Supermarket specials: scan this before spending your money

There’s a sure-fire way to check what grocery items deliver you the best value, and what discounts are not really discounts.

Bagging a special and the supermarket has become more important amid the soaring cost of living, but not all discounts deliver the best value for money.

There is one key way to check – you’ll find it in small print on store shelves, it’s called the unit price, and it gives you the true value of a deal.

Unit pricing is simply the price per unit of measure, typically per litre or per 100g, and large supermarkets are legally required to display it on the shelf and online.

You can compare what a litre of milk costs per litre across different brands and package sizes, or meat cuts in price per kilogram, and work out if a special is really the bargain you think.

For example, one major supermarket has been selling Nutri Grain breakfast cereal 290g boxes at half price for $3.50 – a unit price of $1.21 per 100g, while the larger 765g boxes were selling for their regular $10.80, a unit price of $1.41 – making the special price 14 per cent cheaper than the bulk price.

But had the special been 20 per cent off rather than 50 per cent off, the bigger box would still be cheaper.

Another had Coca-Cola 1.25L bottles on a two-for-$5 special, resulting in a unit price of $2 per litre. But the larger 2L Coke bottles were selling at their regular price of $3.50, with a unit price of $1.75 – still cheaper than the smaller-sized bottles that were on special.

LOOK UP AND DOWN

Consumer advocate and Queensland Consumers’ Association spokesman Ian Jarratt said unit prices were “a grocery shopper’s best friend”.

Check the unit price before putting groceries in your shopping trolley. Picture: iStock

Mr Jarratt said people could make the most of unit prices by:

• Checking them even when difficult to notice on lower and upper shelves and special offer labels.

• Comparing unit prices of competing brands and other package sizes.

• Not simply reordering what you bought before when shopping online.

“On the Coles and Woolworths websites use the sort by lowest unit price function by clicking the ‘sort by’ button and selecting that option,” he said.

“Comparing unit prices can help you notice when packages have been subject to shrinkflation – when the amount in the package is reduced but the selling price has not been reduced, or by less than the quantity reduction, or even increased.”

Monash Business School professor of marketing Harmen Oppewal said unit pricing “gives you the best indication of value for money across brands and in different categories”.

“Retailers capitalise on the assumption that people have that bigger is always cheaper,” he said.

“That is not always the case, so it’s worth checking that.”

BULK WARNING

In many cases bulk items are cheaper because packaging costs are spread over a larger volume of product, but Professor Oppewal warned people to “be careful when you buy perishables”.

Your value for money was lost if you did not use the bulk product in full and threw much of it out after its use-by date, he said.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says most supermarkets, large grocery stores and online grocery stores must display unit pricing.

“Smaller stores and stores that don’t sell a wide range of groceries don’t have to display unit pricing, but they can choose to,” the ACCC says on its website.

“Unit prices must be shown for most everyday grocery items like food, drinks, cleaning and personal products. Some products, including hardware, appliances and clothing, don’t need to display a unit price.”

Mr Jarratt said consumer surveys had found that many people wanted more grocery retailers and other stores – such as chemists and hardware stores – to provide unit pricing, but a Morrison Government review did not recommend this.

“And so far the Albanese government has not shown any interest in looking at the issue,” he said.

HOW TO GET A BETTER DEAL

Consumer group Choice says use unit pricing to get value for money by comparing:

• Different package sizes and types

• Different brands

• Specials and normal prices

• Packaged and loose, such as spinach

• Fresh, frozen, dried or canned – such as peas

• Different convenience levels – such as cheese in blocks, wedges, slices, sticks, or grated.

• Different grocery retailers.

Source: Choice.com.au