{"id":769953,"date":"2026-06-30T13:31:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/769953\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:31:26","slug":"grocery-prices-australia-startling-increases-that-could-come-back-to-haunt-major-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/769953\/","title":{"rendered":"Grocery prices Australia: Startling increases that could come back to haunt major brands"},"content":{"rendered":"

The price of groceries<\/a> has increased by approximately 24 per cent over the past five years, and Australia\u2019s favourite snack foods<\/a> haven\u2019t been spared.<\/p>\n

So-called \u201cdiscretionary items\u201d such as chocolate<\/a>, biscuits<\/a>, and chips have soared in price during that time period, with some of Australia\u2019s best-known brands almost doubling in price.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Grocery prices have increased by approximately 24 per cent in five years.\u00a0Jo Abi<\/p>\n

It begs the question: Is there a price point at which consumers make the hard choice to stop purchasing their favourite snacks?<\/p>\n

The answer is yes, according to consumer expert Gavin Northey from Griffith University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an absolute psychological price ceiling for every product category, and both research and history tells us once that ceiling is breached, demand can collapse very quickly,\u201d he told nine.com.au.<\/p>\n

Northey doesn\u2019t think Australia is at that point yet, but if the impact of global conflicts and supply chain disruptions continues indefinitely, he warned we \u201cmay see a major shift in consumer demand, even for products we currently consider staples\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shoppers are making their feelings about some of these startling price increases known on social media.<\/p>\n

One such complaint appeared on Reddit\u2019s \u2018Australia\u2019 thread after a customer saw a Coles \u201cspecial\u201d for 170g bags of Smith\u2019s chips in April, declaring a special price of $5.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive dollars for chips is not a special, Coles,\u201d they captioned a photo of the display.<\/p>\n

Northey cited a recent example of price increases going too far for US food giant Pepsico. When the company hiked the price of a standard bag of Doritos, Lay\u2019s, and Cheetos to $US7 (approx. $10) for a standard bag<\/a> between 2021 and 2024, customers stopped buying them in droves and switched to alternative brands.<\/p>\n

\"Close-up<\/p>\n

Shoppers are making their feelings about grocery price increases known on social media.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

This friction spread to the UK in 2024 when major grocery retailer Carrefour pulled Pepsico product from its shelves<\/a>, a move Northey described as \u201cglobal resistance to price increase\u201d, although Pepsico later claimed they had ditched Carrefour.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s aggressive price increases and subsequent drop in sales wiped out $50 billion in their market value, and they have been fighting to get it back ever since by discounting products by 15 per cent and running multiple promotions.<\/p>\n

In Australia, Pepsico brands Doritos and Smith\u2019s have also dramatically increased in price between 2021 and 2026, while the size of the packs has reduced. <\/p>\n

Doritos have shrunk from from 175g in 2021 to 170g in 2024 and Smith\u2019s chips have been reduced from 200g in 2021 to 175g, and then down to 170g in 2024.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

One shopper was shocked to see this ‘sale’ price for Smith’s Chips at a local supermarket.\u00a0Reddit<\/p>\n

\"Packets<\/p>\n

In Australia, Doritos and Smith’s have increased in price as packs reduced.\u00a0Jo Abi<\/p>\n

During that time period the price of Doritos and Smith\u2019s increased from $3.50 to $5. For Smith\u2019s that\u2019s a 42 per cent price increase for a significantly smaller bag.<\/p>\n

Coles and Woolworths have been called out for so-called \u201csales\u201d on these popular brands, leading to strong customer reactions on social media.<\/p>\n

In fact, Doritos formed part of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) action against Coles and Woolworths<\/a>, which found the supermarkets briefly spiked the price of the product from $3.50 to $5 in 2022, then dropped the price to $4.50.<\/p>\n

The court ruled Coles had engaged in misleading conduct with some of its \u201cDown Down\u201d promotions, while the outcome of the ACCC\u2019s similar action against Woolworths is still pending.<\/p>\n

New supermarket \u201cprice gouging\u201d laws come into effect on July 1, which will prevent Coles and Woolworths from charging prices that are significantly excessive compared to the cost of supply and a reasonable profit margin. <\/p>\n

How this will be policed is less clear.<\/p>\n

Andy Kelly, Director of Campaigns and Communications at consumer group Choice, said of the new laws: \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 44 per cent of households reporting they\u2019re just getting by and 24 per cent finding it difficult, it\u2019s more important than ever for the government to pursue every available measure to tackle this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers have lost a huge amount of trust in supermarkets in recent years, with confidence dropping from 48 per cent in March 2022, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, to just 21 per cent today. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new excessive pricing prohibition should help to restore some of that trust, but further reform is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"coles<\/p>\n

Coles and Woolworths have reported healthy growth in their home brand categories.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Still, the two major supermarkets have been able to spin major brand price increases such as these seen by Pepsico into gold, reporting a surge in sales of their more affordable home brand snacks.<\/p>\n

Coles and Woolworths\u2019 home brand chips cost $2.20 or $1.26 per 100g for a 175g bag, which is 80c cheaper than the Smith\u2019s special price and $2.80 less than full price.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Aldi, where shoppers can purchase a 230g bag of the supermarket\u2019s exclusive Sprinters chips for $2.69, or $1.17 per 100g, which is even less per unit price than Coles and Woolworths.<\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

Coles and Woolworths have reported an increase in sales of their home brands.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

Northey said major brands and supermarkets \u201chave to be conscious of the effect aggressive pricing might have on customer demand\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cShoppers have shown they will simply stop purchasing items they deem too expensive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only that \u2013 since the 2024 senate inquiry into supermarket pricing, aggressive pricing can also attract increased scrutiny from government regulators<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The price of groceries has increased by approximately 24 per cent over the past five years, and Australia\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-769953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}