When is Roast Chicken from Supermarkets a bargain

When Coles or Woolworths advertise the price has dropped do we continue to get the same sized Chicken.
I believe they offer a smaller chicken.
Unit pricing is no guide because they are sold at per each.
No weight or sizing is offered on the packaging or the advertising. So I believe we get ripped off.
What do you know about this?

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Only visually, one can see the chooks shrinking. I don’t buy them anymore, I dont believe they are good value, and whats more, usually overcooked.

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This practice may extend beyond chickens. I noticed a week back cherries in Woolies F&V. Loose by the kilo, or in an open top plastic bag, priced per bag. I could find no indication on the store pricing label of the weight of the contents nor on the bag.

Is there a legal loop hole here?

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Were the bagged cherries definitely priced per bag?

I bought a bag of cherries from Woollies in Nambour and they were sold by the kilo, including the weight of the plastic bag.

They scanned at $12.90 a kg, the same price as the loose cherries on their website.

As they are in open bags as per the grapes, and shoppers can eat some of them, remove some or add some, then the only fair system is to sell them by weight.

As for the chickens, they have definitely shrunk in size, especially since Coles and Woollies reduced their prices.

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My little supermarket offers grapes, cherries etc in open bags with a (possibly misleading) price ticket of eg S9.99. When you get to the checkout they are weighed and that is the per kilo price, not the bag price. They automatically reduce the tare by 0.2g ($0.002 off!) to compensate for the bag. This way, the staff have something to do while waiting for customers and they drop the loose grapes in the bags, thus selling more stock - they would have been thrown out as people tend to take the bunches only. Our store is too small for Unit Pricing, but the should at least put “per kilo” next to the price.

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Yes, I spent an extra 60 seconds making a second take on the scene to be sure I was not missing something. The bags were on an island stand separate from the loose cherries in boxes. There was just one pricing label on the island. Yes, it could have been an error on the day. I often just wonder?

It is not unusual to have the same product at Woolies F&V in a bag or container or tray with the prepackaged item priced at a premium to loose.

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They are all smaller birds anyway at one time I think they sold both a regular and a family sized selection with the regular being a size 10 or 11 bird (can’t remember which it was). Size 12 I think is the sizing for the family one then and now so if cooked slightly more than the 75 minutes then some extra moisture/fat will be lost from the carcass. If they have been bagged for some time (allowed 4 hours I think) then this may further reduce the weight of the bird but still the liquid from the bird would be evident in the package.

Some others use slightly bigger birds such as Costco being a size 14 I think, I am not sure on the IGA ones.

So I don’t think that it is so much a reduction in chicken sizes but perhaps the “imprecise timing” on the cooking that could be decreasing apparent size. This would be more a concern if they get rushed off their feet serving more customers when the specials are on. We would need a whistleblower in Woolworths and Coles to really be able to verify any perception in size changes.