Oral Presentation ANZOS-Breakthrough Discoveries Joint Annual Scientific Meeting 2018

Frequency of price promotions on food in a major Australian supermarket chain: analysis by food category and relative product healthiness (#25)

Devorah Riesenberg 1 2 , Gary Sacks 1 2 , Kathryn Backholer 1 2 , Annabel Paix 1 2 , Christina Zorbas 1 2 , Josephine Marshall 1 2 , Miranda R Blake 1 2 , Adrian J Cameron 1 2
  1. School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  2. Global Obesity Centre, Deakin University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Introduction

Only 60% of food purchases come from supermarkets, with price promotion extensively used by retailers to influence consumer purchasing. The extent of price promotions in Australian supermarkets and how they differ by food category and overtime is unclear. 


Methods

Weekly data on price promotions were collected online for one year (April 2017- April 2018) from the largest Australian supermarket. Over 1500 food items (healthier n=553, less healthy n=990) were included from the following categories: healthier = low-sugar breakfast cereals, packaged bread, muesli/oats, canned beans/legumes, frozen fruit and frozen vegetables; less healthy = high-sugar breakfast cereals, chips, chocolate, ice-cream and confectionery.  Only temporary price promotions were considered. A multi-buy was defined as a promotion where more than one unit is purchased to receive the discounted price. The average proportion of products on price promotion each week and the average discount was calculated for each food category.


Results

On average, healthier food categories had 15% of products price promoted per week while less healthy food categories had 29% of products on price promotion. The categories with the highest proportion of products price promoted were chocolate (40%), chips (33%) and ice-cream (22%). The average discount was 15% on healthier categories, and 26% on less healthy categories.  The largest price discounts were for chocolate (31%), ice-cream (27%), and chips (24%). Almost half of all multi-buy promotions were for multipack chips, with 60% of multipack chips available as a multi-buy promotion. Seasonal trends indicated that chips and ice-cream were more frequently discounted in summer, and confectionery more frequently discounted in winter.

 

Conclusion

Price promotions, including multi-buys, were both more prevalent and larger, for less healthy food categories. Policies to restrict price promotions on less healthy food items are likely to have a strong impact on purchasing patterns and thereby improve population diets.