Steph Chalmers

That was sold for several years for less than $4.

Then the price was very briefly raised to $5 and then it was dropped to $4.50 and promoted as price dropped.

So that's really the crux of this case that the ACCC has brought against both Woolies and its rival Coles.

those supermarkets are defending it separately.

So we had the hearings into Coles earlier in the year, and now it's Woolworth's turn.

We're talking about Oreos this time instead of dog food, which is a little bit more pleasant.

I feel a bit more familiar with Oreos.

I don't buy that brand of dog food.

That was being discussed in the Coles trial.

But I think it's something every...

shopper can relate to is seeing those red or yellow stickers on the shelf and kind of intuitively knowing what they mean.

And that's what the ACCC is arguing, is that it really is consequential if these aren't genuine discounts, if the price was artificially raised and then lowered.

They're saying, you know, the magic, the subtle magic, they called it, is that consumers know what these tickets mean.

They have a very short period of time to kind of glance at them.

and know what the promotion is offering them that is supposedly a lower price.

And then they're saying it isn't a lower price because it was raised very briefly.

Yeah, exactly.

So the ACCC is...

talking about this manufactured price spike, whereas Woolworths is saying, no, that wasn't just something we did for the purpose of this promotion.

This was a genuine cost increase that our supplier came to us and negotiated.