… also seems people are keen to source them from anywhere …
1 Like
Welcome to the Community @ashleyh
I merged your query into this existing topic where some related posts have already been made.
I’ll opine that Choice does not ‘adjudicate’ on the business issues you posed save for comparative metrics from time to time. Your query may be best posed to the ACCC.
An interesting aspect of our consumer laws is that
‘While price gouging is generally not illegal, if a business makes misleading claims about the reason for price increases, it will be breaching the Australian Consumer Law. It is also possible that extreme price gouging for essential products may amount to unconscionable conduct.’
There are many aspects to how the system takes and responds to pricing and business behaviour.
As an example, under ACCC guidance if a RAT price sticker included a line such as ‘$10,000 - extra seller profit just because we can’ it would conform. The belief is competition should limit such tactics.
There are also honest reasons prices could go up, such as half the truckies being in isolation so transportation costs go up, but by how much would that impact each box? etc…
2 Likes
The Guardian has reported as of 5th Jan.
The federal government is also making changes aimed at preventing price gouging and hoarding, using changes to the Biosecurity Act to prevent retailers from putting more than a 20% mark-up on tests. Penalties include jail terms and fines of up to $66,000.
No advice on an implementation date.
4 Likes
Scott M said he felt a markup of 120% was acceptable, perhaps the Guardian missed the 1 in that figure they printed.
2 Likes
It seems the ‘1’ might have been the error in the click-line. The text indicated 20% on the Guardian as well as from the ABC.as previously posted.
I acknowledge there are so many shoes dropping a millipede seems at work, so until the last shoe stops bouncing we won’t know how it goes.
2 Likes
“ new measures will be brought in to stop price gouging, with fines of up to $66,000 or five years in prison for those who sell a RAT at more than 120% mark up. ”
The two variants of RATs that Costco sold (one oral and one nasal) in 20 packs were $7 per test and $9 per test respectively. Puts the $15 or so in other stores prices almost an obscene cost level.
3 Likes
Comparing Costco to a ‘regular’ shop is disingenuous. Some things at Costco are actually more than at other places, most things less, some much less. The comparison is useful for shopping, but probably not for P/L issues.
Also the cited article does not imply 120% is acceptable, but a threshold for that prosecution.
2 Likes
It is a starting point however for the comparison as you noted. Woolworths, Coles etc have very large buying power and they do not even come down to these levels of cheapness. A report on ACA had an Australian manufacturer stating their price of production was $6 to $8 a test, add markup of 120% plus GST and the price to buy for a consumer is between $14.50 and $19.30 per test (I question why such a large variance to produce the same test but maybe they were just being coy about actual cost).
Not cheap when you will have to buy at least 2 and if a third or fourth or more may be required over a couple of weeks if positive tests are obtained on the required test interval days until at last a negative is the result. That could be an expense not many could afford concession holders or not.
1 Like
I looked briefly for a more detailed explanation but one did not come to hand. It’s reasonable to assume the 20% markup is on the delivered cost to the retailer’s door. We might need to wait to see how the legislation is applied/interpreted.
The markup is based on the cost of supplying the goods or service to a customer. Hence the 20% is on top of the business and store running costs/overheads. These need to be added to the cost of purchasing from the supplier/manufacturer, before the up to 20% is added to the total cost of supplying the item.
1 Like
It is written that much of Costco’s profit is from the annual membership fees, not the markups. It has also been shown that IF Colesworths sold products in the same sizes as Costco the prices would be similar. On many days with some products the Costco prices are equal to the Colesworths routine sale prices - the difference is Costco’s price is every day, not just on sale. Sometimes Costco has to have a sale (aka instant coupon) to match Colesworth.
It is not just buying power, it is how the companies use it.
5 Likes
An acceptable markup appears to be no more than 20%. The below quote is from a 5 January transcript from the PM’s website.
“There are other measures which I can announce, that we will be using the Biosecurity Act through the Health Minister to include rapid antigen tests as, in the price gouging provisions under the regulations that are put out by the Health Minister, which means that if you are selling a rapid antigen test for more than 120 per cent of, so a 20 per cent mark-up, on what you’ve paid for it to supply it, then you will be in breach of that regulation and that carries a penalty of $66,000 and up to five years in jail.”
3 Likes
When else might one benefit from access to a Covid test? Medical advice for NSW.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant urged people not to go “out and about” if they have symptoms.
…
“If you are going to those big family events and there’ll be those special events such as weddings and those very sad events such as funerals, you may want to use a RAT test again, I know not everyone can get them, but if you have got one, that’s a good preventive method you can have.”
