Price Increase on Kellogg's Guardian Cereal at Supermarkets

I have been buying Kellogg's Guardian cereal for $5 at Coles and a few cents higher at Woolies for months. Suddenly last week both have increased the price to $6.40, or 28% overnight! Have the other cereal prices also been increased? What justification can either the supermarkets or Kellogg's provide for this hefty increase? And the government keeps talking about 2% inflation!

Comments

  • stick to kelloggs all bran

  • +22

    These price hikes are a serial problem

    • +4

      Surely some brand damage will occur

      • +2

        It's no use crying over spilled milk, this will bowl over soon

        • +2

          Spilled milk is worth crying over, it's up another 10c/L!

        • +1

          this will bowl over spoon

    • +2

      It's a rice bubble economy. It was bound to pop.

  • +1

    Pretty sure cereal pricing is a minimal weighting factor on the CPI calculation

    • +2

      you can say that about everything though….

    • +1

      Well if you eat 3 meals per day, it's a fair increase.

      • Buy a rice cooker and eat warm rice three times a day.

    • +1

      While it may be the case. The price used in the CPI is the minimum price of this product category from any brand. The reason generally given is that the customers will switch to the lowest price brand.

      So, CPI is slow to track the actual inflation and some may claim that it does not represent the actual CPI. Much better metrics could be used like weighted mean price of all products in a category according to their sales ratio (it was hard to do previously but with big data it should be doable nowadays).

      With recent increase in the price of milk, eggs and cereal etc., CPI will start to head back up. But I doubt it is the demand increasing, it is just the cost is increasing (or artificially increased to increase profits).

      • +1

        The price used in the CPI is the minimum price of this product category from any brand.

        I see no problem with this, since I see no reason why anyone would need any specific cereal brand.

        • +1

          But it's just like a chocolate milkshake, only crunchy

  • +2

    To be fair, I believe we are in drought, and grain prices has risen a lot.
    It probably stayed $5 for ages ( I don't know, just guessing), and when the price rise finally gets the nod its a big one. The inflation ABS gives, I think is deeply flawed, somethings never go up in price, some things never stop going up, depending on what you spend and what you eat, you're experience with inflation varies widely. Lucky for me I eat toast only, and bread loafs has been $1.8 for years and years and only just priced up to $2. So 10% in about 5 years is probably average 2% for me, mind you, 2% every year = more than 10% by year 5. So im still ahead on all counts.

    • +1

      I am sure grain prices have risen, but they would make up a tiny fraction of the product cost. Wheat is currently around $300 a tonne, so a 500g box would have less than 2c of wheat!

      • That would assume 500gr of wheat produces 500gr of cereal. Is that correct? I don't know, just asking, I suspect not.

  • +19

    According to Price Hipster the regular price at Coles was $6.00 since December 18 (and probably longer than that), the new price is $6.30

    Woolworths did a price drop from $6.00 to $5.00 in Feb 18, and that has now finished and is now $6.40

    So the actual regular price increase is 5% at Coles in approx 1 year, and 6.66% at Woolworths in 18 months.

    • +11

      Pfft get out of here, nobody wants to hear facts when we have this one person's first hand account that's completely correct!

      • +4

        You'd do well as a journalist at the Herald Sun.

    • You guys have obviously never read or seen 1984. This is chocolate rations all over again!

  • +3

    What justification can either the supermarkets or Kellogg's provide for this hefty increase?

    They want more revenue.

  • +1

    At least that's an obvious increase unlike some brands who try to hide it by reducing pack size and keeping the price the same.

  • +1

    2% inflation

    It's a weighted average of many things.

    28% overnight

    Things aren't "continuous" in life. E.g. if something was 5c and it increased by 5% p.a., you don't increase it to 6c right away but have to wait until it gets to 10c or somewhere in between to cover your opportunity cost (and then some noob cries out … 100% inflation over night!).

    What justification can either the supermarkets or Kellogg's provide for this hefty increase

    What did they say when you asked them?

