I buy 2 x 15 kilo bags of Black Hawk Grain Free Kangaroo dry food for my dog at a time. A purchase a couple of months ago, ordered online, was delivered free to my door - Total for the 2 bags was under $200.
We are regional dwellers - live half an hour from Geelong, 90 minutes or so from Melbourne. We have a PETstock store 20 minutes away. I get PETstock emails offering specials on this dog food - I’ve tried to order, but it comes up as not available in Ocean Grove. I hunted down the address of the last order (under $200 free delivery). It was Ballarat - and although not the store name on my receipt, it turned out to be a PETstock store. I checked other online stores for the cheapest price. It was $124.99. I understand that prices have risen through fuel rises and delivery chain problems, but…
I rang the Ocean Grove PETstock for a price, $177.
‘Can you price-match?’ I asked, Yes. I drove there and they did. $52 off each bag.
First question is how much freeplay is there in the mark-up on pet food? Second is how did that price jump so high? And thirdly, although there seems to be three major pet food retailers, are they acting as an oligopoly like petrol retailers?
Businesses work on margins, that being their purchase price plus a margin which includes business costs (rent, electricity, labour, warehousing/storage etc) and profit.
The margin can vary between business and the size of the business. As a general rule, bigger businesses with larger turnover (number of total sales) will have slightly lower margins than smaller independent companies.
Notwithstanding this, sometimes suppliers run promotions with businesses and may offer their products at a special reduce wholesale price. This can be passed onto the customer and can make independents cheaper than larger businesses from time to time.
Some business will price match when they can match another businesses price whilst still maintaining a profit, albeit a lesser one.
Good on for asking for a price match and taking a saving on the standard price in your chosen retailer.
Don’t know why. But everything is going up more than usual.
Your last questions I can’t comment on as don’t know the companies in question.
After 57 years of household shopping, I understand current price increases and am savvy at counteracting by looking for markdowns, by-passing supermarkets, buying alternatives etc -After twelve years of owning a retail business - markups and margins and overheads are second nature. As a Regional dweller/purchaser of goods, I too well understand costs for say, delivery - It hurts to pay $80 delivery from 20 kays away. But when something is advertised in an emailed brochure at say, $125, I should be able to buy at that price, and pick it up 20 kays away - Not arrive at that online window that says, ‘Not available.’ The regional dweller could feel discriminated against. I still question that $52 variation in price and the fact there was no visible shelf price at the store. The man at the check out had to search online. It’s all a tad wishy-washy and annoys me more than RRP tags.
I know from my work in this area that Black Hawk products in particular can have big price variances. Black Hawk was bought my Masterpet a few years back, and since then have became a really difficult matter. In particular, Masterpet asked the company I work for to cease offering some promotions on Black Hawk products, despite the fact we were wearing the cost of the discount.
Additionally, all products with kangaroo are likely experiencing big supply or price issues due to floods preventing the usual farming. This can also result in price variances as stores/chains with low stock are forced to cancel promotions or increase price to match sales with availability.
That makes some sense of the matter.
Are these stores franchised?
My dog, I adopted 15 months ago with his dicey gut, was suddenly okay with BH Kangaroo. I just hate dealing with these price variations. 
Why does it say not available?
Is it not available for delivery which makes the product unavailable for online purchase?
Or is there a city price and a non-visible country price. Some product catalogues state ‘Not available in some areas’. Often with online shopping there is that question of postcode.
Shops that have both online and physical locations sometime have an online only price that you can get by click and collecting. The reason being they have to cover the costs of running the store whilst simultaneously being competitive online.
Peter, I my experience with this, I can’t order, click and collect it locally. ‘Not Available’. I did counteract at one stage by getting a Melbourne based son to order and collect for me. You are a fount of info on this though. I better understand how it works.
