne Callinan says.

“Supermarkets have long been on notice about the importance of accurate and clear pricing and specials, and we’re not satisfied with the continuing issues we’re seeing across the industry.

“Pricing accuracy is a consumer right and an expectation of a competitive market. The major supermarkets are large, well-resourced businesses that should invest the time and effort to get pricing and promotions right.

“Since the Commission’s 2022 market study into groceries we’ve had a sustained focus on pricing integrity in the sector. Our Chair John Small and Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden, have made our expectations clear to the supermarkets that they have to improve things.

“The charges we’re filing against major supermarket brands are to remind all supermarket operators that we expect them to fix ongoing pricing accuracy issues and implement better processes to prevent issues like these in the future,” Ms Callinan says.

The charges will be filed separately against Woolworths NZ, Pak’nSave Silverdale, and Pak’nSave Mill Street.

The Commission has other ongoing investigations into supermarket operators.

Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden says the work the Commission is doing to put in place a mandatory disclosure standard under the Grocery Industry Competition Act will make it easier to identify trends and issues going forward, so they can be remedied.

“The standard will require the major supermarkets to regularly disclose information about customer complaints, including around pricing and promotional issues” Mr van Heerden says.

“The major supermarkets don’t have consistent processes for recording customer complaints – the lack of clarity and reporting means supermarkets can’t identify potential compliance issues within their businesses. This impacts consumers as their complaints may not be being dealt with effectively, which we would expect in a competitive market,” Mr van Heerden says.

The Commission is working with the major supermarkets on what information will be included in the standard and expects to have a draft published in the new year.

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