If you go into Woolworths to buy a bunch of small “kids’ bananas” you may not realise you’re paying double the price of the larger cavendish bananas right next to them.
At one Woolworths store, kids’ bananas have been sold in bunches of five and priced at $3.70 a bunch. At a glance, that seems more or less the same price as the loose cavendish bananas next to them on the shelf, priced at $3.50/kg.
However, when a Guardian reader weighed a bunch of the “kids’ bananas” – which was 530g – they worked out their per-kilogram price was significantly more expensive at $6.98 – that’s a 99% price increase for smaller pieces of the same fruit.
Guardian Australia has reviewed a range of examples of confusing and seemingly random per unit pricing, a practice the supermarkets are expanding that makes it extremely difficult for shoppers to compare prices.
Confusing pricing conceals wild variations
Under the existing rules, the major supermarkets can price fruit and vegetables per unit or per kilogram, whether they are packaged or loose.
Because supermarkets are not required to display a per-kilogram price,
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