Dodgy price tickets at two Woolworths stores

When they walked around the aisles, they found the Woolworths-branded pita bread was labelled as “low price”, but there was no price on the tag.

It was the same for a brand of toilet rolls, a soup mix and four multi-purpose sprays.

The lack of a price tag also meant no unit pricing was displayed. Unit pricing is the small price on price tags that lets you compare one product against another to find the best value, usually per 100g. It’s now a legal requirement for unit pricing to be on in-store products.

When Ann approached the store manager about the lack of pricing on selected items, she was told that labels fall off, and they could ask for the prices at the checkout.

“If you are time poor, cash poor and have kids in tow, you won’t check at the counter then discard and go back for something cheaper. The logistics are against you,” Ann said.

We couldn’t agree more. This is simply not good enough. It’s basic retailing to make sure prices are clear and accurate, and to include unit pricing.

The low price label could also potentially be misleading given the customer couldn’t compare prices to see if it was, in fact, cheaper than its competitors.

Our recent investigation found that “low price” labels don’t necessarily mean you’re getting a good deal.

We got in touch with Woolworths to ask them to explain why the products didn’t have prices.

The spokesperson said it was an isolated incident, “where a number of paper tickets were missing from the shelves and had not been promptly replaced. We have been in contact with the store involved to ensure this does not happen again.”

They also said the store manager had introduced new checks to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

Unit pricing mistakes

The following week, we were approached by Peter, another Consumer NZ member, pointing out a mistake with unit pricing at a different Woolworths store.

Rather than a 100g unit price being displayed for Perfect Italiano Pizza Plus cheese, it was labelled per kg. Meanwhile, the Woolworths own brand grated mozzarella was correctly labelled per 100g.

The weight difference makes it harder to compare the price difference between the two products.

“This is inconvenient,” Peter said. “The customer is forced to spend a minute or two doing some mental arithmetic to ascertain the actual cheaper unit price.”

While, under new rules about unit pricing, some items can be displayed per kg – such as fruit and vegetables, meat and seafood – dairy products should be per 100g.

Woolworths confirmed the unit price should have been per 100g.

“The incorrect label has been replaced with the updated version, reflecting the accurate unit price. We apologise for any confusion this may have caused,” the Woolworths spokesperson said.

Have you seen pricing errors?

We want to know how widespread pricing errors are. If you see a lack of clear pricing or instances where unit pricing is confusing, please let us know, and we can follow up with the supermarkets.

Email the name and location of the store along with a photo of the dodgy prices to [email protected].