Want to compare grocery prices?

Published: August 06, 2008 - 12:31 PM

GROCERYchoice helps consumers find the cheapest supermarket chain in their area

The Federal Government has today launched its answer to the spiralling cost of groceries in Australia - a price comparison service called www.grocerychoice.gov.au. Additionally the Rudd Government have announced they will introduce a national system of "unit pricing" to more easily allow consumers to compare the cheapest prices and compare suppliers across supermarket chains and products.

After a six month review into rising prices, no anti-competitive practices of Coles and Woolworths were uncovered to the disappointment of farmers and suppliers. But the review has recommended yet a further review into state planning laws and tenancy agreements between the supermarket powers and retail malls as to whether these agreements stifle competition and impose unreasonably high barriers to entry.

But will the introduction of a service that allows shoppers to compare prices actually acheive anything? Will prices actually drop? This is a great service to compare prices when you don't have the energy or time to actually visit all the supermarkets in your area. I've just done a comparison test and logged on to compare the best prices in my area because I certainly don't have the energy or time to go and compare every item! The only price difference and saving I could make was 30 cents - and that was with a total grocery bill of $155. Hardly worth the cost of petrol I think to drive to the other supermarket!

I used to live in Melbourne so I thought I'd compare prices there. If I lived in inner South-East Melbourne, the service does a price comparison for the supermarkets in that area and tells me I could save $1.06 between the two big chains. So what's the point of this price comparison service? The whole idea of the price comparison service was that it would put the power in consumers' hands by allowing them to choose where they shopped based on price. But with differences of only $1 is all this comparison and cost really worth the effort?

At ShopAround.com.au we are committed to promoting competition and ensuring the Australian electricity and gas suppliers make it as easy as possible for householders and small business owners to compare the cost of electricity rates and gas prices so everyone can have access to the best or cheapest energy deal possible. We were excited about the launch of the grocery price comparison service as we hoped it would acheive the same thing for grocery prices and help our ShopAround.com.au customers achieve more savings in their living costs. But if it really is the case that across the country you can only save about $1 in a grocery shop costing you about $150 then that's a lot of money for the government to spend to tell us something that unfortunately won't really save us money.

We're pleased that we can make a real contirbution to saving money on gas prices and electricity bills in your home and business. By using the ShopAround.com.au electricity and gas website to compare cheap electricity costs and gas prices, you could save $100s - not $1 per week - but $100s per year. And we'll continue to work with the electricity companies and gas suppliers to get more of them involved in our service so they can show you the cheapest electricity and cheapest gas deals they have available.

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