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The Commission and Oreos, and we don’t want them anymore, even if Nabisco have a problem.
It was amusing to see the humble Oreo cookie cited as an example of Coles and Woolies’ alleged “misleading conduct” by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The ACC has commenced legal action against the major supermarkets over alleged misleading “Prices Dropped” and “Down Down” claims.
One specific example cited by the commission is the Oreo Family Pack in which we are not interested.
The ACCC alleges Woolworths initially offered the pack for sale at $3.50 in 2021 and 2022 before increasing the price to $5.00 for 22 days from December 20, 2022 before placing it on the “Prices Dropped” promotion for $4.50, 29 per cent higher than the product’s original price of $3.50.
My first thought upon reading this was that I, along with Australian consumers, look forward to a resolution to the matter. We need to feel Coles and Woolies are on our side.
My second thought was: “I really want to eat some Oreos. Where I find the cheapest Oreo cookies today?”
Spoiler: The most affordable Oreo cookies were not at Coles or Woolies.
I love my biscuits. There aren’t many I don’t like. A couple of biscuits with a cup of coffee or tea each afternoon is my favourite. They are often my ‘busy mum’ breakfast as the kids and I race out of the house.
My children also love their biscuits, although it took maturity for them to eat them properly. I cried real tears when I saw my son had eaten the cream out of several of my favourite Monte Carlos. What a waste!
That’s what’s so special about Oreos. We are encouraged to eat the cream first, or last, together with the cookie parts or separately.
My favourite way to eat them is to make my own double-stuffed Oreos by taking the cookie-only sides off, eating those, then placing the two cream sides together and then eating those.
My family of four will eat a pack or two at a time. Life is good.
Until the prices of all of our favourite biscuits went up and up and up and up and UP! And then the cream looks like semen in your eyes in the Monte Carlos and was reportedly reduced for being disgusting, and formulas changed and sizes reduced.
Cue: panic.
What saved us, and continues to save us to this day, is that I normally stock up on key pantry items at Aldi and The Reject Shop as well as Catch, the online discount website.
Yesterday I spotted discount caramel Tim Tams at Aldi which, by the way, I believe need to be refrigerated before eating so the caramel is chewy!
They were $2.49 per pack, compared to on ‘sale’ at Coles for $4.50 and $6.00 at Woolies. I immediately bought two packets.
Aldi also stocks many other brand-name biscuits including Arnott’s Shortbread Cream for $3.49. Although, Coles has these on sale at two packets for $6.00 at the moment.
Aldi did have Oreo family packs, but for the not-lowest price of $4.49.
Here’s the real problem. Consumers are being run ragged trying to find the lowest prices for items, having to shop at multiple stores to take advantage of all the lowest prices.
My maid do my grocery shopping in three outlets at least to stretch my supermarket spend further. It’s exhausting. I’m tired.
It was The Reject Shop that came to my rescue, with Oreos on sale for $1.50 per standard pack. I bought four of them!
This is how I really save. Once a month I’ll shop outside of the major supermarkets – a monthly visit to a farmer’s market, a monthly meat order and a monthly visit to The Reject Shop or a similar discount store, where I stock up on cleaning products and biscuits.
Chemist Warehouse is great for toiletries like shower soap and menstrual products. Costco is why I have so many eggs at the moment and a three-month supply of cat litter.
This means I can focus my weekly supermarket spend at Coles, Woolies and/or Aldi on items the discount retailers don’t have where supply can be patchy.
It all takes time, and a little detective work, but it’s worth it.
What I have concluded is that the days of grocery shopping at one outlet is a luxury most can’t afford.
I still remember my mum doing a weekly shop at our local major supermarket every Friday morning. She may have popped into a butcher or fruit market as well, but the bulk of it was at one store.
She, too, remembers having limited funds and having to be mindful of the choices she was making and of trying to keep an accurate tally of how much she was spending while us kids distracted her and drove her mad with requests.
So maybe it was watching her sit down in the afternoon after a morning like this enjoying a cup of coffee or tea with a couple of delicious biscuits that taught me about this simple pleasure.
And to Oreo lovers across the country who are left craving the sugary snacks every time the see a story about the ACCC action, head to The Reject Shop, and enjoy.
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