New World Te Kūiti was not included in the 300 complaints Consumer NZ received about supermarket specials.
Neither Countdown Ōtorohanga or New World Te Kūiti have been included in the 300 complaints Consumer NZ received about dodgy supermarket specials.
Consumer NZ has received no complaints about the local supermarkets to date, it stated in reply to a question from King Country News.
Examples of complaints received from other supermarkets about the country included:
- 78 “specials” which, on closer inspection, were not an opportunity to save
- 54 instances of customers being charged more than the shelf price
- 18 dodgy multibuys – where the products would have been cheaper if bought individually.
“The volume and frequency of misleading pricing and promotions on our supermarket shelves is concerning,” Jon Duffy, Consumer NZ’s chief executive said.
Consumer NZ asked for public assistance to call out misleading pricing in September.
Because of the volume of complaints, it took a while for the small Consumer NZ team to work through and categorise them, Jon said.
“We contacted the supermarket bosses to share a small sample of the complaints, and to raise our concerns that many of the examples we received risked breaching the Fair Trading Act,” he said.
Foodstuffs, the operator of New World and Pak’n’Save, largely rejected Consumer’s concerns about its pricing practices.
Foodstuffs stated the number of complaints it received about pricing and ticketing practices were low compared to the number of transactions it processed. It acknowledged some ‘unintended consequences’ on ‘ticketing displays’ but rejected Consumer NZ’s concerns there are systemic problems with its pricing practices.
“The evidence we have collected suggests there are systemic issues, so we have written back to Foodstuffs, presenting a full summary of the complaints we received and asking it to take action to address these issues,” Jon said.
Consumer NZ also asked Foodstuffs to mirror Countdown’s refund policy as a step to better address pricing errors when they occur.
“It’s our view, in the current cost-of-living crisis, pricing errors are putting further strain on shoppers.”
Woolworths, which operates Countdown, took Consumer NZ’s concerns on board and is working to implement changes to improve its pricing practices, Jon said.
“Woolworths also told us it has a clear and comprehensive refund policy. If a customer is charged more than the price on the shelf – the customer can ask for a full refund for the item – and keep it free of charge.”
As part of its market study into the grocery sector, the Commerce Commission recommended supermarkets take responsibility to ensure their pricing and promotional practices were simple and easy to understand.
Consumer NZ intended to undertake further monitoring of all supermarkets in New Zealand this month and will put another call out to shoppers across the country asking them to report confusing or misleading pricing and promotions at supermarkets.
