00:00There's been sort of swirling rumours over the last couple of years around the pricing
00:07tactics used by the big two supermarkets.
00:10And there's never really been any sort of hard evidence of that.
00:15And in fact, both the supermarket chains have emphatically denied any allegations of price
00:20gouging or of manipulating specials.
00:23So I think, you know, really extraordinary this morning that we wake up or we come into
00:26work this morning and we see these really huge allegations.
00:30So you know, the ACCC says that Woolworths on 266 occasions was dishonest in how it presented
00:39specials.
00:40Coles on 245 occasions was misleading or dishonest, if you like, or that's the allegation of course,
00:47on how they presented specials.
00:49And so, you know, they've given some really granular detail here, which is quite interesting.
00:54And I think it really goes to the idea of what a lot of consumers had been seeing, but
01:00couldn't really have the hard evidence for it.
01:03And I mean, there's a good example here with Oreo biscuits, everyone loves them, that for
01:08696 days, the price of Oreo biscuits was $3.50.
01:14And then the price increased to $5 for a 22 day period.
01:19And then it dropped back to $4.50.
01:23And it was billed by Woolworths on this occasion as a price drop or a discount, when in fact,
01:29you know, the basic mass tells you that it's nearly 30% higher.
01:33So they're billing something that was actually a 30% price increase as a discount.
01:39And that is clearly misleading.
01:41And that's what the ACCC are going to go very hard after.
01:45The other thing that I think is interesting here is that, you know, when we did our sort
01:49of Four Corners story earlier in the year, we tried really hard to get this data to find
01:54out, you know, base levels of prices, how much things had gone up and down.
01:58And this data was not available anywhere.
02:01And so the ACCC used its sort of compulsory powers to go in there and compel the two big
02:07supermarkets to give over this data.
02:10And you know, what they found is really, really damning.
02:13So I think this is another sort of gap in the system here is that the average consumer
02:19cannot find this data and cannot sort of form a view whether something's a special or not.
02:25So in the face of that, what can consumers do?
02:27Yeah, really difficult because the two big supermarkets control about 66% of the grocery
02:33market here in Australia.
02:35And so, you know, can they vote with their feet?
02:39It's very difficult, right?
02:40We still know that Aldi have a more limited range.
02:44The sort of independents are often more expensive as well.
02:46So you know, not a lot, really.
02:49And that's really the whole point of sort of consumer advocates and competition experts
02:54who say that we've let this situation get totally out of hand where we have, you know,
02:59this really, really powerful duopoly, which this instance shows are prepared to really
03:06do anything they like.
03:07I think the point here that's a really strong one to make is that this sort of behaviour
03:14has been consistently denied by the supermarkets.
03:17And yet when the actual evidence is presented, it becomes very clear what they've done.
03:22And just one thing I'd also say, bear in mind, this is only the first of the sort of inquiries.
03:27The ACCC is also looking into price gouging, actual price gouging, and also how they treat
03:34their suppliers.
03:35So this one we didn't really expect.
03:37We thought they might find something on the price gouging and how they treat their suppliers.
03:42So if they've found this now, I think there's more coming down the line.
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