Woolworths 'per item' produce pricing is a scam. Paid $9.96 for 12 bananas today, $0.83 each, total weight 1.586kg ($6.27/kg). In-store, price is $4.50/kg. How is this not illegal???
EDIT: OK, perhaps I was being a little dramatic. I agreed to their pricing, so technically it's not illegal and not a scam. My concern was more about the lack of disclosure that there's a hidden markup on produce when purchasing online that isn't immediately obvious at the time of purchase. Woolworths seems to do a very good job at making you believe that you're purchasing from an actual shop, and paying in-store prices, whereas in reality, this is not the case. Thanks for all the comments. I stand corrected.
EDIT 2: On closer inspection, it actually is a bit of scam. Not in a literal sense (in the same way drip pricing, fake discounting, hidden surcharges, and price gouging are not technically a scam) but more in a practical sense. One commenter noted that the ACCC is already aware of this and are currently investigating. Another commenter noted that in-store weighing is standard pratice for online orders in Tesco (UK).
EDIT 3: I'm genuinely surprised with how many people seem happy with this type of pricing behaviour, defending Woolies, and suggesting people who shop online are "lazy" and "should shop elsewhere". Personally I'm grateful that I'm luckily enough to be able to visit shops, but I know first hand that many people aren't. For many others, the demands and pressures of everyday life mean they are unable to spend countless hours shopping around comparing deals, and are often 'forced' to made sub-optimial choices. Which may not be an issue for discretionary purchases, but might be for essentials such as food. So while it might seem like a logical argument to blame the customer in times of market abuse, in practice it's not always so clear cut.
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1rc7yjx
37 Comments
Banana on scale
Is this for online shopping?
My guess is that it’s not illegal because it’s a different platform for purchasing.
Dull men’s club would like this.
Was the advertised price 83¢ each when you purchased them?
You saw that price, decided it was a good enough value, and paid it.
Why would that be illegal, they clearly advertised the correct price to you on the platform that you purchased them from?
You knew and agreed the price before you paid. This post is just silly.
How is what not illegal? Providing you with the 12 bananas you ordered and paid for?
Did you order 1.5kg or 12 bananas?
Do people have no personal responsibility anymore?
You bloody chose to buy it. I am assuming online?
Go into the shop if you don’t like their per unit pricing.
When you order online the actual weight of the bananas is unknown. Most people prefer to purchase by quantity rather than to nearest X grams, so for online store they need a per-unit price.
Woolworths don’t want to risk the per unit price being lower than the per-weight, so they set it to the upper end of what could be expected, plus a little safety margin.
As others have said, nothing illegal about transparent pricing such as this. It’s less competitive than purchasing in-store but people still do it for the convenience
Could we get a red circle around the one that’s being used for scale?
Coles is currently on the legal block, Woolies are in April.
We did an online order once, because we got a free woolies subscription for a month for something. We noticed some items we were familiar with were priced differently in store. So we only did it once.
Woolies was already on my shit list from All the price gouging since covid. I try to buy at Aldi if i can.
To be fair, the federal government is apparently looking into better regulations around per-item pricing, although I don’t think it would’ve made a difference here.
Something like if using per-item pricing, they should also include the price per kilo for easier comparison.
(which of course means that each item has an assumed average weight, which ideally they’d also be transparent about)
There’s always money in the banana stand!!
unpeelievable
not a scam buddy.
$10 for nanas is mental
And that’s exactly why they’re doing it.
It’s more profitable for them as not only can they charge more per kg but it also simplifies the picking process so they save on labour.
And you get to pay more for their record profits.
I thought Mango Keitt was a Star Wars character I can’t lie
It’s a scam if it is misleading. This isn’t misleading; you’re being dramatic
This is stating a per item price – which you clearly agreed to – and in store it shows a by weight price
It’s like when people buy something one week and it’s on sale the next – just how it goes sometimes
Watch now for a literal demonstration of the term “Bananas for scale”.
I mean, it’s ONE banana, Michael. What could it cost? $10?
The bananas not even on the scale fully
I kind of agree with OP here. Yes they are priced per unit, but as a consumer there’s no real reason to think that the online pricing would be materially more expensive. 40% is a massive difference.
How many people would pay the 83 cents if they knew they were 40% cheaper in store? I’d say most people would expect the prices to be comparable, as they are with other items.
Dull, UK-based man here, who found this interesting.
Just had a look at Tesco (our biggest supermarket), to check what they do. You can choose the number of bananas, or the weight, but what you pay is exactly the same; they weigh what they have picked for you before they deliver.
Also interestingly, our bananas are £0.90/kg, which would mean the OP’s 1.586kg would have cost £1.43, or $2.73AU, not $9.96AU!
I’m going to need um, er, another different banana for scale.
Mate, for reference… when I walk into 7 – 11, sometimes they have a special on banannas.
$1 per bannana, with a fuel purchase.
It was years ago, and while I never partook, I accepted that even at this “discount” price, it was still “servo pricing”. ie marked up by atleast 50%.
Now? Absolutely bonkers.
And also, fwiw, I get my banannas from my local fruit and vege, and they’re 3.99 /kg this week.
It is a scam – that kind of pricing shouldn’t be allowed.
How should it work with online ordering?
It’s not a scam, it’s not illegal… but maybe it should be.
I got caught buying broccoli by the unit, and a cauliflower- the absolute smallest cauliflower which was about fist size cost me $7 and broccoli even smaller were $5.30 each. They must have searched for the smallest available. Not doing that again!
How much can one banana cost? $10?
This has actually been raised by ACCC and flagged as scammy. So watch this space.
[https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/18/consumer-watchdog-concerned-by-rise-of-per-item-prices-at-australian-supermarkets](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/18/consumer-watchdog-concerned-by-rise-of-per-item-prices-at-australian-supermarkets)
Let me reveal to you their biggest scam. So did you know that if you donate more than $2 you’re meant to get a receipt that you can claim to minimise your taxable income
BUT! if it’s less eg. “Would you like to round it up to a dollar for charity?” You know who gets to claim the tax benefit? They do. So the millions and millions of people who think they are doing the right thing are actually giving those fucks a tax break one dollar at a time.
They have weaponised charity, and it’s fucked up.
This is why when I’m picking produce I usually chuck in an extra or 2, especially if they are small.
Woolworths knows exactly what they’re doing by swapping per-kilo value for per-unit convenience, especially since the ACCC has already flagged this kind of “obscure” pricing as a way to quietly pad their margins. It’s just classic Colesworth behavior to charge a premium for online orders while hiding behind the “average weight” excuse to keep their record profits climbing. Just another day of being boiled like a frog by the duopoly while trying to buy basic produce.
Off topic, why the hell are Bananas so damn expensive here? I was in Canada a few weeks ago and a bunch of bananas cost like like $1 ($1.75/kg) and it’s not like Canada has Banana farms, so it’s all imported. North Queensland has plenty of Banana farming.
I suppose Latin American labour versus Temporary Foreign Worker/Working Holiday Visa labour in Australia