Countries around, Price war | Takes a new tack in the price war: – It’s a bit sneaky

(The online newspaper)

Nettavisen’s price check on Tuesday morning shows that you can save a lot by choosing the right store.

On several items, the price differences are now significant at the discount chains Extra, Kiwi and Rema 1000.

Oven-baked liver pâté from Gilde:

Coarse rolls from Hatting:

Nougat

See all prices below

Bounty hunters in action

Again, Rema 1000 comes out as the cheapest, and none of the others are cheaper than Rema on any of the items that were checked.

Rema has made it clear in several price comparisons, and last week they were clearly cheaper than both Extra and Kiwi. That made blogger Rune “Gjerrigknarken” Nikolaisen wonder where the prize hunters for Kiwi and Extra had gone.

– Maybe your bounty hunters have taken Easter holiday? he wondered.

Rema 1000’s prize hunters have definitely not taken a holiday. On Tuesday morning, Nettavisen met two of them who were busy checking prices at Kiwi.

Extra stands out

A chain clearly stands out as the most expensive. Extra is more expensive on 13 of the 27 items that were checked. And on several of them, Extra has raised the price in recent days.

The waffle mix from Toro cost 9.30 last week. Now it is set to 15.90. A price increase of just over 70 percent.

Idun’s ketchup without sugar cost 7.90 last Thursday, now the price is 13.90. An increase of 76 percent.

And Gilde’s oven-baked liver pâté has increased from 9.50 to 17.50. Up 84 percent.

– A bit sloppy

– Obviously, Extra has given in to the price war here, and now they want to make money from their members, who they call customers. It’s a bit sloppy, says blogger Rune Gjerrigknarken Nikolaisen to Nettavisen.

He believes that most people expect prices to remain low until Easter.

– It is surprising that they raise the prices. I have never seen them give up the price war in this way before, he says.

– What could be the reason why they have raised the prices now?

– Tuesday and Wednesday are the last chance to do away with Easter shopping, and the chains know this, of course, says Nikolaisen.

– Maybe people don’t realize that the prices are being raised. Many people are on holiday, and the garden is probably lowered a bit. People have to act and that is probably what they are trying to exploit, he says.

He believes there may be reasons why not as many people get the price increases as the price cuts.

– Even if the media write about increased prices, it is not certain that people will fully understand it. These cases do not get as good a spread as when there is a price cut, says Gjerrigknarken.

– Looking forward to the rush

The shopping basket at Extra came to almost NOK 600. Clearly more expensive than at Rema 1000, where the same goods had a price of 509.83.

– Extra will continue to be the cheapest chain, as we were in Nettavisen’s big price test recently, and the prices have already been adjusted, says communications director Harald Kristiansen at Coop, which owns the Extra chain.

Extra believes the way the test was done may have influenced the result.

– We see that the prices have been brought in at different times, and with the tough price war that is going on now, it helps to influence the result in this snapshot, says Kristiansen.

Nettavisen checked prices on Tuesday morning for a period of one hour and 25 minutes.

– I can promise that Extra has not given up. We will still have the lowest prices, says Kristiansen.

– Together with our customers, with whom we share the profit, we are looking forward to the rush of this year’s Easter trade, he says.

– Important to follow

Rema 1000 has confirmed that the prize hunter Nettavisen met at Kiwi actually works for them.

– How important is it for you to follow the prices of your competitors?

– As a customer, you must be confident that you will receive the lowest final sum with us throughout the year. It’s a promise we make to our customers every single day. Then it is obviously important to follow what the competitors are also doing, says category and purchasing director Line Aarnes to Nettavisen.

Buzz with the Zalo price

Kiwi came last in the previous big price test at Nettavisen. Kiwi thought at the time that there was a mistake on a price label, probably because a shopping cart had damaged the label. This time too, Kiwi thinks there is a mistake on a label. Nettavisen’s photo shows a price of 26.90 for Zalo. It is nine kroner more expensive than the competitors.

– If Nettavisen had bought the goods, the price at Zalo would have been NOK 15.90, says communications manager Nora Helgesen.

The online newspaper always documents prices by taking photos of the electronic price labels. These must be correct, and it is a breach of the price information regulations if the shops do not have correct price information.

Kiwi has also sent several so-called bongs to show that the Zalo price is 15.90. Kiwi believes it must be a so-called “dead” label, with an old price. The label says “price lock” and according to Kiwi, this has not been part of price lock campaigns since last year.

– Kiwi has won four of the last five food exchanges in VG. VG buys the goods and trades at the same time, and we would like Nettavisen to use the same method as them, instead of taking pictures of prices over several hours, says communications manager Nora Helgesen.

Price overview

Nettavisen tested prices at Extra, Kiwi and Rema 1000 on 26 March.

The first price was checked at 7:18 and the last price was checked at 08:43.

*The chains have multipacks of Kvikklunj in different sizes, and Nettavisen has calculated what the price of a Kvikklunj from the package will be. Kiwi has gaskets with three, Extra with four and Rema 1000 with six.