Companies that do price gouging with Covid-19 related products

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#2447710 27-Mar-2020 09:33

elpenguino:

networkn:

Conservatively I estimate we paid around 25% more for groceries in the past 10 days.

I have heard this from other people. But what's the truth? Did you buy more than normal and forget to allow for that?

Can you (or anyone else) name particular items which have increased in price and produce dockets showing the price pre and post COVID announcements?

If there's price gouging let's prove it.

It's the lack of discounting that will account for most of this...not a price rise per se, but a lack of price reduction...

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networkn

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#2447712 27-Mar-2020 09:36

Actually, New Worlds explanation made sense but the initial article was incorrectly reporting what they said.

What happened was they applied the price of the chicken, to the price per KG, and since those chickens were 1.7-1.8KG that's why they were around $30 each. It's a reasonable explanation and entirely possible.

One other thing I considered, was that not all discounts are card discounts, sometimes the prices are just lower for everyone regardless of what card they use. If they aren't applying those, then that would also explain the price difference in my grocery shop.

Happy to be and admit to being wrong :)

Geektastic

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#2447718 27-Mar-2020 09:47

$30 for a chicken seems like a lot of anyone's money really.

networkn

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#2447720 27-Mar-2020 09:50

Geektastic:

$30 for a chicken seems like a lot of anyone's money really.

Right, but according to them it was mislabelled and should have been $16.99 total rather than per KG.

It's a believeable human error considering the pressure they have been under.

Geektastic

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#2447721 27-Mar-2020 09:51

aucklander:

I have a construction project started at home (house extension in Akl) and of course everything stopped now, no workers will attend site for weeks. I also have a portable toilet on hire for the site, from KIWI FLUSH. I asked if they still charge rental for this period and their answer was "business as usual". Surely there is nothing as usual on this construction site...

As a comparison, I had scaffold from GET IT UP Scaffolding and when I asked them about the hire charges over Christmas period (2 weeks) they were happy to drop the hire charges for that period. That provided the project with a very useful $800 breath of fresh air... and they were under no obligation to do that.

"be kind" during the lock-down... nice Tui ad, isn't it?

Long ago, in days of yore, when we first moved to NZ, an early local acquaintance told us that "Kiwi's favourite hobby is ripping off other Kiwis!"

It took us a few years before we understood his claim!

Geektastic

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#2447722 27-Mar-2020 09:53

networkn:

Geektastic:

$30 for a chicken seems like a lot of anyone's money really.

Right, but according to them it was mislabelled and should have been $16.99 total rather than per KG.

It's a believeable human error considering the pressure they have been under.

True. I thought it might turn out to be some rare breed organic speciality chicken and hence the price. I suppose they do not really sell that kind of product here much though.

tchart

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#2447739 27-Mar-2020 10:19

It's a believeable human error considering the pressure they have been under.

However (as Ive seen elsewhere) when have you ever paid for a chicken per kg? Whole chickens (cooked or not) have never been by sold weight AFAIK

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IronH

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#2447792 27-Mar-2020 11:08

jarledb:

I see that Dicks Smiths are being D*cks and price gouging hand sanitisers and masks. Currently they are selling 20 P2 masks for $319!

Personally I won’t buy from disk smith because of their lousy service that I experienced, but are you making an assumption that dick smith hiked the price? Out of interest what was the original price and can you prove that it wasn’t the manufacturer or supplier who hiked it? If it comes from the supplier then dick smith probably has an automated system that updates based off the suppliers price list. dick smith would still have to consider whether to keep listing it at the inflated price or remove it all together so that no one can buy (which is another topic altogether). They may well be guilty, but the onus is on you to prove it before "blaming and shaming”.

msukiwi:

tchart: Naming and shaming NZ Herald for putting important Covid-19 related articles behind their pay wall. Specifically an article about your employer's obligations when you are working from home during the lock down.

The Sydney Morning Herald removed the paywall on ALL Bushfire related articles during their emergency - The precedent has been set!

It’s not really a precendent that Ccompanies give free stuff out of goodwill, however I think we need to take a step back, just because one company decides to give free stuff doesn’t mean that we can now expect or are entitled to get free stuff from a different company. In the same way that if someone out of goodwill gives me $100 it doesn’t mean that I should now expect everyone else to give me $100 and blame and shame them if they don’t. This is commonly referred to as self entitlement, and no-one wants to be that guy.

