Ritson on the great Coles swindle: Forget reputation, it’s the legislative response that matters
In this column, Mark Ritson details Coles’ pricing sins, its defence and the damage its ongoing trial for misleading shoppers will inflict … which, despite the pronouncements of “semi-professors”, will not be reputational.
What's in store for Coles? Smart money's on a $200m kick (Gemini)
For 296 days, a can of Nature’s Gift dog food sat on the shelves of Coles with a price tag of $4. Then, one day in early 2023, the price jumped to $6. It stayed there for precisely seven days. On the eighth day, the price dropped to $4.50. A cheerful red ticket appeared beneath the can.
Down Down. Prices are down.
A shopper scanning the aisle would see the ticket, clock the “was $6” label, note the new $4.50 price, and think: good deal. Except the deal wasn’t good. It was 50 cents more than the same shopper had been paying for the best part of a year. The price had not gone down. It had gone up. But Coles was telling customers the opposite, set to the tune of a jingle that, as ACCC barrister Garry Rich SC told the Federal Court in Melbourne on Monday, “sticks in one’s ear longer than is healthy”.
Dog food was just the beginning. When the ACCC launched proceedings in September 2024, it alleged Coles had pulled the same trick on 245 products, from Tim Tams to Colgate to Strepsils. Over 16 months between February 2022 and May 2023, the playbook was identical. Take a product sitting at a stable long-term price. Spike it by at least 15 per cent for a few weeks. Lower it to a price still higher than the original. Slap on a Down Down ticket and tell customers they were saving money.
More so than fines, I hope that retailers in such a powerful position as Coles and Woolies are forced to publish their prices and price history of their products via an openly accessible API. The availability of this data would give consumers more power to inspect and compare prices independently of the retailers
Because your mass market dog food buyer really wants to set up an api on a Saturday morning.
If only they had called the promotion “Up Up” they would not be before the ACCC in 2026.
Back in the 90’s I remember after getting a one of the few price increases through Coles insisting we validate the price for 12 weeks prior to promoting. The buyer called it “price establishing”
So what would be a reasonable response in the case of broad based supply side cost increases?
If you know lots of costs are higher. And – not surprisingly- consumers look for sale signals more than in the past.
Plus the pricing team must generate a steady supply of content for the high velocity marketing process.
The result is a process driven approach cycling discounts through key value items.
If we take away the emotive reporting (spike, hike &slap those prices) how would a smart marketing lens view this strategy?
i cant work out why coles and woolies brand trust isnt like the big 4 banks in the 2000s and qantas a few years back.
Congrats to their marketing teams for directing cost of living anger elsewhere.
No staff, disproportionately higher prices, crap parking and shopper experience should equal more shopper pushback.
But it appears saying your supporting farmers when all the time screwing down suppliers and primary producer, and jacking up prices without a shred of concern seems to be working for them.
bravo…