From 1 February it doesn’t matter where you shop, as Coles customers will pay the same price for the same product on approximately 97 per cent of groceries at Coles supermarkets across Australia.
Coles managing director Ian McLeod said customers complained about different prices on the same grocery item from suburb to suburb or town to town in their state.
“From 1 February, Coles will apply its lowest prices to more than 8000 grocery products including meat, seafood, dairy, deli and bakery products across the country and the remaining grocery products will be matched to our lowest prices in each state,” he said.
“Coles customers will also get the lowest possible prices on fruit and vegetables, as supermarket managers will have the ability to match the best prices for similar quality fruit and vegetables in their local market.”
McLeod said the Coles approach would provide Australian shoppers with greater price transparency and fairness in grocery prices.
However, Aldi managing director – buying, Tom Daunt, said Aldi has had a national pricing policy in place since April 2008 and there is no reason why people shouldn’t have clear and transparent information to enable them to make informed purchasing decisions.
"The practice of inconsistent pricing has been in place in Australia for far too long,” he said.
“Aldi was able to introduce national pricing after just a few short years and there is no reason why the other major supermarket chains can’t follow our lead. The 2009 Choice supermarket survey found Aldi is 25 per cent cheaper than our nearest priced competitor and that is in the current environment of inconsistent pricing.
“Once all the major supermarket chains have rolled out national pricing, Australian consumers will be better able to see how they can get the best value for money,” said Daunt.