Supermarket price war spreads to free range eggs and bread

SUPERMARKET price wars are hotting up again as Coles, Woolworths and Aldi scramble to win over shoppers with cheaper eggs. Bread costs are also being sliced.

EGG prices are being smashed and bread costs sliced in a supermarket discounting war.

Coles, Woolworths and Aldi recently dropped the price for a dozen of their own brand free-range eggs by as much as to 40c a carton in a scramble to win over shoppers.

Coles yesterday also announced price cuts to more than 30 bread varieties.

These include $1.90 savings on various Tip Top fruit loaves, and 10c-50c reductions for popular Coles Bakery products.

Arch rival Woolies reacted swiftly, saying it already had the lower prices for some bakery items but would match others including Tip Top cuts.

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Fox, 8, tucks into eggs and bread. Picture: Jay Town.

Coles bakery general manager Jon Haggett said the price drops would help shoppers save millions of dollars a year at checkouts nationwide.

“We know bread is a household staple and always on the shopping list, so we’re working hard to lower the price because we know every bit of savings count,” Mr Haggett said.

Retail expert Associate Professor Gary Mortimer, from the Queensland University of Technology, said moving to lower everyday prices for staples gave time-poor shoppers the confidence to consistently budget rather than relying on ad hoc promotions.

Aldi’s Lodge Farms free-range eggs are down to as low as $3.69, depending on egg size. Coles and Woolies have reduced their house brand free-range eggs to as low as $3.80 a dozen.

At Woolies, average branded cage egg prices have also fallen to $3.50, down $1.50, while Aldi’s cage-free eggs dropped 40c to $3.49.

Egg prices at Aldi, Coles and Woolworths have dropped in recent weeks.

Free-range egg sales now account for 40 per cent of grocery store purchases — double that of a decade ago.

The Victorian Farmers Federation slammed the egg discounting, saying it was a repeat of the $1-a-litre milk campaign, which would squeeze farmers’ profit margins and damage the viability of the egg industry.

“It’s happened in dairy with $1 milk, it happens routinely in the fruit and vegetable industry, and now it’s happening with egg products,” VFF egg president Tony Nesci said.

Aldi said it had absorbed the cost of reductions “with no impact on the suppliers”.

Woolworths said it had worn its recent free range egg price reduction, rather than passing it on, and was also supporting farmers by bringing branded eggs into its “prices dropped” campaign.

Coles said it was making free range eggs more affordable.

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@KarenCollierHS