Woolworths are making a direct push into their generic branding with a Select & Save promotion as seen in their recent catalogue beginning Wednesday 30th November. Not content with just advertising their Select range, they are now going head to head with the big brands. Lets look at the products on offer.
This week we see a comparison between Select Crumbed Fish Fillets 400g and Birds Eye Oven Baked Fish Fillets 425g. Now the Woolworths catalogue are quick to point out a few subtle differences like MSC Certified and Heart Foundation Approved and of course the price is stated at being 23% less than the branded product but still comes in at a healthy $6.49. Now a quick check of myPrice.com.au indicates that we shouldn't be paying more than $4.00 for the Birds Eye Oven Bake fillets so we expect that product to regularly be on special at or below that price.
Similarly, the old favourite Paddle Pop is up against a price comparison with the Select Creamy Pops range and here the big difference is that Paddle Pops don't use cream in their blend and have preservatives, which I hardly think it's anything to write home about. Of course there is that regular price of $4.99 for the generic which is comparable or greater than any Paddle Pop special where you can buy them as low as $3.99 / box.
So given that the generic products are rarely on special, it should be safe to continue to buy the branded products in the specials cycles whilst knowing that you are not paying too much. If Coles and Woolworths are looking to get serious penetration into the branded markets, the base price of generics needs to be on par with the weekly specials price and this is something Aldi have already factored into their generic brand pricing.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
