The big change coming to ALDI stores
Customers have lashed out at supermarket ALDI after they claim a decision made by the German company is ripping them off.
ALDI has decreased the size of the font on its shelf pricing labels, which will make it harder for shoppers to compare prices with similar products.
The part of the label, which shows the price per metric measurement, is now noticeably harder to read as the font size has gone from 5mm to 3mm.
The font, which used to be in bold lettering, has now been converted to regular, and customers are complaining about the change being “disappointing”.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, a representative from The Queensland Consumers Association said the German retailer had “stuffed up this time”.
Ian Jarratt, a representative from the Consumers’ Federation of Australia, said that smaller writing on pricing labels is more difficult to read, which results in customers buying the most expensive product on the shelf and spending much more than they would normally.
A spokeswoman from consumer association Choice agreed with those sentiments as she said the main issue surrounding the labels were “legibility” and the ability to “read”.
“The consequence is shoppers don’t necessarily get the best value and they end up potentially spending more,” she told The Herald Sun.
But ALDI says that their recent decision has nothing to do with making more money, as they are committed to providing the most affordable price to their customers.
A spokesperson from ALDI said: "Over the last 12 months we’ve been phasing in the introduction of new in-store price card printers. Our new printers are now in more than 75% of our stores. The printers have a different format for displaying price cards, a format that has been developed to de-clutter the information presented to our customers.
"As a market leader in the adoption and promotion of unit pricing, we have no interest in minimising this information. We are extremely proud of our price leadership and only want to provide clear and honest information to our customers.
"Price leadership is one of our strongest competitive advantages, to hide price information would run at odds with our business model. We have great respect for our customers and would never engage in activity to mislead them. Our business is based on three core principles, simplicity, consistency and most importantly, responsibility. These values guide us to ensure we operate with integrity in everything we do.
"We are disappointed that some people have suggested that we would engage in activity to deceive our customers.
"We will actively seek customer feedback to ensure that our new approach to label pricing is not confusing our valued shoppers."
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