You’ve heard the Officeworks ads, they run on high rotation on TV, they are in the newspapers regularly, then there are the flyers in the letterbox and, of course, billboards. The all proclaim that Officeworks offers LOWEST PRICES EVERYDAY.
Officeworks does not have the lowest prices every day. Not the way I see it at least. They get away with this claim by publishing a price guarantee, that they will better the price of any item by 5%. Their website says that their price checkers guarantee that they bring you the lowest prices possible every day. Hmmm, their price checkers cannot be all that good. The Officeworks price for a pack of four check tickets is $4.53. These checkers employed by Officeworks would know that the vast majority of newsagents easily beat this price by 47%. Check the responses from newsagents on what they charge for check tickets when I asked the question this past weekend.
Newsagents don’t just beat the Officeworks price on check tickets, we beat them on a range of items every day. It is us who should be proclaiming the lowest prices every day. Instead, we would rather complain about Officeworks and them get away with it. Instead of complaining maybe we should fight.
It’s a bit like the carbon tax debate or the poker machine pre-commitment changes. If you make enough noise with your spin, regardless of how distant from the facts it is, you soon get it into people’s heads that what you are saying is accurate, regardless of whether it is accurate. Spin wins.
Officeworks does not offer the lowest prices every day. What they do offer is to beat any price by 5%. The shopper has to find the better price and provide it to Officeworks. Officeworks does not pursue delivering the lowest price as a matter of course.
I clicked on the social responsibility link on the Officeworks website as I figured it would have something to say about their commitment. It didn’t offer much of substance. Sure it was nice words, but nothing relevant to what I would call social responsibility Then clicked on the ethics link – expecting that would speak to their commitment to honesty and integrity. It, too, lacked substance in my view. The stand out paragraph on the ethics page for me is:
Maintaining a culture of integrity ensures that our team members always act in the best interest of our business and our shareholders.
There it is. Shareholders come first. As a public company this is as it must be.
I suspect that Officeworks knows that it does not offer the lowest prices every day. If they don’t, they should know this. I suspect that Officeworks does not regularly price check against outlets like newsagencies. If they do they need to lift their game.
The out for them on Check Ticket prices is that we do not offer a four pack. I’d reject that saying that we would sell four packs for, usually, $2.40. Even though they are sold individually, it is reasonable to compare the price of four individual packs with a single four pack and they have it displayed.
I’d like to see the Consumer’s Association or some other body challenge the Officeworks LOWEST PRICES EVERYDAY claim. They spend a ton of money on the claim so they ought to be prepared to be investigated to ensure that it is accurate wherever and whenever it is made.
In asking the price of check tickets I intended to write a blog post about the need for newsagents to proclaim that they have the LOWEST PRICES EVERYDAY. Based on prices I checked of everyday stationery lines, such a claim would be accurate. I wanted to write that we should be proud of our price position and that as an entire channel we should make noise about this to combat what I consider to be misleading advertising by Officeworks.
But my attention was diverted by what I found at the Officeworks website and the realisation that truth does not matter for it is perception which sways shoppers. Officeworks has the money, marketing and advertising experts necessary to drive perception.
Australian newsagencies are not as expensive as shoppers think. We need to find ways to push back on that perception.
