Consumer group CHOICE has welcomed the Federal Government's plans to strengthen unit pricing by reviewing the rules and introducing strong penalties for non-compliance.
Quotes attributable to Deputy Director of Campaigns, Andy Kelly:
"CHOICE welcomes the Federal Government's announcement to improve the rules around grocery unit pricing. Currently, supermarkets can't be penalised for poor unit pricing and the Government's announcement today will fix that loophole."
"CHOICE has been calling for changes to the Grocery Unit Pricing Code for years to make unit pricing easier for consumers to use, including making it more visible and ensuring it's used consistently."
"Unit pricing is one of the most effective ways for consumers to choose the best value products in the supermarket, with a 2022 national CHOICE survey showing that 74% of shoppers chose the best value product when the unit price was shown. Of shoppers that use unit pricing, 71% said they'd encountered problems under the current system – including unit pricing not being displayed, too small to read or obscured by another tag."
"Strong penalties for unit pricing will help the ACCC clamp down on supermarkets doing the wrong thing, but to make shrinkflation more transparent we really need labels on shelves alerting customers to when a product has shrunk, but the price has remained the same or increased."
"In March, our investigation uncovered 10 products affected by shrinkflation – with Coles and Woolworths store-brand cereals shrinking in size by 65 grams while the price stayed the same, resulting in consumers paying 14% more for the product. If consumers were clearly notified of these changes, it would be harder for supermarkets to continue to get away with this sneaky tactic."
Editor's notes:
- CHOICE Unit Pricing Survey 2022 is based on a survey of 1008 Australian grocery buyers. The sample includes a spread of age groups, genders and location to ensure coverage in each state and territory across metropolitan and regional areas. Fieldwork was conducted on 14-29 November, 2022.
- Read more about CHOICE's shrinkflation investigation here.
- CHOICE's submission to the ACCC's supermarket inquiry can be downloaded here.
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
