Woolworths overnight Hyper food inflation!

[Icycling]

I have no problem with price changes esp with fruit as it's seasonal (or not available) but this is an overnight change of 100% - that cannot be explained but seasons, petrol price increase Rand / dollar exchange rate, supply and demand or any other such Macro economical explanation.

 

Likewise I noticed how "lays" chips often seem to go up over weekend esp round the 25th of the month at my Local super market. Why - well people tend to do "last minute" braai etc over weekend! We all know in RSA we like some packeted chips as starts so the super markets just bump it up for this reason over the weekend. The 25th - well thats pay day and families do big shops normally the 1st weekend after pay day and guess what the local supermarket know this so why not just bump all the prices up a little, make an extra 20% profit that weekend!

 

Over the years I have noticed this as a single person "10 item" daily shopper about 300 days of the year!

 

But on this occasion Woolworth's - Busted!!!

[Joe Low]

2 people on this thread, and now me, have pointed out that the more recently-priced watermelon, going by the sell-by dates, was the cheaper one.

 

And if there were two melons at two prices, a top tip would be to buy the cheaper one.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Joe Low

[Joeboy69]

Woolworth watermelon today cost R29.99 and tomorrow the same size will cost R59.99. Thats a 100% increase - pity they perishables, but has SA now reached what Zimbabwe had a few year ago Hyper food inflation?

 

The fact they leave this on the shelf for the customers too see - thats not very discreet - are they proud to be ripping their consumers off?

 

 

Seems as if he old stock was R60 and the newer stock R30 judging by the dates, so serious deflation which is welcoming :-)

[Icycling]

Or been ripped off over the Xmas season - as I stated at P n P at the end of last week they were also R30 - or maybe WW may have woken up to this and decided to be a bit more competitive! But up or down a overnight price change of 100% is huge - headline news currently is the 2.5% to 3 % fuel price increase!

[davetapson]

Woolworth watermelon today cost R29.99 and tomorrow the same size will cost R59.99. Thats a 100% increase - pity they perishables, but has SA now reached what Zimbabwe had a few year ago Hyper food inflation?

 

The fact they leave this on the shelf for the customers too see - thats not very discreet - are they proud to be ripping their consumers off?

 

 

Depends where they are sourcing them - Bronkhorstspruit or Spain. Check the "Product of ..." on the label.

[Seeker911]

Maybe they increased the size of the packaging.......just to bring some excitement into your life

 

Maybe my wife had a quite word with the store manager and this was a conspiracy designed to ensure I ate less muffin .... NOT all I do now is eat 2 instead of 1 just have to watch that mid rif and make sure it does not get out of hand

[Icycling]

Depends where they are sourcing them - Bronkhorstspruit or Spain. Check the "Product of ..." on the label.

 

Well in season - so I expect somewhere here / Southern hemisphere and that's on both labels!

[Kranky]

I was at the Cape Town Market in Epping early this morning. Never seen them have so many watermelons on offer. Might have to do with the price decrease brought to our attention by the OP. Based on the assumption that it is a decrease, and that the cheaper melon with the later expiry date was place on the shelf after the more expensive melon with the earlier expiry.

 

Fruit and Veg prices do change very quickly at a wholesale level. Today potatoes were about 50% more than normal (if you could even find any). For some items the supermarkets negotiate fixed prices but not for everything. I know this because they stand next to me at the market buying the same produce.

Edited December 31, 2013 by Nick.

[Agteros]

/wrong fred

Edited December 31, 2013 by agteros

[GLuvsMtb]

Tonight the fuel price increase by I think something like 30c a L and the current price is about R12.00 I don't have the exact number but close enough - WOW 2.5% increase! Already on my cycle this morning I noticed fuel station fuller than normal.

 

My point is regardless of the date been 1 day apart - it is very rare to see a rice change by 100% overnight. The expiry date validates the overnight price change. So either you were ripped off or you going to be ripped off! These are both marked prices not special prices! The only reason why I looked at the watermelon prices was I was at WW and PnP price when I bought last was R30.00 about 4 days ago, so I was expect to pay up o R40.00 at WW but the 1st price I saw was the R59.99 then noticed 1 at R29.99 and investigated!

 

I completely understand some retailer marking down food on the sell by date 2 hours before closing of the store - that make complete business sense to reduce wastage!