2 Likes
A satire about Scotty’s statements about not making RATs free because it would undercut businesses.
4 Likes
4-6 weeks possible delay before supply issues are sorted, do we need to keep testing and what are the concerns. There is much more covered than the news item leader suggests.
But for Australia, chief among these supply chain issues is the scarcity of air freight.
The vast majority of rapid tests being sold for use in Australia are being imported from overseas, which means an overnight emergency delivery to replenish stocks is near-impossible.
In an open letter published in the British Medical Journal this week, public health experts called for a “vaccines-plus” approach that incorporates not just vaccination, but face masks, ventilation, and set criteria around effective testing, tracing and isolation to suppress transmission.
“This strategy will slow the emergence of new variants and ensure they exist in a low transmission background where they can be controlled by effective public health measures, while allowing everyone (including those clinically vulnerable) to go about their lives more freely,” the letter said.
The experts are not forecasting an end to Covid with the current wave. They see an ongoing need to continue Covid measures we’re familiar with.
2 Likes
This site lists availability of RATs but is consumer driven in that it is user updated:
Hope it helps anyone in need of them.
3 Likes
Self help and free enterprise combine to deliver free test kits.
It’s now the responsibility of the participating pharmacies to procure and pay for the stock required. There is no mention of who will pay for any stock not sold and no system yet in place for the pharmacy businesses to be paid for supplying the product.
When the free RAT kits might be more freely available? Ask your chemist.
1 Like
CHOs advise that if a person feels they have COVID symptoms, they should self isolate. Also, we have been told not to go for PCR tests if there are COVID symptoms. So how does this person get their hands on RATs to test whether they have actually contracted the virus? Bear in mind that not everyone lives in a multi-person familial situation where they can get someone to go to the pharmacy for them, and many people live without close links to their community, the non-institutionalised aged and NDIS participants for example.
What if the whole family have to self-isolate as ‘close contacts’. How do they source RATs?
To get around this with the announced distribution methodology, while healthy, everyone will need to go out and procure a box per person (for multiple tests until clear) to have them on hand just in case. Of course this would result in a rush on stocks as people “hoard” RATs.
Clearly this approach is doomed to failure, or have I misunderstood?
2 Likes
Testing and use if RATs is flawed when there is a very large number of cases in the community. Many health experts have advised that under large case numbers, the benefits of continued testing is significantly limited. Testing is about suppressing numbers…which was possible sometime last year (1 month to 3-4 months ago) depending on which state you reside (with exception of WA which is still in the containment phase).
The other challenge is RAT are more reliable for those who don’t have Covid (about 95% accurate) but significantly less accurate for those with infection (about 78% accuracy).
RATs also need to be done almost daily to confirm if one has the infection and likely to be infectious (this is likely to be two days late if using a RAT). There is mounting evidence that Omicron may be infectious days before symptoms arise . This means infectious individuals are within the community for some days before gaining symptoms and then testing. Damage already done and why Omicron may have been an effective spreader.
Listening to some European and UK experts on radio streams, there is gathering consensus RAT testing should focus for places where containment may still be possible (aged care, hospitals, contact with immunosuppressed, prisons, remote communities etc), rather than using for general population. General population would only benefits from RAT testing if it was more accurate, infections were detected earlier (at start of infectious period rather than 2days later when viral load is high), testing was done routinely and very regularly (possibly daily). Accuracy is very important as currently 22% of infected individuals think they don’t have Covid (this is closer to 100% for the first few days when one is first infectious) and continue the spread. Probably of spread may also be higher with a false negative, especially when one is infectious around 2 days before symptoms arise or a test is positive, as it ‘provides a false sense of security’.
Australia should also be looking at how to best use RATs and PCR tests since containment is no longer possible and Omicron appears to have the ability to spread with acceptable management strategies.
2 Likes
Home delivery, but since they are not readily available at present, I doubt it matters.
3 Likes
Whether expert considered medical option or personal view point, it’s unlikely what we think here will make any difference to what the National leadership does.
Containment is still part of the strategy for WA and the NT. All others agreed on opening up with limitations based on Covid and Vaccination status of individuals. Some of these controls still exist at borders into Tasmania, SA, and Qld. Aged care facilities, medical services and others have very strict controls in place to try and keep Covid out, reverse containment. And close contacts remain required to self isolate/quarantine, with limited exceptions subject to testing of key members of the work force. Those required to isolate (even if not infected) at home are certainly ‘contained’.
2 Likes
