Homewares price survey finds wide fluctuations
Shoppers could be saving thousands of dollars just by looking at other retailers for a better deal on homewares, new data shows.
Price comparison site PriceSpy ran the numbers on a range of popular homeware products to discover the difference in advertised prices between retailers on a set day earlier this month.
Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, country manager for PriceSpy, said it showed that the same homeware item could cost up to 59 per cent more, depending on where customers shopped.
The biggest price difference was for a Fisher & Paykel stainless steel fridge freezer which was $4005 at Forlongs on the day the prices were surveyed, and $2457 at Heathcote.
‘‘As consumers, we expect to see small price variants between retailers however, when these amounts equate to a massive $1548 for the exact same product, as for the Fisher & Paykel RX611DUX1 stainless steel fridge freezer, we need to help consumers make more
informed purchasing decisions to ensure they aren’t spending hundreds, if not thousands of extra dollars.’’
A Fisher and Paykel washing machine was $1009 at Smiths City and $1099.99 at Magness Benrow.
Even among smaller appliances there were big differences, a Russell Hobbs kettle was $98 at 100% Extreme Appliances and $189.99 at Farmers.
Retail NZ chief executive Greg Harford said consumers should expect that prices would vary.
‘‘Consumers are well-advised to shop around for the best deal,’’ he said.
‘‘There is a range of reasons that explains price differences between retailers. Retailers will, from time to time, offer discounted or sale pricing, and the [findings] may well reflect products that are on sale at some retailers, and are full price at another.’’
He said price differences could also be driven by the wholesale price a retailer paid, which could vary at the time of the order if the retailer was paying in a foreign currency or based on the volume of products purchased.
‘‘There will also be variance in the overhead costs, such as staff and rent, of different retailers which will also flow through to the retail price.’’
Fridge-freezers were the sector with the biggest potential saving by shopping around. That was followed by washing machines, hobs and dryers.
Toasters had the least price differentiation.