Consumer NZ receives 160 complaints about supermarket specials in the last two months

In the past two months, Consumer NZ has received 160 complaints about potentially problematic supermarket deals.

The price blunders included feta on “special” for 10c more than its original price at Countdown and multibuy deals that ended up making the customer pay more, such as four packets of Pam’s rice crackers for $5, when its original price was $1.09 for one.

In September, the watchdog asked for people’s help to call out misleading pricing.

Head of research and advocacy at Consumer Gemma Rasmussen, said while the supermarkets acknowledged the watchdog’s previous concerns about problematic pricing and promotional practices, it was disappointed nothing had changed.

“People cannot afford to be misled and overcharged in this ongoing cost of living crisis. It’s disappointing to see the supermarkets haven’t remedied these pricing issues.”

Complainants also said they felt uncomfortable asking supermarkets for small refunds.

“Requesting a refund when you’ve been overcharged, whether it’s $2 or 20c might feel silly or more hassle than it’s worth complaining about – but you’re well within your rights to do so,” Rasmussen said.

The campaign comes at a time when food inflation is running at its highest rate since 1987. In April Stats NZ reported food prices were 12.5% higher than the same time last year – with one economist saying there was “not really and good news” when it comes to the prices.

Consumer NZ said it was giving its “dodgy specials” campaign one last push, to collect evidence to share with the Commerce Commission in the hope it would investigate.

It had designed a new form to make it easier to share examples by submitting them to its website until June 30.

Emma Wooster, spokesperson for Foodstuffs, said its dealt with 3.5 million “customer visits” a week.

“Under the Fair Trading Act (FTA), our local grocers and their teams understand their customers have the right to clear and accurate prices for products and services. If there’s a mistake, we work quickly and respectfully to put it right and we’ll always refund customers where they’ve been over charged. If any customer sees a ticket they feel is incorrect, or finds a pricing error, either before or after they’ve gone through the checkout, they should raise it directly with one of our team first.

“Foodstuffs is concerned about the methodology behind Consumer NZ’s blanket claims about ‘supermarket’ pricing practices. We understand and welcome that Consumer NZ will be providing the examples from its campaign to the Commerce Commission, so that Consumer NZ’s claims can be properly investigated and any genuine pricing issues can be resolved. Foodstuffs has not received any information about Consumer NZ’s most recent claims, but if and when we do, we’ll also look into these concerns straight away.”

She said Foodstuffs had looked into claims earlier in the year that Consumer had uncovered 300 “dodgy specials”.

Consumer NZ provided seven examples, the majority of which were differences between brand-wide prices and store specific prices in Foodstuffs North Island stores.

“In each case we confirmed that the customer had not been overcharged at the till. When Consumer NZ raised their ‘concerns’, Foodstuffs North Island had already initiated a project to rectify.”