Australian Grocery Price Tracking Website Launches

mskeggs on 05/10/2023 - 13:26
Last edited 05/10/2023 - 13:32

Over in Austria there has been a lot of news coverage of grocery inflation, to the point where the government committed to launch a price tracking website, but said it would take months to build.
An IT guy called Mario Zechner set one up over the next few days by using the super market shopping APIs, and discovered the big supermarkets there were co-ordinating price cuts/discounts and using other tactics very familiar in Australia.
See this story:
https://www.wired.com/story/heisse-preise-food-prices/

He made his software open source, and soon people in Germany, Italy and elsewhere were tracking their grocery prices.

Today an Australian version has launched: https://hotprices.org/
I am not connected, but very pleased to see it. So far it appears to have been collecting data since the end of September, so I will be watching closely as the data set expands.

I predict Coles and Woolies will crap their beds and try and block or shut down this service.

Food & Grocery

Related Stores

hotprices.org
hotprices.org

Comments

  • geek001 on 05/10/2023 - 13:47
    +7

    Would such a website be very useful? I find Coles and Woolworths exhibit almost cartel-like behaviour where if one raise/drop prices on certain staple, the other will not be too far behind, though lately prices have only been going in one direction.

    • reactor-au on 06/10/2023 - 09:26
      +1

      The half price items almost always alternate between the two, same for other many other sale items. I think it's in their favor too because sometimes I get them mixed and end up at the wrong store

    • HeWhoKnows on 06/10/2023 - 13:08

      One only needs to read the catalogue specials each week.
      And how often does an item go up in price only to go on special the following week.

      Ahh the mind games our supermarkets play.

    • TiredKitty78 on 08/10/2023 - 15:20

      Didn't i hear that a lot of time it's the manufacturers (Kraft, Nestle, etc) that put forward that items can be sold on special to push stock and i guess they make up the difference?

      ….I've been proven myself a fool, haven't I? 😂

  • GG57 on 05/10/2023 - 13:54
    +1

    Am I correct in noting that only Coles and Woolies are shown?
    I think it is a good start, and ideally it can be expanded to include Aldi as well.

    • callum9999 on 05/10/2023 - 14:27
      +1

      I don't see how Aldi could be included given they don't publish their pricing?

    • johninmelb on 06/10/2023 - 13:56

      Aldi sells very few "brand name" products to enable a comparison.

      • TiredKitty78 on 08/10/2023 - 15:21

        Yeah, but if their whatever-brand rice is 50c cheaper for the 1kg, then i'll get it there when i do the rounds, no?

  • SnowDragon on 05/10/2023 - 14:07
    +4

    Interesting site but I'm not going to split my shop in half just to save a few dollars.
    Ideal situation would be to buy the same things every week and create a list on all the supermarket chains websites. Then when it comes time to buy, just go with the cheapest overall.

    Would be good if the site added another tab for "biggest discounts" where it compared two products side by side and showed that Coles has X 75% cheaper than Woolworths. Might influence me a bit more to swap.

    • MITM on 05/10/2023 - 14:13
      +1

      Problem is no 2 weeks of shopping are the same to set a standard list. 1 week I'll need milk and no eggs, the next week I'll need eggs etc.
      At the moment I'm creating a weekly list with "hey google, add…" Next step is to run the list through both Coles & Woolies to find which is the cheapest total for the week. But then rewards points come into play and monthly 10% off.

  • scotty on 05/10/2023 - 14:16
    +10

    I think it's less about comparison but price tracking over time. It would be a valuable resource similar to Price Hipster. Unfortunately Woolworths blocked Price Hipster from crawling for data, and I can see the same happening to HotPrices.org when it gets popular.

  • Dlw on 05/10/2023 - 14:45
    +2

    My wife and I compared Woolies, Coles and Aldi over several weeks of shopping for the same items, writing down the price of everything we’d buy. No surprise that Aldi came in substantially cheaper. Coles was the most expensive.

    • Jimothy Wongingtons on 05/10/2023 - 16:05

      Are we talking like for like, or you mean say a big name brand vs aldi?

      I have been hearing a lot about ALID coming in cheaper for a cart v cart comparison but not sure of the conditions.

      • Dlw on 05/10/2023 - 17:40
        +1

        Like for like on a general grocery shop- milk, eggs, meat ect

      • ginormousgiraffe on 06/10/2023 - 09:27
        +4

        From my experience, about half of Aldi's stuff is just a rebranding of what you find at colesworth. The only trouble is finding what is good.

        If it helps anyone what I find good are bread, milk, cheese, meats, wheat biscuits, fruit bursts, ice cream, peanut butter. What is not as great is their nutrigrain alternative and shapes alternative, which are still both good but are not similar to the original.

    • afah0447 on 06/10/2023 - 09:16
      +2

      Aldi is always cheaper for same sold products.

      The problem is:

      1. Australians are vain and don't want to be seen shopping there for fear of being seen as poor.

      2. Australians have decades of indoctrination by saturation advertising by ColesWorth and are very comfortable being ripped-off because they are so familiar with them.

