{"id":321512,"date":"2026-03-10T00:17:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/321512\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:17:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:17:07","slug":"grey-washing-supergold-card-discounts-skip-entire-regions-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/321512\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Grey washing\u2019: SuperGold Card discounts skip entire regions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you\u2019re going to say that SuperGold Card<\/a> gets a discount in our stores, why wouldn\u2019t you do that for every store? Not just cherry pick a handful of stores around the country and have such a lack of consistency about where those stores are located.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monopoly concerns<\/p>\n

Monopoly Watch analyst Tex Edwards said confusing or difficult to get information on the availability of SuperGold Card discounts at leading supermarkets<\/a> was another example of unchecked monopolistic behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s being exhibited here with the leverage of the senior gold cards, is a concept called geographic monopolisation in several regions of the country, where you don\u2019t have any brand choice, you just have to go to the Woolworths, or you just have to go to the Foodstuffs banner of either New World or Pak\u2019nSave and Four Square.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards singled out Wellington, where lobbyists worked on behalf of supermarket chains to maintain the duopoly.<\/p>\n

He said it was not surprising that Wellington region had the best coverage of supermarkets offering the SuperGold Card discount in the country, with New World offering it at 100% of its stores, and 63% at Woolworths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monopolies have these people called the lobbyists, and they run round Wellington and busy telling government officials that they\u2019re doing everything right, and they\u2019re being sensible citizens of New Zealand, and they\u2019re doing all this good stuff, except competing on price and competing on any real initiative,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

\"PhonePhone calls to New World stores resulted in conflicting information. Photo \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n

Conflicting information<\/p>\n

Co-op Foodstuffs, which supplied New World, said there was no comprehensive list of store locations offering the SuperGold Card discount<\/a> as individual stores were privately owned and operated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe discount isn\u2019t offered in our South Island stores. In the North Island, it\u2019s up to individual store owners to decide whether to offer it, so there isn\u2019t a single, comprehensive list of participating stores,\u201d Foodstuffs said in a statement to RNZ.<\/p>\n

But internet searches of New World stores offering SuperGold Card incorrectly indicated the card was widely accepted in South Island locations \u2013 which was not the case.<\/p>\n

Likewise, telephone calls to New World stores also resulted in conflicting information, together with incomplete information online about the terms and conditions at stores honouring the card, such as minimum purchases.<\/p>\n

New World\u2019s online location finder did link to a standardised template for each store, but none of them contained information about SuperGold, though other services were mentioned.<\/p>\n

Woolworths said it offered the discount in about a third of its stores broadly located nationwide, but that was also somewhat misleading as the discount was not evenly distributed throughout the country, with some regions seeing near 100% coverage, while others offered nothing at all.<\/p>\n

A list of participating Woolworths stores on the SuperGold app was also out of date, with four stores no longer operating.<\/p>\n

Commerce Commission response<\/p>\n

Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden said supermarkets were not obligated to offer a SuperGold discount at any of its stores, though they needed to deliver on their promises to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we would reiterate that any discounts offered need to be clear and accurate and should not mislead consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupermarkets need to follow through where discounts are offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny exceptions to discounts, including eligible locations, need to be clearly communicated to avoid misleading consumers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would encourage people to report a concern to the commission if they think one of the laws we enforce has been breached.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are unable to comment further without undertaking a more thorough assessment of the matter and, if warranted, through undertaking an investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JustJust 23% of Woolworths stores in the Auckland region offered the discount. Photo \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n

Woolworths response<\/p>\n

Woolworths\u2019 website indicates that a third of its total 185 grocery stores offered the 5% discount on any given Tuesday, but just 23% of its Auckland region\u2019s stores offered the discount, and not at any of the five stores located within a 20-minute walk of the Auckland CBD.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst we may not offer the discount in all Auckland CBD stores, we do offer it broadly across the country,\u201d Woolworths director of retail Jason Stockill said.<\/p>\n