What we should do is commend the person/entity that has given us something for free, and support them with loyalty or recommendations or future purchases etc, but it doesn’t mean we are now entitled to shame those who don’t give it us free stuff. It’s nice if they do, but it’s wrong to shame them if they don't, whether that free stuff is information or whatever, and especially when there are plenty of other resources that are free and are arguably better eg https://www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/other-types-of-leave/coronavirus-workplace/

On a semi related side note I saw this blame and shame this morning which I can empathise with: https://youtu.be/nWCSW-X3HsE

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#2447796 27-Mar-2020 11:13

Might depend on the chicken, we have bought a few butterflied from Countdown @ $9 kg.

tchart

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#2447949 27-Mar-2020 13:12

IronH:

It’s not really a precendent that Ccompanies give free stuff out of goodwill, however I think we need to take a step back, just because one company decides to give free stuff doesn’t mean that we can now expect or are entitled to get free stuff from a different company. In the same way that if someone out of goodwill gives me $100 it doesn’t mean that I should now expect everyone else to give me $100 and blame and shame them if they don’t. This is commonly referred to as self entitlement, and no-one wants to be that guy.

Sorry I dont agree, its not asking for free stuff its about the greater good. Articles about your work rights under a lock down shouldn't be behind a paywall. Neither should I have to sit through an advert before I see a MOH update.

There are plenty of other "premium" (paywall) articles on NZ Herald so why put these behind a paywall.

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#2447952 27-Mar-2020 13:17

tchart:

Sorry I dont agree, its not asking for free stuff its about the greater good. Articles about your work rights under a lock down shouldn't be behind a paywall. Neither should I have to sit through an advert before I see a MOH update.

There are plenty of other "premium" (paywall) articles on NZ Herald so why put these behind a paywall.

Their business model is subscription based. Why not just find another source?

Inphinity

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#2447961 27-Mar-2020 13:24

networkn:

Geektastic:

$30 for a chicken seems like a lot of anyone's money really.

Right, but according to them it was mislabelled and should have been $16.99 total rather than per KG.

It's a believeable human error considering the pressure they have been under.

There are a high number of staff doing 'not their normal job' to help keep stock moving and get stuff on shelves, so the rate of human error could be higher than normal, too, as a result.

elpenguino

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#2447983 27-Mar-2020 13:44

Handsomedan:

elpenguino:

If there's price gouging let's prove it.

It's the lack of discounting that will account for most of this...not a price rise per se, but a lack of price reduction...

Just been to countdown. For the items where I have memorised the price I couldn't find a single item in the packaged goods category that was priced differently.

This is things like peanut butter, bread, muesli etc.

it seems vege and fruit may be priced higher than last week in some cases. Countdown may argue they're having to pay more for wholesale goods due to reduced supply or some other reason although I remember hearing they have producers locked into supply contracts. Someone who knows about such things might comment anonymously.

I'm not defending Countdown I just want evidence before I get my pitchfork.

There are few specials which then takes us into the argument 'if an item is frequently discounted then the discounted price is the real price'.

I think the answer to that is sufficiently debatable in the supermarket's favour.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

mattwnz

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#2448020 27-Mar-2020 14:03

Handsomedan:

f discounting that will account for most of this...not a price rise per se, but a lack of price reduction...

Yeap. At least half of what I buy is normally discounted on as they tend to be on some form of price rotation I have found. eg one week it maybe chicken, then the next beef etc. Meat that gets closer to it's useby date gets discounted, and there are usually quantity discounts eg 3 packs for 20 dollars. All this then goes into the freezer and can keep. We are also now having to shop at a more expensive supermarket due to this, and their prices are significantly more for the same items, so some people are going to struggle I suspect.

MikeAqua

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#2448022 27-Mar-2020 14:08

Senecio:

Time to dispel a few myths here.

When you see an item in the supermarket that normally retails for $9.99 discounted or on promotion for say $6. The Supermarket themselves are not giving up any (or very little) of their own margin. The manufacturer is running the promotion in their store and gives up the margin, in return for higher volume of course. The manufacturer pays for everything (margin, promotional material, and even pays for premium shelf space, page position in mailers).

Managing promotional activity in store carries a high overhead for both the manufacturer and the retailer. Its called trade spend in the business, and its big dollars. In any given year our trade spend is higher than our cost of goods!

What you're seeing now is the Supermarkets are not allowing manufacturers to run their promotional campaigns. And quite rightly too. The focus right now is on shelf availability for consumers and anything else is non essential.

The people we normally employ to manage our trade spend, are currently in your local Supermarket at 2am in the morning helping our retail partners to stock the shelves

Great explanation thank you. I still don't understand what is wrong with doing specials, if limits are able to be imposed. maybe its the shag factor of organising and negotiating it all?

The effect of no specials is that groceries cost more, at a time when many people have less income than normal.

Mike

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