From next week your food receipt may get a little cheaper, as Foodstuffs announces a decrease on prices for everyday items by an average of 10 percent.
Foodstuffs, which owns and operates supermarket brands including New World and Pak'nSave, said it's slashing the prices of more than 110 grocery items to what they averaged from January 25 to April 25 last year.
The move comes as food prices see record increases and the cost of healthy staple foods spiral out of control.
"This is not a marketing stunt. It's a real saving for our customers and a real cost to our business, as a result of this price rollback our stores will be selling some items below cost," Foodstuffs NZ managing director Chris Quin said. "Other promotions will continue over this time.
"These are extraordinary times and Kiwis must be able to afford the everyday items they need in their weekly shop over the next few months.
"As locally owned co-operatives we have a responsibility to step up and our store owners are committed to this initiative."
New World, PAK'nSave and Four Square stores across the country will be reducing the prices of everyday products customers buy most often, including frozen and fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy products like butter and cheese, tea, coffee, sugar, flour, and personal care items like nappies and soap.
"Our customers buy more than 1.3 million of these products each week, so we then looked at the 13-week average price of these items across January 25 to April 25 last year and are dropping the prices back to those levels from Monday, May 16 until August 14 2022," Quin said.
A 1kg block of Pams Edam Cheese will go from $11.55 back to $9.99, 1kg of Value frozen mixed vegetables will be reduced from $2.59 back to $2.19 and Value white toast 600g will be rolled back from $1.40 to $1.19.
The move may be a counter-attack to Countdown's price freeze announcement last week, which was criticised for not including many vegetables but instead, a large number of desserts and lollies prices would freeze over winter - meaning they won't increase or decrease.
Quin said seasonal fruit and vegetables like broccoli and spinach won't be included in the decrease because they try to get customers the best deal on these each day.
Foodstuffs said the supermarket checkout is the place where cost pressures are "coming to a head" as challenges such as transport and fuel costs are hitting suppliers.
"Within the 19 cents of every dollar on the supermarket shelf we’re responsible for, we’re working hard to keep costs under control."
The move comes as Consumer NZ launched a petition this week to fight high food prices, saying the country's supermarkets are making around $1 million a day in excess profits.
Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy called for the Government to step in to open up supermarket competition in New Zealand.
