Grocery price cuts ‘not just marketing’

From today, Foodstuffs is set to lower and freeze the prices of around 100 items in its stores across New Zealand. The boss of the North Island grocery giant says the move is ‘not just marketing’.

Foodstuffs, which includes the New World, Pak’nSave and Four Square chains, announced last Wednesday that it was slashing the price of 110 items to 2021 prices in the face of inflation hitting 6.9%.

The price reduction will see frozen and fresh fruits and vegetables, butter and cheeses, and diapers and soap with lower price tags.

Quin told Breakfast on Monday that “it makes a difference to the food bill people will pay in our stores in Pak’nSave, New World and Four Square today.”

READ MORE: Supermarket price war: Food slashes prices of 110 items

Foodstuffs’ move comes after rival supermarket switch Countdown announced earlier this month that it would freeze the price of more than 500 winter essentials.

In March, a Commerce Commission study found that competition in the supermarket sector was not working well for consumers.

The key issue the Commerce Commission said it discovered is that competitors wishing to enter the grocery market face significant challenges, as Foodstuffs and Woolworths have a combined 90% share of the grocery market in New Zealand.

Quin said there is a duopoly in the grocery market due to New Zealand’s size.

“Look, I think in a country of five million people you get models where there are often two big players and several hundred small players and that’s what we have in the food industry.”

READ MORE: Countdown to ‘admission’ price freeze for role in food crisis – Consumer NZ

Quin said he feels Foodstuffs “competes daily with a number of competitors in every community and every region and our owners talk about it all the time in terms of what they do to win customer business.”

He said: “Our mission is to make food prices rise more slowly than all the other costs that are happening in this economy right now.”

Quin says he believes lower prices will make a difference.

“Even on the five or ten most commonly purchased items, it’s 20% cheaper today, so if they [customers] go to our stores and search for throwback logos, they will see where these products are and they can make the choice if it meets their needs, which will help them. »