Woolworths has announced a price freeze on almost 200 ‘essential’ products until the end of 2022, in a bid to ease cost of living pressures for millions of Aussies.
The price cap will only apply to Woolworths homebrand products including flour, sugar, eggs, coffee and tea, pasta, frozen peas, cheese blocks, as well as baby essentials like nappies and food pouches, and cleaning products like laundry powder, garbage bags, and dishwashing liquids.
You can find the full list of price freeze products here.
Shoppers were formally notified of the price cap via email correspondence from the supermarket giant’s CEO this week.
“The challenges we’ve worked through together in the last two-plus years have been unparalleled – from droughts and fires to COVID, floods and supply shortages and now inflation and the pressure on households’ budgets,” Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci wrote.
“Most recently, we have seen material inflation in vegetables given the very poor growing season on the Eastern Seaboard, due to the rain, high humidity, and low light levels – hence what you may see on cucumbers, capsicums, and lettuces amongst others.”
“Incidentally, our current price for iceberg lettuce on the Eastern
Seaboard is between $6.00 and $6.90 a head, much higher than we would like, but our biggest challenge is keeping stock in supply,” the email said.
Read the email in full here: Copy of Woolworths’ CEO Update
It comes after Coles also announced its own measure to ease the cost-of-living crunch, offering shoppers 10% off $100 and $250 Coles Mastercard gift cards, although there is an added purchase fee and a limit on how many cards you can buy. The offer is valid until June 21.
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Rising grocery prices a concern for the majority of Aussies
A recent Canstar Blue survey found a whopping 71% of Australian shoppers have noticed an increase in the overall cost of groceries, while over a third (35%) admitted to having had to cut back on what they normally buy at the supermarket to combat rising costs − 25% of Aussies now stick to only buying essential items and no luxuries. Interestingly, over half of Australians (57%) think supermarkets are using COVID-19 and economic events to introduce unnecessary price increases.
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