Ryan Bridge: Is supermarket pricing as bad as we think it is?

This business with the supermarkets and their pricing... 

Consumer NZ has launched a petition. They want change to stop prices being incorrectly labelled. 

So you go to checkout and scan receipts, something's different to what you expected. Then we would get a refund on the product, and the product for free. 

The idea is that if you make the punishment more than fit the crime, they'll stop doing it. 

Which I get. But the supermarkets reckon —and Consumer NZ calls this spin— that there's just too many products and they honestly make mistakes. 

More often than not the prices are out by a few cents - so $5.99 instead $5.95.

The key question here is whether we think the supermarkets are doing this on purpose, or whether they're just large organisation that occasionally get small things wrong. 

And correct the errors when spotted. Refunds where necessary. 

If we're saying they are deliberately doing this, that's a whole other thing. 

I'm not saying the supermarkets should be given a Hall Pass here, but if we're talking about a few million dollars a year spread over a population of five million, plus the free products on top of refunds they'd have to fund...

You've got to ask if the potential payoff is worth the cost of pushing a policy like this. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This business with the supermarkets and their pricing. Consumer New Zealand,
in case you didn't catch it yesterday, came out with
a petition which we should all sign, apparently, and they
want change. They want to stop prices being incorrectly labeled.
So when you go to the checkout and you scan
your receipts and something's different to what you expected, something
is different to what was on the shelf, then under
their plan, you would get a refund on the product

(00:23):
and you would get to take the product home for free.
The idea is that if you make the punishment more
than fit the crime, then they'll stop doing it, which
I get. But the supermarkets reckon and Consumer DZED calls
this spin. But they reckon that there's just too many products,
and they honestly make mistakes more often than not. It's

(00:44):
out by literally a few cents, you know, so like
five ninety nine instead of five ninety five. The key
question here is whether we think the supermarkets are doing
this on purpose, or whether they're just large organizations that
occasionally get small things wrong and wreck the errors when
they're spotted and give refunds where necessary and where people
have asked for them. If we're saying they are deliberately

(01:08):
doing this, that's a whole other thing. And I'm not
saying that supermarkets should be given a hall pass here.
But if we're talking about a few million dollars a year,
which is what they think, it adds up to spread
over a population of five million people, plus the free
products and the cost of those, on top of refunds
that they would have to pay for, and the staff

(01:30):
hours of going around and checking all the prices. Again,
you've got to ask yourself if the potential payoff is
worth the cost of pushing a policy like that one.
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
to News Talks. It'd be from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.