Coles employer Leah Weckert thinks her grocery store’s debatable ‘Down Down’ specials stand for genuine cost savings for customers. The advertising tag is among 2 that have actually been called out by the customer guard dog, which lately introduced Federal Court activity versus Coles and Woolworths.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Watchdog (ACCC) has actually declared the grocery stores utilized dodgy prices strategies under its ‘Down Down’ and ‘Prices Dropped’ identifies to trick Aussies right into believing they were conserving cash on grocery stores. It can have big effects for the grocery stores, with a survey of greater than 3,000 Yahoo Finance viewers revealing virtually fifty percent (46 percent) stating they’ll go shopping there much less due to the claims.
But Weckert has actually protected Coles’ memorable advertising approach.
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“All of our specials, discounts, the programs we have like Down Down, they all aim to provide genuine savings for customers,” she told The Australian.
“And we believe that really goes to the heart of customer trust, and it’s something we do take very seriously at Coles, especially at the moment when we know that cost of living challenges are really facing a lot of households, Australians are doing it tough, and so we are working as hard as we can to provide value to customers in lots of different ways across the store.”
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When the ACCC announced its lawsuit against the two biggest supermarkets in Australia, Coles said it took the allegations ” exceptionally seriously” and would defend itself in court.
Weckert’s company admitted that the time spent under the spotlight was turbulent and it was trying to strike a balance that would work for everyone.
“Coles was obtaining a lot of expense rate rises from our distributors and, on top of that, Coles’ very own prices were increasing, which caused a boost in the list price of lots of items,” it said.
“Coles looked for to strike a suitable equilibrium in between taking care of the effect of expense rate rises on list prices and using worth to consumers with the recommencement of advertising task asap after the facility of the brand-new non-promotional cost.”
What have Coles and Woolworths been accused of?
The ACCC has accused Coles and Woolworths of breaking consumer law by inflating the prices of some products by at least 15 per cent for a short period of time before discounting them by a slight margin.
“In the instance of these items, we affirm the brand-new ‘Prices Dropped’ and ‘Down Down’ advertising costs were in fact greater than, or the like, the previous normal cost,” ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said.
The consumer watchdog argued this happened to more than 500 products across the two supermarkets and lasted for more than a year. The supermarkets were accused of selling ” 10s of numerous the impacted items” and gained ” considerable profits” from those sales.
“We allege that each of Woolworths and Coles breached the Australian Consumer Law by making misleading claims about discounts, when the discounts were, in fact, illusory,” Cass-Gottlieb added.
“We also allege that in many cases both Woolworths and Coles had already planned to later place the products on a ‘Prices Dropped’ or ‘Down Down’ promotion before the price spike, and implemented the temporary price spike for the purpose of establishing a higher ‘was’ price.”
Supermarkets also facing a class action lawsuit
Last Friday, Gerard Malouf & Partners announced a class action lawsuit against Coles and Woolworths.
In a statement, GMP Law said their claim asserts the advertised price reductions on products sold by Coles and Woolworths were either misleading or non-existent, potentially “deceiving consumers about the true value of these products”
“GMP Law is committed to holding these retailers accountable and will be seeking refunds for affected consumers,” GMP legislation chair Gerard Malouf stated.
“The proposed legal action aims to recover the price differential between the alleged illusory discounted pricing and the original, undiscounted price.”
GMP Law is currently seeking lead applicants for the class action – specifically those who are members of the rewards programs run by Coles and Woolworths.
Malouf said consumers had the right to receive honest and transparent information about the products they purchase.
‘Get your act together’: Albo furious over allegations against Coles and Woolworths
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the accusations facing the two supermarkets is an “outrage” and added that they could face high financial penalties and a hit to their brand if they’re found guilty.
“They’ll get a bit more than a slap on the wrist. There are significant fines can be put on both of these supermarket giants,” he said.
“I think the implications for their brand has been damaged by this because it confirms what many shoppers think.”
He later said the allegations are proof the big players needed to be controlled through a strict code, which would make them liable for multimillion-dollar fines.
“They have an obligation to people who go into their stores, who show that loyalty, to do the right thing. But we will make sure by mandating the code of conduct that that occurs,” he said.
“It’s not good enough. Get your act together and behave as you would expect anyone to behave in this country.
“People expect honesty, and they expect that that old fashioned Australian notion of people being fair dinkum and giving people a fair go when people are under cost of living pressures.”
– with NCA Newswire
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