We appreciate the comments so far on our latest supermarket pricing comparison. However people perceive the survey, its strengths or flaws, we appreciate hearing your thoughts.
All the comments are important and have been received by us at CHOICE, but I’ll respond generally to the themes being discussed. Firstly, this line from the article has caused some contention.
Our basket of brand products cost on average $69.33 at Coles and $68.58 at Woolworths (with no specials), while a comparable basket of Aldi brand products was just $51.51
I can see why this is the case. It is up to us to ensure every line is accountable, and taking care with how we refer to national brands and store brands in this context is important. It should be worded to provide clarity and this feedback will not be missed.
In fairness, I’ve copied this from the same article a few paragraphs below the offending line:
As much as possible we choose the same product brands across the supermarkets.
Some national brand products will be available at Aldi (such as Weet-bix and Lipton tea), and then we use comparable products for the other items (e.g. house brand flour).
When we have to compare products from different brands we look at nutrition panels, country of origin and other product information to ensure they’re as close as possible.
There is also a separate article that further details our practices for the supermarket pricing survey. These are published at the same time and linked in the article above.
While we feel that this information provided gives a reasonable degree of transparency into the process, we appreciate that unless the specific items are listed that it will be questioned. Unfortunately, at this stage it remains a neccessity to the process, and we continue to welcome your thoughts based on your personal experiences. However, there should be no contradiction to our position, and that remains that we compared a number of national brands, house brands and fresh produce.
So why not list the items?
Since it’s a hot topic I can expand on what information I have provided above. Ensuring the process isn’t manipulated or compromised is paramount in this case. As you all know, it is funded by the goverment and is also a wider and more expansive exercise than previous efforts. This makes it different than recent surveys, and means a number of unique challenges.
It is not the first time the government has engaged CHOICE to look at supermarket pricing. You can read about how that eventually unfolded here. It did result in a parliamentary enquiry as well. The previous excercise is of course a very different situation to the current pricing comparison, but it highlights how complex and difficult a seemingly simple pricing comparison can become, and why we need to take care.
There has been some talk about our transparency at CHOICE. I feel it’s fair to consider our recent submission to the supermarket inquiry alongside the above. One of our key asks is for increasing transparency in historical supermarket pricing, which is something the supermarkets have fought fiercely against, as you will see if you take the time to look into the aforementioned enquiry.
And so we find ourselves in an unusual situation: to provide indicators of historical pricing with accuracy and without bias, we need to take every measure to protect the process. We can’t say what will happen in the future, but we will aim to give us much clarity as possible.
Previous surveys
There are a great number of supermarket comparisons we have completed, the first in 1963. We fought for in-store unit pricing all the way back in 1990. In 2015, our investigation saw Coles hit with a $10 million fine for “unconscionable” conduct for misusing its outsized bargaining power.
The methodology for each survey can change to suit its purpose. In this one from 2020, we compared nationally available brands at major supermarkets based on unit price and listed the basket items:
I provided the link before, but will do again to the Christmas basket grocery comparison. You’ll notice that the specific products were not listed, although some national brands are identified. Here is how the basket was displayed:
Similar to this most recent comparison, this was an ongoing survey aiming to give a broad level price indicator using a mix of product categories, national brands and house brands. I chose this example because it’s relatively comparable, and because the drop down allows you to see the basket lists and pricing comparisons over time, so that you can see the continuation of both results and methods. However, there are also yearly supermarket comparisons on the choice.com.au site that do not reveal the supermarket basket items in totality, similar in this way to this most recent comparison.
Mystery shoppers
For the actual shopping part in this most recent review, we engage a qualified partner accredited with the Mystery Shopping Providers Association. So it’s not a case of mystery shoppers randomly substituting items, they have specific lists and the absence of items is managed as part of the process. In the case of IGA, we cut down to a 10 item basket comparison to ensure fairness in what is being compared. We intend to improve the number of IGA items next time. Both special and normal prices are accounted for, and you can see both by visiting the article and hovering over the infographic. It’s all done to methodology under strict quality controlled and independently verified conditions.
Many aspects to supermarkets
We understand that people shop in different ways, and that people have different access to supermarkets. The pricing comparison is not a comment on people’s personal shopping practices, or even representative of a ‘regular’ shop, because this looks different and happens at different frequencies for everyone. The purpose of this comparison is to provide an indicator of supermarket pricing at the major supermarkets in Australia.
The focus has been on Aldi, which is fair considering the results. We can’t put aside our experience, but we also don’t set out to be presumptive. The survey also does much more than just compare to Aldi - it compares the two majors to each other, it compares each brand against themselves and each other on a metro and regional basis, state vs state and territory basis and also to IGA.
In Tasmania, the cost of the IGA basket was $41.05 , compared to $33.50 at Woolworths and $34.40 at Coles.
It’s very likely that we will do further supermarket comparisons in the future outside of pricing or using different pricing elements such as unit price. We will consider some of the suggestions here such as comparing within the one supermarket, or having a look at the house brands in each category.
What the supermarkets say
I’ve addressed how we are comitted to presenting our results above, even if one brand frequently dominates. In addition, it’s not surprising that the supermarkets will use whatever tools they can to promote their own businesses. This potential is there and realised across the range of companies we interact with, and to be expected when operating in a public way. Therefore, this is not really a concern for us.
We are concerned however with widespread confusion at the supermarket, as indicated in our latest nationally representative survey. We are concerned that certain promotional practices are bad for consumers, we are concerned with historical supermarket price transparency, and when people tell us they are struggling with the cost of living, we are motivated to highlight the cost at supermarkets.
