Cheaper Options Not Available Online:
Loose lines, such as loose flat mushrooms are $11.00 per kilo in store, but you can only order pre-packed ones for pickup or delivery at over $17 per kilo … which is more than 50% more expensive per weight for the same product.
This selective availability is also present in the deli (bbq pork) and the bakery (eg, Tiger bread Vienna loaf $2.50 is available, but Tiger baguettes at $1.50 are not).
I have repeatedly rang their help line, to be told (repeatedly) that they ‘understand’ my frustration’, saying it up to the Supermarket Division’s ‘discretion’ …
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There are prepacked ones instore available to customers as well. These are more ($/kg) than the loose ones. Comparing the price for loose items to prepacked items isn’t correct. It should be prepacked instore price verses prepacked online prices.
I assume that the supermarkets that deliver fresh produce don’t offer loose items such as mushrooms as it requires more time for picking staff to process the order (they have to pick say the requested number of items, weigh them, enter the new price as a variation and charge/refund the customer). Prepacked produce has been graded and packed at the farm/by the wholesaler and is a known quantity/weight. It saves considerable time. The downside is the customer needs to buy a set prepackaged amount rather than exactly what is needed for a recipe.
This could be based on demand or what it available at your local supermarket where the product picking occurs. Not all Woollies where the picking occurs will sell the Tiger baguettes.
And looking online, it is available for online purchases…but again it may be restricted where a local store doesn’t sell this product line:
Use the
to see if it is available in your local store or what nearest store stocks the product.
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To be delivered to you loose items need to be packaged and weighed and the price recorded as part of the order. You can understand why the stock picker is not going to specially weigh a bag just for each order that wants mushrooms. Such products would be weighed and packed in bulk by a machine. Having pre-packed items to choose from also allows the customer to know in advance what the cost will be - though this option is not always available. Why the prepacked option should be so much more expensive than loose is another matter. The cost of the packing does not seem to account for it.
Why only a reduced inventory is available is harder to follow, especially for pick-up where the stock picker has to go all over the store past the excluded items anyway.
Such services are viewed as a premium add-on for the time poor and vendors are going to charge as much as they can for it. I realise that the capacity of some people to do their own shopping is limited but unless the market gets much more competitive you are going to have to pay extra whether for you it is a luxury or not.
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