    • Things aren't "continuous" in life

      Not sure why this got down voted. It's very true for most social constructs, of which the price of cereal is one. Things do happen "overnight" after longer periods of resistance. For a good understanding of this phenomenon read Thomas Kuhn's "The structure of scientific revolutions" - a super interesting book which describes an unexpected example.

  • +1

    Dammit, how do you expect me to get my bigly dividend if you guys keep whining about the cost of goods. I know the franking helps but, really? That is sarcasm.

  • There's got to be an investigation, nay a Royal Commission, into price hikes on Guardian. This tears at the very fabric of an already weakened society.

  • +1

    Wait till op realises the price of milk has gone up.

  • I wonder if posters actually consider: "Is whining about this reaaaally a good use of my time when I could otherwise be… i don't know, watching paint dry, grass grow, water boil evaporate, etc."

    • +1

      Sure thing!

      She'll be right mate, all is great here. Nothing to see.

      Media tell us how incredibly good everything is and, more importantly how immensely lucky we are.
      Amen

      • Maybe travel isn't cheap enough, but living in Australia? Yeah, we are immensely lucky and life is incredibly good. Hell, we complain about things that people in other countries would be chuffed at even having at all.

        One thing I was talking about with friends the other day - mental health. Incredibly important, and an increasingly huge topic here and elsewhere. Also (literally, not dismissively or pejoratively) a first world problem by definition because people in other countries are more worried about being in the right "have-enough-food-space" and not "head-space".

        • Life is just expectations.

          Those expecting the basics are satisfied and contented very easily. Feeling lucky and good with whatever they got.

          Those with higher expectations instead, find it frustrating so much meritocracy and frivolity, meekness and apathy.

          It is a personal appreciation. Like beauty.

          • @LFO: You can have high expectations from yourself and others, but not feel as though you're entitled to have those expectations being met by others. Expectations are good. It pushes us to reach for higher things. But off-loading responsibility is not good because it does the opposite, that only pushes us to whine, not achieve things ourselves.

            Examples:

            Good - "I expect Australia to be a great place to live, and this is what I'm doing to make that true."

            Bad - "I expect Australia to be a great place to live, and this is what others should do so I can live here."

            • @HighAndDry: LOL
              Not the case for semantics really.

              Example: "I went to the beach and it wasn't what I expected"

              You are or not satisfied based in your expectations.

              There are no good or bad expectations.
              There are satisfied or not individuals. Based in their expectations.

              • @LFO: But you're not responsible for the upkeep of the beach. Or how it looks.

                In contrast - we're all part of society and the country. You are (partly) responsible for what the country is like. If it doesn't meet expectations, do something about it, instead of asking other people to.

                • @HighAndDry: What?

                  Why do you take "expectations" as a personal attack.

                  Different individuals, different expectations. Again, like beauty appreciation.

                  Please don't take it at personal level.

  • eat rolled oats or oat bran. cheaper. better

  • Boxed cereal products are way overpriced to begin with anyway. How much in a box of "Guardian", 360g? At $5 ea you are paying $14 per kg…for some steamed and rolled wheat

  • +1

    intermittent fasting. Save $6.40. OzBargained

  • A bit different but also some prices at Bunnings are up. Some same products, now 20% more…

    Dollar value falling? (as we buy virtually everything from China and overseas)

  • +1

    Absolutely correct!
    There is no such thing as 2% inflation. Its all a scam!

    This inflation rate is "manutacturered" to justify the Government's and RBA's agenda of keeping interest rates low so the housing boom keeps going and feeding into government taxes of all sorts. They are making a motza out of this.

  • +1

    unless it has recently changed,the Utilities and Fuels are not included in inflation figures and is not included in the C P I that is used to increase the pension in March and September 20th as the governments claim they are too volatile to include them,

    • Fiddling with statistics?

      So that persistent ~5% unemployment rate is not true after all :-[

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