Consumer NZ says the Commerce Commission’s recommendations over food pricing don’t go far enough, and believes they put too much onus on consumers.
Consumer NZ criticises the Commerce Commission’s recommendations on food pricing, saying they rely too much on consumers.
Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden urges supermarkets to publicise refund policies and disclose customer complaints.
Gemma Rasmussen highlights 12% of people report pricing errors, urging supermarkets to invest in technology.
Consumer NZ says the Commerce Commission’s recommendations over food pricing don’t go far enough, and believes they put too much onus on consumers.
It follows comments from the Grocery Commissioner that he’s hearing too many examples of misleading or inaccurate pricing, which is leaving shoppers “tens of millions of dollars” out of pocket.
Pierre van Heerden has now called on supermarkets to publicise and improve their refund policies, including returning the full price of any goods to affected customers rather than just the price difference.
He also plans to make it mandatory to regularly disclose information about customer complaints so stores can identify compliance issues.
It’s a move he says would create an incentive for stores to improve the accuracy of their pricing.
But Consumer NZ head of research and advocacy Gemma Rasmussen says it’s not enough.
“It’s actually relying on the general public to be spotting these pricing errors and then alerting the supermarkets, and then the supermarkets to push that information on to the Grocery Commissioner,” she said.
“Why is it that New Zealand shoppers are the ones that need to be eagle-eyed about these issues?”
Rassmussen said about 12% of people Consumer NZ hears from are regularly seeing pricing errors.
“In the past year, we’ve had over 600 pricing complaints which we have provided to the Commerce Commission as evidence. They are now investigating this separately, and there could be long-term prosecution there.”
Consumer NZ says about 12% of people it hears from are regularly seeing pricing errors.
In a cost of living crisis right now, every cent counts, with the commission’s comments coming the same day Stats NZ reported a 0.6% increase in food prices in the year to July.
“[Consumer NZ] is hearing conversations in families who are not buying fresh fruit and vegetables because they’re too expensive, or parents who are actually skipping meals to be able to provide for their children. So what is so important for them, is that they can go into a supermarket and trust the pricing.”
Consumer NZ said a lot of the pricing issues stem from human error, and believes the $25 billion per year industry should be investing its profits on reliable infrastructure to get it right.
“Invest in the technology so that you can be absolutely confident that the pricing that shoppers are seeing is correct.”
But without enough competition to shake up the supermarket duopoly, there’s concern there isn’t enough incentive for change.
“If New Zealanders saw pricing errors and had the option to go to another supermarket, they would probably do that. However, for a lot of people, there might only be one supermarket in their town and they absolutely have to go there.
“At the same time, if the supermarkets aren’t being forced in any way to innovate and improve this pricing, why are they going to do that?”
Supermarkets respond
In a statement, Foodstuffs, which oversees brands like Pak’nSave and New World, said customers should have confidence they are paying the correct price at the checkout.
“If there’s a mistake, we will put it right quickly and refund customers if they’ve been overcharged.
“We are reviewing our refund policy and customer complaints tracking systems and will carefully consider the Grocery Commissioner’s recommendations as part of that review.”
Woolworths NZ said it already has a “market-leading” refund policy which it says holds it accountable for pricing mistakes.
“When a customer comes to us because we’ve made a mistake and overcharged them for a product, our policy gives them a full refund and they get to keep the product for free – this meets the commissioner’s expectations.
“Every New Zealander should be able to know and understand our policy, and that’s why we’re taking steps to make sure it’s much clearer for our customers and that our team understands it. We are also adding a provision where if we identify a mistake, and can’t track down all customers to refund them, we will donate the refund to charity.”
