KEY POINTS:
Smart shoppers will always compare prices of similar goods to save money at the checkout.
And Consumer magazine does them a favour when it calls retailers to account for practices that make it hard for their customers to get the best deal on offer.
The watchdog group's latest target is the failure of the grocery chains always to display so-called unit prices of the goods on its shelves.
A shopper can easily tell, by looking at the price per kilogram, whether courgettes or asparagus make the best buying. But it's a lot harder when it comes to packaged goods. Working out whether, say, 700g at $3.87 or 575g at $2.99 is the better deal can tax even the most
agile mind at the end of a hard day, when the kids are grizzling in the aisles.
But a note on the pricing ticket showing that the former is more than 55c per 100g and the latter only 52c, makes it easy. Likewise, as Consumer warns, buying bigger packs or in bulk is not always smart: two packs of 100 teabags could be cheaper than one 200 pack.
Foodstuffs' New World and Pak'n'Save supermarkets do not, at present, show unit prices. Progressive Enterprises' Woolworths, Foodtown and Countdown supermarkets display them only on some lines in some stores.
Both chains should pull their socks up on the matter and fast. Meanwhile, shoppers can do their bit by making their feelings known to store managers.
At any time, but particularly as the economy sinks into recession, retailers owe it to their customers to help them stretch their shopping dollar further.
