Apple bargain tempts shoppers to spend up

Sandie Speeden, with Micah, 3, took home 5kg of Royal Gala apples for 45c. Photo / John Cowpland

Never mind an apple a day - at one shop's prices this week, most people could afford an apple a minute.

Hastings Pak'nSave sold more than 10,000kg of apples in five days this week, after cutting the price to 9c a kilo.

The supermarket's fresh food manager Aaron Smith said he slashed the price of Royal Galas from $2.98 a kilo to entice people to do all their shopping at the store.

"They are done as a 'loss leader' to draw customers into the store," Smith said. "It is a pretty good deal, but I'm certainly losing quite a bit of money."

He said the deal was limited to 3kg a customer, but he expected another 3000kg of apples would be gone by tonight, when the deal ends.

Hastings mother Sandie Speeden took home 5kg of apples for 45c on the first day of the promotion. She said the bin was almost empty in the afternoon.

"I just picked the best and will turn them into juice," Speeden said. "You can do so much with an apple. They should do it more often, even $1 a kilo would be good."

Pipfruit NZ membership services manager Gary Jones said it was a huge loss for the supermarket, but consumers should "fill their boots".

Kiwi exporters were selling 18kg cartons of apples at wholesale for about $44. The price of an 18kg carton at Pak'nSave is $1.60.

Jones said the summer conditions had been exceptional for growers.

"We have had the best coloured fruit we have ever had, and the quality is better than ever seen nationally," Jones said.

Statistics NZ's Food Price Index showed fruit and vegetable prices fell 1.6 per cent last month.

Numbers

• 9c a kilo for apples
• $2.98 a kilo previously
• 13,000kg sold