The Woolworths price check website, launched on Thursday is a long overdue recognition by the supermarket giant that consumers deserve greater price transparency on grocery products.
The new Woolworths price check website follows the growing calls from consumer advocates for the major supermarket chains to publish on their respective websites the prices of all products they sell. Publishing comprehensive pricing information on websites has long been technically feasible and now that the Woolworths price check website is up and running it’s essential that the website is as informative and user friendly as possible.
Once on the Woolworths price check website, consumers are only given pricing information on 5,000 out of the upwards of 30,000 or more grocery items typically sold in a Woolworths supermarket. Until the Woolworths price check website includes the prices of all products in each of its supermarkets, consumers will not be getting the full picture. If it’s technically feasible for Woolworths to publish on its website the prices of 5,000 products, then it’s surely technically feasible to publish online the prices of all 30,000 or more products.
With the Woolworths price check website having a long way to go the onus is now clearly on Woolworths to keep improving the website to a point where it gives consumers full price transparency in a manner that allows them to make the most effective use of the pricing information.
