Peeling back the truth about supermarket pricing

Never before have supermarkets been under such public scrutiny and consumers under extreme cost-of-living pressures. Various inquiries into alleged supermarket misconduct involving suppliers, staff, customers, and regulators have dominated recent news.  

The Senate Select Committee on Supermarket Prices is the latest inquiry to deliver a report.  

In a submission to the committee, National Seniors Australia expressed your concerns about high prices and poor unit price labelling. We are pleased the committee has acknowledged our contribution and addressed the issues we raised. 

We told the committee it was important that seniors could easily compare products and prices across different brands.  

However, price comparison relies on consumers having easy access to information to enable it. In recent times, comparing is getting more difficult, and the display of this information is inconsistent across supermarkets. 

The Grocery Unit Pricing Code requires certain grocery retailers, such as supermarkets, to provide consumers with the unit price (price per standardised unit of measure) to facilitate value comparisons. 

This enables informed consumer choice and competition between brands and products. Unfortunately, supermarkets do not always provide unit pricing in ways that are easily legible and understandable, especially for older people with vision impairment. 

The Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) administers the Grocery Unit Pricing Code and should be taking stronger action to monitor and enforce unit pricing to enable consumers to make informed decisions about product prices. This is especially critical when product sizes are inconsistent or change over time. 

National Seniors Australia and the Queensland Consumers Association recommended that the ACCC give higher priority to monitoring and enforcing retailer compliance with the Unit Pricing Code of Conduct and be resourced to do so. 

We also want the Federal Government to establish an independent, national review of the unit pricing system to assess and improve the effectiveness and administration of the current unit pricing and other relevant legislation. 

National Seniors is pleased the committee’s report to the Federal Government reflects our recommendations and wants the government to strengthen the Unit Pricing Code and force supermarkets to: 

• Adopt a mandatory information standard for unit pricing, including improvements to the legibility and prominence of unit prices, and changes in price and size of products 

• Standardise and rationalise discount and promotional terms, to prevent promotional material indicating a discount when one is not available 

• Prominently disclose any changes in the price or size of a product. 

The committee also wants the ACCC to be given increased enforcement powers to better police compliance with the Unit Pricing Code and the Food and Grocery Code of Conduct and prosecute offenders. 

It is not only shoddy compliance with unit pricing, including difficult to understand information, that frustrates supermarket shoppers but also the size, legibility, and accuracy of shop labelling. 

For example, the three big supermarkets – Coles, Woolworths, and Aldi – are under fire for potentially misleading consumers with promotional and “sales” labels. 

Consumer advocacy group Choice found that one-in-four shoppers had difficulty telling whether certain promotional price tags represented a genuine discount on the usual price. 

A variety of price tags from the supermarkets – including “While Stocks Last”, “Super Savers”, “Down Down”, “Prices Dropped”, and “Member Price” – were examined in the research and more than 1,000 consumers across the country were surveyed. 

“Our research shows that there is widespread confusion, and the supermarkets are arguably using the various labels to manipulate and impede informed purchasing decisions,” Choice said. 

Small type and labels with confusing designs make it difficult to read and understand, compounding the problem NSA raised at the Senate inquiry about inadequate unit pricing information. 

Older people and those with disabilities are particularly disadvantaged. 

It’s not just an issue with supermarket shelf labels but also packaging information. The information print is too small and in colours that make it difficult to read for many people. 

Fresh from its success in submitting to the Senate inquiry, the Queensland Consumers Association’s (QCA), supported by National Seniors, is campaigning to have supermarkets improve labelling. 

QCA’s Ian Jarratt says the legibility problem is not just the fault of the content generators but also the consumer regulators and the legislation that fail to stipulate the size and prominence of packing information. 

“There is a requirement that consumer information should be displayed so it is prominent and legible. But it is only principle based,” Mr Jarratt said. 

“There is no indication as to what that means – no minimum print size is specified or there is no set objective and measurable standard set. 

“Much more needs to be done to ensure that information to help consumers make informed choices is very easy for all consumers to notice, read, understand and use.”