Revealed: Hundreds of ‘illusory’ discounts at Coles and Woolworths   

New Daily
Oct 23, 2024



Coles and Woolworths face allegations their dodgy discounts extended across their entire supermarkets, with court filings revealing the full extent of their “illusory” promotions.

Australia’s two largest supermarket chains signalled in Federal Court this week that they will defend action from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in Federal Court alleging they misled shoppers.


The case centres on evidence compiled by the regulator showing the supermarkets raised prices on hundreds of groceries and then discounted them for higher than the original price.

The ACCC alleges Coles and Woolworths misled consumers because these discounts were actually “illusory” and did not offer shoppers genuine savings on the original retail prices.   

Examples used
Federal court filings seen by TND list hundreds of products that were discounted at prices higher than their original cost, with the difference in some cases being in excess of 30 per cent.

For example, four packs of Maggi Super Noodles were stocked initially by Woolworths for $6.50, but were raised to $9. Soon after the product was discounted to $8 – 33 per cent higher than the first price.

Another particularly galling example were Oreo Family packs, which were sold for $3.50 before being raised to $5.

They were then discounted to $4.50, which is 29 per cent above the pre-hike purchase price.

It went beyond food too – three packs of Raid Exterminator Bombs were increased from $10 to $15, and then discounted to $13.



That’s 30 per cent more than the original pre-hike price.

The ACCC alleges that each product was put on supermarket ‘Prices Dropped’ (Woolworths) and ‘Down Down’ (Coles) promotional programs, which customers have come to associate with discounts following “many years of marketing campaigns”.

“In the case of these products, we allege the new ‘Prices Dropped’ and ‘Down Down’ promotional prices were actually higher than, or the same as, the previous regular price,” ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said when the ACCC announced its Federal Court case.

“In many cases both Woolworths and Coles had already planned to later place the products on a ‘Prices Dropped’ or ‘Down Down’ promotion before the price spike, and implemented the temporary price spike for the purpose of establishing a higher ‘was’ price.”


Despite the extent of evidence compiled by the watchdog, the supermarkets intend to defend the proceedings, with Coles in particular arguing the discounts were genuine.

Both Coles and Woolworths have blamed higher prices in recent years on suppliers, who have made thousands of requests for sticker changes of more than 10 per cent.

“The suggestion is that Woolworths initiated temporary price spikes and that’s not correct factually,” Cameron Moore SC, representing Woolworths, told the court on Wednesday.

But recent polling shows Australians firmly blame the supermarkets for grocery price hikes and more broadly torrid cost-of-living pressures that have squeezed millions of household budgets.

Moreover, Coles and Woolworths have lost their place among Australia’s most trusted brands, with customers feeling that lacklustre competition is a problem.

The ACCC Federal Court case is just one of several broadsides being aimed at big supermarkets in the aftermath of the public anger, with the federal government also cracking down.

Changes to unit pricing rules and a broad ACCC inquiry into supermarket competition have been announced in recent months, though experts are sceptical about how much will actually change.

tallowood wrote on Oct 25^th, 2024 at 2:47pm:


The below is true even if you list the other way and it is not above.

Quote:


I had noticed this but with other products.