Coles taken to task over ‘discount’ promotions consumers don’t understand

Coles has the most confusing promotional labels, consumer advocacy group Choice said as it calls for supermarkets to make their tags clear and easy to understand for shoppers.

Choice found in a survey that Coles’ ‘Down Down’ and ‘While Stocks Last’ labels confused shoppers as to whether the item was marked down or not.

Meanwhile, shoppers are also confused on Woolworths’ ‘Prices Dropped’ label, unsure if the product was already discounted.

Choice, however, noted that the price had already dropped – way back 2019.

“The current promotion was for a discount that was applied about five years earlier,” the consumer advocacy group said.

Aldi’s ‘Aldi Super Savers’ tag also confuses consumers, unsure if the price is special or not.

In a response to Choice, Aldi said, “We do not offer price markups and discounts across our grocery range, otherwise known as high low pricing, providing certainty and reliability to our customers.”

Because of this, Choice is seeking for stronger legislation to govern the display of prices, including which terms and colours to use.

“It is disappointing that none of the supermarkets we spoke to for this story acknowledged the harm that these confusing labels are causing. It is clear we can’t rely on the supermarkets to do right by consumer,” Choice senior campaigns and policy adviser Bea Sherwood said.

“It is particularly difficult for people who are time poor, perhaps raising a young family, they don’t have the time to keep track of supermarket prices and are not being provided with the resources they need to make informed purchasing decisions.”

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