Coles fruit and vegetables: price tag unknown
I’ve got a little beef with the local coles regarding the scales they provide to weigh. Because they’re selling by weight the laws require that the measurement is true. But I suspect there is nothing to say where exactly the scales must be located.
I’ve spoken to a “supervisor” three times about the issue now (a different one each time) and their response is that it will be weighed at the checkout. My problem is that I want to know how much I’m spending before I get to the checkout. Given the way checkouts are structured it’s not an environment where you can add and remove your fruit to get the right spend, or even decide if you’re prepared to spend at all.
Now, I am naive and I do struggle to picture a specific individual in the organisation deciding to tell their stores to let the scales fall into disrepair. Nonetheless each complaint has concluded with a commitment to get the problem rectified. And oddly enough on the one occasion when I even went back to check it was fixed a few days later. And it was working.
Yet every time I go in to buy the scales are not working again.
So maybe its time to gather hard data on the subject.
Coles Manly NSW
Mon 8 December 2008 6:00pm
Problem:
Put item on scale, scale shows a couple of letters (can’t recall them), no measurement.
If I remove item and press the “zero” button the display shows something bizarre (like all asterix or something).
If I press down really hard on the scale, sometimes it will show some numbers – like a measurement.
Escalation:
Spoke to fruit and veg attendant: could he show me how to work the scales? “No the scales don’t work”. I said words to effect of – yes, I know they don’t work. Do you know how to make them work? Perhaps I’m just doing it wrong. Can you show me how to work the scale? -
His English is not showing a high level of expertise, but he agrees to join me at scale. And he tries them. And they don’t work. I thank him and continue shopping. Someone having the air of management wanders past so I wait for her (mid 50′s, short, heavy, female, white hair, glasses) and tell her the scales aren’t working.
- She says yes she knows and suggests I go to the checkout to weigh my goods.
- I say the scales haven’t been working for quite some time.
- She says yes they’ve been having trouble getting someone to come and fix them. The repairmen are always busy and she doesn’t know when they will come again.
- I say i’m looking for someone with the authority to commit to a time frame for getting them fixed.
- She takes me to the front of the store (I’m made to stand in front of full checkout lines slightly embarrassed at being made to look like I’m some kind of trouble-maker) and tells me to wait while she talks to someone else.
- She comes back and says “Gloria” will be ensuring they get fixed. They can’t say when, but if I come back tomorrow they’ll be able to give me an update.
Fat chance of that. I’m not going to go out of my way, so I’ll record and date this exchange, ready for the next time it irks me.
John is a freelance programmer living in Sydney Australia. He blogs whatever takes his fancy; computing tips, travel letters, and random stuff from his life. He does it primarily to learn and demonstrate the running of a website.
Same set of scales were working again on Sunday the 14th. See how long it lasts this time.
Go to the other fruit and veg around the corner, u know, the one on the opposite corner of the block. (are they still there, havn’t been in Manly for a few years).
The scales are now gone altogether!!
They’ve rearranged the fruit and veg section and the scales are simply gone. To weigh your fruit/veg one must go to the checkout, half the store away. It is clearly a move designed to ensure you cannot know the price of your fruit/veg before going to the checkout.
I recall some years ago they tried to do this and failed. It appears now that they have won. If anyone knows of the legal position of this strategy please let me know. I can’t recall if there was one cited which saw this move prevented last time. Has the law changed? or was it not law but a concession to public pressure? I don’t recall.
@philip andrew
Thanks mate. I’m giving Coles as wide a berth as I can now. I’ve started getting the bulk of my groceries from “Harris Farm” at Queenscliff, opposite Fishos. It’s quite good so far. Sadly I can’t practically boycott Coles altogether; some items simply aren’t available elsewhere – well – at least not until I wean myself off them and find alternatives.
You know you have too much time on your hands when you start submitting stuff like this to tabloid TV shows…
”
I’ve noticed the local Coles have removed all the scales from the fruit and veg section of the store. When shopping I find it rather useful to weigh an item in order to determine whether I can afford it, or just how much I want to spend on it. I spoke to the manager and their solution is that I should walk halfway across the store, wait in the queue, and weigh it at the checkout. I feel this is a impractical solution and not an option anybody is going to exercise. Ultimately they’re preventing customers from knowing the exact purchase price at the point where they make the decision whether or not to buy.
I’ve checked the Trade Practices Act, and expect that they’re operating inside the law, as far I can tell, but I definitely recall this being an issue some years back when they reduced the number of scales provided from several to just one. If my memory serves me they attempted to remove them altogether then, but I can’t recall if they wound up providing that one scale due to law, or just public pressure. Is there a special set of rules applicable to Supermarkets? Did the rules change to allow this move? Are other branches of Coles doing it? Has woolies done it too?
I feel it is not in the spirit of fair trading to force us to make decisions, firstly without full knowledge of the cost, and secondly to reverse or alter previous decisions under the pressure of the checkout. Most people will not hold up the queue to adjust the quantity of an item, or reverse their decision to buy altogether, even if the price revealed does exceed their limits.
Can we cause a stink about this please?
thanks,
john.