Word on the street: What local shoppers say
The Northern Advocate this week asked customers at Whangārei’s Okara Park Shopping Centre how their spending habits had changed in line with the cost of living crisis.
Jordan Pattison and Vernon Forster are parents to two preschoolers and a 7-year-old.
Jordan said a bike they had just bought was for their oldest child’s birthday but he would have to share it with his next-oldest sibling.
They had hoped to buy baskets and give their kids an Easter egg hunt this year but abandoned the idea after facing unexpectedly high prices and realising it would be too expensive.
Family and friends were also struggling, Jordan said. Someone she knew owned a business and was finding times tough while consciously trying to keep prices low for locals. Friends Madeleine Fanene Vogt and Joy Sadler, pensioners who volunteer at Citizen’s Advice, said the surge in fuel prices had led to them car sharing as much as possible. Joy, who lives rurally, said she now only made trips to town when it was necessary.
A keen gardener with lots of fruit trees, she had made an extra effort this year to ensure all the produce was preserved, with nothing left to waste. Her health-conscious husband used to favour buying organic produce but recently he had been inclined to buy the less expensive options.
They didn’t go to restaurants as much, either. The cost of dining out had shot up since the Covid lockdown and was now too prohibitive, Joy said. Paying $18 or $19 for an in-season avocado smashed over two pieces of toast was “nuts”.
Madeleine noted her favourite coffee pods had increased from $9 to $12 in the past four years, her power costs were up $40 monthly, and ratepayers were now facing an increase of more than 17 per cent for the next financial year.
Once a happily “compulsive” supermarket shopper, she now took advantage of free delivery services and reigned in impulse purchases by ordering online and only what she needed. She refused to buy her fruit and veges from supermarkets any more and was instead getting them from Whangārei’s Saturday produce market.
The friends both said they now shopped widely online, finding outlets like Temu far cheaper than even local franchises of budget-brand retailers. Many online outlets also offered convenient free returns.
Maungatapere farmer Luke Schimanski was conscious of the role overseas conflicts were having on rising food prices in particular. He tried not to buy dog tucker any more — it was too expensive. Even dog bones were expensive, he said. Fortunately, he was a keen hunter and his dogs loved possum meat so he now relied on it for their food.
Schimanski said he believed many New Zealanders were guarding their spending as they “wait to see” what the recent change in Government holds.