Tasty cheese hits $20/kg

The Government’s Pricewatch service has received more than 400 reports of price gouging since lockdown began. reports.

Tasty cheese has hit $20 a kilogram, raising more questions over supermarkets’ lockdown pricing. A Wellington shopper photographed the 1kg block of Mainland tasty on September 10, later sharing it on Twitter.

‘‘WTF? That’s bloody robbery. Cows aren’t in lockdown. Nor are cheese factories,’’ one person replied.

‘‘Wow the great Kiwi rip-off continues – guarantee it’s cheaper in a UK supermarket,’’ another said. ‘‘Supermarkets gouging again.’’ Some shoppers have claimed supermarkets have increased prices since the country moved to alert level 4 on August 18.

Supermarkets are one of the few retailers allowed to have customers in their stores at the highest alert level.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which collects reports of potential price gouging on essential goods and services through its Pricewatch service, said it received 34 inquiries between August 17 and 25, the first week of lockdown. By September 15, that had risen to 419. MBIE national manager of consumer protection Mark Hollingsworth said the majority concerned grocery items such as fruit and vegetables, meat and seafood, and other foods.

So far, no inquiries had been forwarded to the Commerce Commission as potential breaches of the Fair Trading Act.

‘‘Pricewatch reports will continue to be monitored and any further actions considered as the alert levels change,’’ Hollingsworth said.

‘‘We would encourage businesses experiencing supply chain issues to let customers know, especially if it may affect delivery or price, and for consumers to be mindful that businesses may themselves be experiencing delays and price increases.’’

A Hamilton shopper, who asked not to be named, provided Sunday News with details of two shopping trips to Countdown, the first on August 8 and the second on

August 28.

Prices for several items, including antibacterial hand wash, strawberry jam, frozen pies and fries, had increased by $1 or more over the 20-day period.

A L’Oreal facial wash which had cost $7 on August 8 was advertised as on special for $9 on August 28.

The ‘‘special’’ price remained on Friday, with the Countdown website showing the facial wash was down from $12.

A Countdown spokeswoman said the company had not increased any product prices due to the current level 4 lockdown in Auckland or because of changes to alert levels in other parts of the country.

However, prices changed for a number of other reasons.

‘‘Sometimes products are on special, sometimes prices go up and down because of seasons or weather events, commodity prices change such as for dairy and meat, and sometimes there are extra costs from a supplier, transport or shipping costs et cetera that we have to take into account,’’ she said.

All of Countdown’s specials and promotions were running as normal and, as of Friday, the supermarkets had more than 6000 products on special and another 4000 included in its ‘‘great price’’ promotion.

Foodstuffs spokeswoman Antoinette

Laird said the company, which operates New World, Pak ‘n Save and Four Square stores, had not increased prices during lockdown and promotional programmes were running as scheduled.

‘‘Prices do vary at the shelf and there are a few factors, including an increase in price from the supplier, weather, seasonality and if the product is on or off special,’’ she said.

Consumer NZ head of research Jessica Wilson said a week into the latest lockdown, the organisation had started to receive calls and messages from people worried about the prices they were paying at supermarkets.

Wilson said there was a clear gap in the market because there was no regular, official price monitoring, despite the concentrated nature of the supermarket industry.

‘‘That’s something that has been brought to light, not only by the lockdown but the research by the Commerce Commission.

‘‘We do need regular price monitoring of the market to find out what’s going on.

‘‘Not just for a particular time but over years so if there is a spike we can see that is not just the market working, that is something else going on.’’