John Rolfe
August 13, 2013
News Limited Network
UNDER intensifying pressure from the ACCC to pull back on petrol shopper dockets, Woolworths and Coles are exploring a new way to lure in each other’s customers – deep, deep discounting.
Today Woolworths will launch “Big Family Specials” with a 64 per cent reduction on dishwasher tablets and 44 per cent off bacon (50 per cent in Victoria).
A fortnight ago Coles began a program called “Unreal Deals” by halving the price of slabs of Coca-Cola cans and reams of copier paper.
Both are expected to offer oversized short-term savings on pricier shelf items for the foreseeable future as they bid to snare shoppers from each other.
Coles spokeswoman Anna Kelly said: “These (Unreal Deals) are something that customers would cross the street for.”
Woolworths spokeswoman Kristen Young said it had not offered discounts of this size in living memory.
The chains say price is the new battleground in the supermarket wars.
Woolworths says customers have saved $80 million since the supermarket ramped up discounting in May.
Internal Woolworths research shows it has become the “single most important driver of “store choice”.
Why? Because families feel that stress on household budgets is mounting.
“Our customers are increasingly concerned about the rising cost of living,” Woolworths Ms Young said.
Seventy-two per cent of it shoppers express this worry – a greater proportion than two or three years ago, Ms Young said.
Since Woolworths began intensifying discounting in May through its “Every Day Value” program it says customers have saved $80 million – or about one per cent of trade in that time.
The decisions by Coles and Woolworths to chase customers using deeper discounting have come after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission stepped up its call for them to lay off shopper-docket fuel discounts.
Late last month ACCC chairman Rod Sims said: “If Coles and Woolworths wish to offer their customers a discount, it should be off supermarket products, not petrol.”
Mr Sims is of the view that while shopper dockets worth up to 45c/L provide short-term benefits to some consumers, the likely harm to other fuel retailers and therefore to competition “could well be substantial”.
The ACCC is nearing the end of a more-than-year-long investigation into the impact of shopper dockets. Mr Sims has indicated the regulator will launch legal action – unless Woolworths and Coles ease up on receipt-based petrol deals.
Woolworths’ “Big Family Specials”
Finish dishwasher tablets – discounted from $27.99 to $10
Shortcut bacon rashers – down from $15.98/kg to $9/kg ($8/kg in Victoria)
Coles’ latest “Unreal Deals”
Huggies Jumbo nappies down from $33 to $28
Red Bull (4x250ml cans) down from $9.68 to $4.84
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