Australia’s major supermarket chains have dropped prices on hundreds of products as the cost of living crunch continues.
Coles announced it would “drop and lock” prices on more than 300 new items from Wednesday until April 11, after the Easter weekend.
Brands including Kellogg’s, Kleenex, L’Oreal, Morning Fresh, Gillette, Uncle Toby’s, Four N’ Twenty, Arnott’s, Steggles, McCain, Carman’s, and Cold Power, along with a number of Coles brand products, will be included in the price lock.
Coles chief executive of commercial and express Leah Weckert said the new price lock included double the amount of items that had been included in the supermarket’s previous one last year.
“We understand many Aussie households are feeling the pinch following Christmas and by dropping and locking the price of hundreds of popular and essential items we are honoring our commitment to helping Aussie budgets go further,” Weckert said.
Woolworths meanwhile said while its 2022 Price Freeze program had ended, hundreds of products were still discounted.
“We’ve recently reduced the price of more than 300 summer grocery staples as part of our Prices Dropped campaign,” a spokesperson said.
“We will continue reviewing each cost increase request from our suppliers case-by-case basis, working together to manage market-wide inflationary pressures sensitively.”
Both Coles and Woolworths committed to a six-month price lockdown in the middle of last year, and grocery prices were expected to boom when that expired.
Coles said a survey of more than 7500 customers found 82 per cent were making changes to their grocery shopping to counter the rising cost of living.
More than half (57 per cent) were buying more discounts, cooking more at home (51 per cent) and cutting back on treats (55 per cent).
Woolworths has said it is also committed to meeting customer needs as the cost of living crisis continues.