You might have an idea about how supermarket specials work, there is a retail price, and then, if you wait long enough, sometimes the item is discounted. But for thousands of products at Coles and Woolworths, these specials aren’t occasional, and actually follow a clear pattern.
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00:00Walking down a supermarket aisle, it's not hard to spot the sales tickets.
00:07In some cases, these sales happen because of a retail strategy called high-low pricing,
00:13where the price goes from high to low and then back again.
00:18Let's take a look at a single box of Cadbury favourites from May to August this year.
00:24At Coles, the price starts at $22, goes down to $11 and then back up to $22 again, and
00:31this pattern repeats every week.
00:34At Woolworths, the prices swing in the same way, but here's the thing, the price drops
00:40alternate between supermarkets on different weeks.
00:44A similar thing happens with another Aussie favourite, Tim Tams.
00:48The prices are a bit more erratic, but the pattern is mostly regular.
00:53These products are part of a much broader group of around 22,000 that moved between
00:59high and low prices at least four times across 12 weeks this year.
01:05We got the data from Adam Williamson.
01:07He's a data professional who's collected online supermarket prices for the last few months.
01:13So it just felt like there was more and more sales tickets at the supermarket and it got
01:16me wondering, you know, how special are those specials?
01:20It turns out they're not that special.
01:23Most of the products that swing between prices are pantry items, think chocolate, chips and
01:29canned food.
01:31Next are beauty and personal care items like makeup and medicine.
01:36And the smallest group to fluctuate high and low, fruit and veggies.
01:41Getting a good price feels good, but it's not all positive.
01:46Other supermarkets are always having to compete with customers going, oh, but it's on sale
01:51at Woolies or it's on sale at Coles.
01:54Why haven't you got it on sale here?
01:56And there's this sense of they're always having to be on sale.
01:59And it's really not a sustainable model for any competitors.
02:04Both Coles and Woolworths say their pricing strategies are influenced by their suppliers,
02:09and it's all done to give the customer the best deal.
02:13Supermarket pricing and competition is being investigated by the ACCC,
02:18with a final report due in February.
02:21ACCC, the American Society of Nutrition and the World Health Organization,
02:25is a non-profit organization that supports the health and well-being of all Americans.
02:29It's a non-profit organization that supports the health and well-being of all Americans.
02:33It's a non-profit organization that supports the health and well-being of all Americans.
02:37It's a non-profit organization that supports the health and well-being of all Americans.
02:41It's a non-profit organization that supports the health and well-being of all Americans.
02:45It's a non-profit organization that supports the health and well-being of all Americans.