It looks like a 50% decrease and not a 100% increase. It often happens with fruit that is very seasonal like Watermelons. Strawberries used to be the same before the farmers started to grow them in "tunnels"

[GLuvsMtb]

I noticed that chainreactioncycles also have 50% off sales. They must be ripping us off bigtime with their regular prices hey

[Cuppa Bru]

I noticed that chainreactioncycles also have 50% off sales. They must be ripping us off bigtime with their regular prices hey

 

It would only apply if they increased their prices for the Christmas rush to catch their shoppers unaware and turn extra profit, so unless the 50% off sales are worse deals than usual, your example is spurious.

[Sniffie]

As much as all goods and services are affected by macro economic factors, Perishables realize these factors alot quicker into the market. So fluctuations in the rate of exchanges, supply and demand of farming pesticides, changes in seasonal climates which affect different factors of each items pipeline all play an immediate roll in the selling price.

The fact some of these increased have been realized over the festive season is just unfortunately a timing issue, RSPs are handled via head office but the labour cost and disruption to reticket existing stocks in stores over a festive period is highly unlikely to happen - should new merchandise be delivered and a price increase is negotiated then the existing merchandise will be repriced, again some what unlikely over a festive season.

Smaller non national retailers and small restaurants do def take a chance to capitalize on the holidays as it is easier for them to implement and control.

Expect to see:

Big increase in chicken prices -goverment is clamping down on imported chickens

Increase in maze prices (this has a wide affect on many things) - late rains across the region have delayed planting

Imported merchandise - especially out of asia is going increase rapidly as of feb, fex covers were bought at premiums compared to summer inputs and a big shift in RMB currency to US has impacted negatively.

Winter last year on this winter coming - expect nothing less than an average of 25-35% increase in selling price

This current summer on this coming winter nothing less then 10-15% @best

The affects of etolls haven't even started to be felt on retailers!

 

I am not in anyway posting this on behalf WW or any other national retailer! (Just have a small understanding of the market)

 

If anyone wants to buy bike goodies do it before mid jan/feb - prices ain't going to be going down - however keep your eyes open as i suspect there is going to be alot of promotion activities across the board

The input cost of the producer, in this case the farmer, could not be held responsible for sudden price increases of foodstuff because the supermarket would have entered into a contract with a supplier or big farming operation months ago. The price WW would have paid for their watermelons would have been fixed about 6 months ago. Such a contract would stipulate things such as price, quality, quantity and date of delivery. So even if the prizes of seed, fertilizer, labour and chemicals rose by 50 % in the last month it should not have an immediate effect on food prizes. I said should... it gives the big retailers a nice excuse to put prices up immediately though. Watermelons are now hitting the market big time as producers in areas subject to frost in August and September are flooding the market, hence the seasonal drop in prices. Supply and demand.

 

With regards to clamp down on imported food: All we as producers ask is to be placed on a level playing field with our heavily subsidized EU, American and Latin American counterparts. We don't want government grants we just seek import tariffs to protect our local industries and provide job and food security for our nation.

 

Maize prices are actually expected to drop as can be clearly seen on the saffex futures. The January contract for white maize closed today at R2930.00 while July closed at R2210. Their is currently a bit of a short squeeze in the market as exports were good and physical stocks are tight. The market is clearly expecting a good crop and that the squeeze will be lifted. The CBOT price of maize which dictates prices all over the world are also well down from its record highs of about a year ago as America is yet again harvesting a bumper crop and world supply and demand numbers are returning to normal levels.

[Sniffie]

I was at the Cape Town Market in Epping early this morning. Never seen them have so many watermelons on offer. Might have to do with the price decrease brought to our attention by the OP. Based on the assumption that it is a decrease, and that the cheaper melon with the later expiry date was place on the shelf after the more expensive melon with the earlier expiry.

 

Fruit and Veg prices do change very quickly at a wholesale level. Today potatoes were about 50% more than normal (if you could even find any). For some items the supermarkets negotiate fixed prices but not for everything. I know this because they stand next to me at the market buying the same produce.

Some fresh produce prizes are much more volatile than others. Prime examples would be potatoes, tomatoes and onions. Demand do not fluctuate a lot seasonally but supply do as things like frost, hail, drought and the normal seasonal fluctuations due to winter can cause havoc with supply at a very short notice.

[Sniffie]

Depends where they are sourcing them - Bronkhorstspruit or Spain. Check the "Product of ..." on the label.

The producers code on both labels are 12, hence same producer. Edited December 31, 2013 by Sniffie

[G e r h a r d Odendaal]

I noticed the other day that the new Pringles cans are smaller. You now get 110 grams instead of 165grams, and you pay the same price for two thirds of product, or gram for gram, an increase of 50% in the price.

 

Don't eat chips, they just slow you down