      3. Australian have be conned that Aldi products are lower quality. The fruit and vegetables are soured by the same farmers and the dry goods are just as good. Refer to point 2, indoctrination by marketing.

      • TiredKitty78 on 08/10/2023 - 15:25
        -1

        Australians are vain and don't want to be seen shopping there for fear of being seen as poor.

        Say that to the company profits that keep them in business then i guess. Also, the people i always see there, but not myself, eyes don't work that way.

  • mskeggs on 05/10/2023 - 14:53
    +7

    I think the real value will be from getting some stats nerds to look at the price changes over time to reveal things like coordinating price changes, discrepancies like one supplier gouging on a product for a period, then dropping prices again etc.
    Basically, collecting evidence to shine light on how pricing happens at an aggregate level, that might be policed by ACCC type people, rather than "hey, your corn flakes are cheaper at Coles this week".

    • TiredKitty78 on 08/10/2023 - 15:32
      +1

      And that's why like user "scotty" above pointed out with 'Price Hipster', this site will likely eventually be blocked. Harder to mess around with people if they can be shown easily they're being taken for a ride. Versus idle talk about prices going up.

      And honestly, it should be illegal to not make prices and price changes easily available daily - it's 2023 and we have technology people - for these sorts of things. Especially since, it's not like it's private information anyway. It's just that no one if going to collect that data manually, shelf by shelf.

  • KaTst3R on 05/10/2023 - 15:09

    I like it has a shopping cart feature, that will be useful to track a basket of stuff.

  • capslock janitor on 05/10/2023 - 15:19

    Hot Prices on New Singles Near You!

    • [Deactivated] on 05/10/2023 - 15:34

      Apparently, Kraft Singles are the new bananas

  • capslock janitor on 05/10/2023 - 15:38

    ngl dont get what im lookin at

  • hasher22 on 05/10/2023 - 16:46
    +3

    Since colesworth has such a duopoly here, they have more than 70% of the supermarket market share which i believe we're one of the highest in the world. Other country's supermarkets have around 30% market share of the bigger chains.

    While were a small population, I wouldn't be surprised if colesworth are co-operating in the supermarket space with prices, there is little difference with their own brand, for example 600ml cream is $4.50 in all woolworths, coles, aldi and IGA. If maybe one of the supermarkets stepped outside the price matching, and lets say offered one at 4.00 instead of 4.50, then maybe the other supermarkets may follow…..

    I used to follow prices on both coles and woolies on items I needed in bulk but now I don't do it cause it's rarely on sale and they both the same price in both markets anyways….

    It would be nice to have alerts set up, so if X item goes on sale, I'll get an e-mail

    • TiredKitty78 on 08/10/2023 - 15:33

      It would be nice to have alerts set up, so if X item goes on sale, I'll get an e-mail

      For sure.

  • dtc on 05/10/2023 - 17:22
    +2

    Are people complaining that Coles and Woolworths are so uncompetitive that when one of them drops their price the other one also drops their price in order not to be undersold? Like petrol stations? Or that Coles and Woolworths buy many of their supplies from the same suppliers and when the suppliers offer a discount then both stores also offer the discount? Or how bank interest rates tend to move in the same direction? Thats how competition works, you match your competitor's pricing (or you offer some other reason to the customer to buy at a higher price).

    Unfortunate as many people think the result is, competition creates the same outcome as co-ordination. Which one is it? If it was cartel behaviour, then the stores would just keep increasing their prices and never offer discounts.

    • afoveht on 05/10/2023 - 20:42
      +2

      If it was cartel behaviour, then the stores would just keep increasing their prices and never offer discounts.

      Not necessarily. Games must be played else things become most obvious and ripe for upheaval.

      Not exactly the same thing but I have exposure to a few relatively niche industries. There might be competitors but unless they are downright aholes there is also a necessary mutual respect and an understanding that the existence of the industry in its current state is more important than firing a too large salvo. We don't have to talk to each other directly to understand each other, and we are all similarly suspect of new entrants. Competition and collusion ain't exactly at opposite ends as you might hope.

    • mskeggs on 05/10/2023 - 23:10
      +4

      Watch some prices. I believe the major supermarkets signal increases irrespective of supplier increases. One will raise prices for an item. If the other doesn't follow within a month it is dropped again and "locked" for a couple of months. If the other does also raise their price, we don't know if it is a supplier raising prices to both, or just both taking the opportunity to make some extra margin.

      The big data set this type of site will collect will be able to generate some stats on this sort of activity.

    • johninmelb on 06/10/2023 - 14:14
      +3

      …"and when the suppliers offer a discount"…

      I doubt the suppliers offer a discount very often. I strongly suspect t is mostly arm-twisting by Colesworth. Never forget they have the nuclear option in their arsenal. The conversation goes like this - we will pay $x for this product. Refuse and your products are off the shelves. Any part of that you do not understand? Right, you've got 60 seconds to make a decision and your time starts now. Oh, and don't bother calling Brad or Leah, they can't help you.

  • c64 on 05/10/2023 - 17:40

    easier than using to use the stupid real shopping sites to check prices …

  • kiitos on 06/10/2023 - 07:53

    "Heisse preise" - the German language is perfect for advertising!

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