General News
30 September, 2024
Questionable pricing practices show shoppers are not special
The following is from ACM editor Glenn Ellard.
The following is from ACM editor Glenn Ellard.
Sometimes I have to wonder if the ACCC has been asleep at the wheel.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has raised concerns about the practices of the major supermarkets, including suggestions Coles and Woolworths have been temporarily inflating prices just so they can be reduced for so-called "specials".
The ACCC has even claimed some of the "specials" are at higher than the regular shelf prices, despite tickets showing savings.
Well hello, have any of the ACCC members even visited the major supermarkets in recent years?
People who shop regularly have been complaining about this for a long time as they watch prices fluctuate.
Like many others in the community trying to balance budgets as money become tighter, there are some items I buy only when they are genuinely on sale at a reduced price.
Yet when I look at these items there are so many times I've been left shaking my head at the co-called "specials" that are higher than the non-special price the previous week.
With all this going on there are now reports that shoppers are losing faith in the major supermarkets and their practice of putting items on "special".
Meanwhile, there are continued reports of the major supermarket chains dictating the prices they will pay for goods, screwing over farmers and manufacturers in the process.
It all raises questions on whether Australia's high inflation rate and rising cost of living, which impacts on us all in multiple ways including home loan interest rates, has more to do with corporate profiteering then it does with the spending habits of regular Australians.
Thankfully the ACCC is in the process of conducting a year-long inquiry into Australia's supermarket sector, including the pricing practices of the supermarkets and the relationship between wholesale, including farmgate, and retail prices.
I can only hope that the results recognise that while supermarkets need to remain profitable, they can't treat customers like sacrificial lambs just waiting to be roasted.