Making sure Kiwis pay a fair price at the supermarket

As part of our work to ease the cost of living, we’re taking action on supermarkets to make sure New Zealanders are paying a fair price at the supermarket checkout.

We know competition in the supermarket industry isn’t working. New Zealanders aren’t getting a fair deal. People are fed up with paying a premium for just the basics, while supermarkets earn $1 million a day in excess profits.

The situation needs to change, and we’re taking further action to make sure that Kiwis are paying a fair price at the till.

Here’s what we’re doing:

• We’re calling on supermarkets to open up wholesale access for their competitors, at a fair price – or the Government will do it for them through law. Here in Aotearoa, we currently have one of the most concentrated grocery retail sectors in the world and the high prices we’re facing are driven by the lack of competition in the sector. Opening up wholesale access will make it easier for new competitors to enter the grocery market, and ensure fairer prices for Kiwis.
• We’re appointing the Commerce Commission as an interim ‘grocery watchdog’, to review the grocery sector and keep supermarkets honest.
• We’re introducing a mandatory code of conduct and compulsory unit pricing on grocery products, to make it easier for consumers to compare prices.

Together, these changes will help to increase competition in our supermarkets, and ensure Kiwis are paying a fair price at the checkout. These next steps come on top of our recent work to stop supermarket “land wars”, where supermarkets block competitors from setting up shop in certain suburbs.

Further easing the pressure on families

Taking action on supermarkets is just one of the ways we’re helping to reduce financial pressures on New Zealanders. We recently released our cost of living package, designed to ease the pressure on families in the face of global inflation.

This cost of living package includes a short-term cost of living payment for more than two million people earning up to $70,000 a year who don’t already receive the Winter Energy Payment. This means 81% of Kiwis aged 18 and over will receive either the Winter Energy Payment or the temporary cost of living payment this year to help with their bills

Through the package, we’re also tackling transport costs, by extending our fuel tax cut, reduced road user charges, and half price public transport for a further two months, as well as making half price public transport permanent for Community Service Card holders.

All of these measures build on the work we’ve already done since taking office to lift wages and ease financial pressures on households, including boosting Working for Families, Superannuation and main benefits through our 1 April package, and more.

Given the pressure New Zealanders are under due to global inflation, we’re working hard to further ease the pressure on households. You can learn more about our cost of living package here.

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