Five things households should know about the first annual grocery report (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 1 month ago by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/newzealand@lemmy.nz

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We're paying higher prices, specials are confusing and loyalty schemes aren't delivering overly significant rewards.

Those aren't just the musings of a frustrated supermarket shopper - but are some of the findings in the Commerce Commission's first annual grocery report, issued on Wednesday.

Rewards schemes were only giving a return of between 0.71 percent for Flybuys and 0.75 percent for Everyday Rewards.

Between 2007 and 2019, the average weekly spend on grocery food increased 7.3 percent every three years but the latest data showed a leap of 28.9 percent.

The commission's report said supermarkets would point to their own rising costs as the reason for price rises.

But it said margins had continued to grow - all of the major supermarkets had experienced an increase in price-cost margins, which meant that retail prices were increasing faster than the cost of the goods.

The report said supermarkets "continue to achieve higher levels of profitability than we would expect in a workably competitive market".

It was not likely that Costco would be able to expand to the point where it could become a serious third supermarket contender, it said.

The report said the Warehouse could be an option - its network of shops meant it was in a good position to encourage shoppers to split their shopping in many cases - but it had said it had no intention of raising the capital needed to compete.

The "five things" don't work that well as a list, but they are:

High prices aren't in your head
Competition is not bringing down margins, or prices
Other competitors aren't finding it easy
Innovation, but is it what we want?
Would fines make a difference?

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[-] TagMeInSkipIGotThis@lemmy.nz 5 points 1 month ago

For everyone that has the time and flexibility, cut Supermarkets out of your life as much as you can.

Meat - find a local butcher, you'll usually get better quality for about the same price and can usually get exactly how much you want, need, rather than prepackaged.
Veg - find a local greengrocer, you'll usually get visually lower quality but much cheaper and often a greater variety of things (yes, there's more than 2 types of potato).
Seafood - fishmongers will have a greater variety, and it'll probably be fresher, might be about the same price
For dry goods - this is where it starts to get harder, and i'll have to break things down more:
- Asian grocery stores will cover you well for rice, noodles, and all the usual sauces etc - often cheaper than the Supermarket, always with far more varieties. You might be surprised at the sorts of things they'll stock in their canned & frozen sections too.
- Mediterranean grocery stores can get you things like flour, pasta, olives etc, but you'll find some stuff can be way cheaper, other stuff way more expensive.
- Bulk dry goods can be found at places like Bin Inn if you have one near you.
- Wholesale/Commercial - pretty common now for Gilmours, Starfoods etc to be open to normal public shoppers as well.

If i'm organised and plan ahead I can substitute my time and a bit of driving for the convenience of the Supermarket and usually save money doing so. Most of the time the Supermarket is basically just the bread, cleaning products & toilet paper shop.

[-] liv@lemmy.nz 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This might be a big city thing. In my town the cost of bulk rice for example is always cheaper at Pak n Save (which does 5kg bags) than in either Bin Inn or the Asian supermarkets. Same with meat versus butchers.

Veg is hit and miss everywhere but green veges are sometimes cheapest at some of the Asian places, though to be fair it's not usually the same veges.

When I lived in Aucks and Wellington we shopped more like you describe, but frustratingly it just doesn't work like that here. Might also be that I have way less money now and am always after the cheapest things.