Supermarkets are ripping us off

Simon from Edgeware

Below is a message I have sent to NW in respect to our Stanmore Rd store. Yes, it is only about bread rolls, but it is also indicative of the price gouging and profiteering that NW (and other supermarkets) engage in and we pay for. I would urge others to raise their voices (or keyboards) to challenge the rip off practices of supermarkets in NZ.

My message to them was as follows:

I'm a regular shopper at Stanmore. I pass two other NW on my way home from work but one of the main reasons I go to Stanmore is to buy the bread rolls for lunches. I noticed that other NW were reducing the size of the bread rolls whereas NW Stanmore did not. Alas, Stanmore has now also followed this trend.

I recall 18 months or so ago that NW Stanmore hiked the price of individual bread rolls up from 67c to something approaching a dollar each. Presumably to encourage people to buy a full bag at a lesser rate. This ill thought out plan quickly collapsed and the price was reduced to 79c per roll - an increase of nearly 20% on the previous cost.

And now the size of the rolls has significantly reduced. They are getting close to the size of a slider. And please do not tell me there has been no change as a blind man can see there has been.

Given the price that you sell a bag (up to 14 rolls) at, where I assume that you are still making a profit, to now reduce the size of the rolls after increasing the price is just blatant profiteering and trying to squeeze more out of customers for a lesser product.

If you are going to reduce the size or weight of the product you sell, then reduce the price accordingly. As it stands at the moment, NW Stanmore is deliberately ripping off its customer base.

79c is already expensive for a single bread roll. Please return them to their previous size!