However, a list of Woolworths stores that accepted the SuperGold card were not broadly located according to data available on supermarket websites, and many of its North Island stores were located near competing New World supermarkets that also offered SuperGold discounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are aware that some select competitor stores run a SuperGold discount programme. We are not aware of this being directly matched store to store by us or our competitors,\u201d Stockill said.<\/p>\n

Still, the following table indicates the regions where Woolworths and New World\u2019s SuperGold Card discounts are matched store-to-store:<\/p>\n

Gisborne District: Woolworths 0% offers 0\/1 stores \u2013 New World 0\/0 stores 0% offersWest Coast: Woolworths 0% 0\/1 \u2013 New World 0\/3 0% offers in the South IslandNelson: Woolworths 0% 0\/6 \u2013 New World 0\/2 0% offers in the South IslandTasman: Woolworths 0% 0\/1 stores \u2013 New World 0\/1 stores 0% offers in the South IslandTaranaki: Woolworths 20% 1\/5 stores \u2013 New World 60% 3\/5 stores matched 0Auckland: Woolworths 23% 14\/ 62 stores \u2013 New World 61% 19\/31 matched 11Waikato: Woolworths 26% 5\/19 stores \u2013 New World 44% 7\/16 matched 3Southland: Woolworths 33% 1\/3 stores \u2013 New World 0\/3 0% offers in the South IslandHawke\u2019s Bay: Woolworths 50% or 2 of 4 stores \u2013 New World 80% 4\/5 matched 2Otago: Woolworths 56% or 5 of 9 stores \u2013 New World 0\/11 0% offers in the South IslandManawat\u016b-Wanganui: Woolworths 60% 6 of 10 stores \u2013 New World 36% 4\/11 matched 3Wellington: Woolworths 63% or 12 of 19 stores \u2013 New World 100% 21\/21 matched 8Marlborough: Woolworths 67% 2\/3 stores \u2013 New World 0\/2 0% offers in the South IslandNorthland: Woolworths 71% 5\/7 stores \u2013 New World 80% 4\/5 matched 3Bay of Plenty: Woolworths 83% 10\/12 stores \u2013 New World 67% at 6\/9 \u2013 matched 5Canterbury: Woolworths 95% \u2013 19\/20 stores \u2013 New World 0\/20 0% offers in the South IslandPrivately-owned Pak\u2019nSave supermarkets do not offer a SuperGold Card discount, though some Four Square supermarkets do. Woolworths-owned Fresh Choice honoured the card at selected locations.<\/p>\n

SuperGold Card discounts difficult to access <\/p>\n

The SuperGold card was designed to help offset the high cost of living, which statistically hit New Zealand\u2019s seniors harder than other groups.<\/p>\n

Lamb said many of the SuperGold discounts advertised on the app or website were beyond the reach of all but the most wealthy retirees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as well, it\u2019s often that the interfaces are designed for those people who are extremely efficient at using online technology, and that doesn\u2019t apply to a portion of the older population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still somewhere in the region of 20 to 25% of the older population who don\u2019t have any access to any online resource.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo creating an app or creating a website is meaningless for those people, and those people do tend to be the ones who are the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

In any case, using the SuperGold Card App to figure out which supermarkets did or did not offer the discount was impossible, with no sense as to the rationale behind the selection of stores.<\/p>\n

Auckland CBD and other centres miss out<\/p>\n

Stockill said Woolworths considered a number of factors when deciding which stores would be included in the programme, including demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always looking at options to provide additional value to our customers. We know the SuperGold discount programme is very valued in the stores we offer it in and we would love to extend this to all stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the truth is that this programme is costly and while we would love to roll this out more broadly, we do need to carefully balance this expense with our ongoing investment into lower prices, services and shopping experiences for all our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you\u2019re going to say that SuperGold Card gets a discount in our stores, why wouldn\u2019t you do…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,10635,18981,20209,52088,111,139,21353,69,45125,6695,65259,173668,92404],"class_list":{"0":"post-321512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-card","10":"tag-discounts","11":"tag-entire","12":"tag-grey","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-newzealand","15":"tag-nona","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-pelletier","18":"tag-regions","19":"tag-skip","20":"tag-supergold","21":"tag-washing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}