The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accused supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths of manipulating prices to make it appear as if their products are on sale, when in reality, they are simply maintaining inflated costs.
The ACCC has alleged what most of us suspected – that Coles and Woolworths raise their prices in such a way as to make it seem like it is actually a sale.The ACCC has alleged what most of us suspected – that Coles and Woolworths raise their prices in such a way as to make it seem like it is actually a sale.
The ACCC’s action shows that Coles and Woolworths were not only allegedly raising prices and pretending it was a cut, they were doing this at the time that inflation was peaking.The governor of the Reserve Bank, Michele Bullock, told reporters on Tuesday that it was “quite possible that some individual firms might have used opportunities of strong demand to more than pass on any increases in costs and increase their profit margins”.
In the 10 years prior to the pandemic, the average profit margin across the non-mining sector was 10.2%; since March 2020 it has been 11.2%. That works out to around an extra $129bn in profit over the time:Arguing that extra profit did not increase inflation is to give companies a very big pass and instead continues to blame workers and consumers for inflation as though we somehow go into Coles or Woolworths and haggle over the price of things.
ACCC Coles Woolworths Inflation Prices Sales
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