Woolworths, Australia's largest supermarket chain, launched a three-month Price Freeze promotion on May 1st, pledging to hold shelf prices on 300 household staples. CEO Amanda Bardwell announced the initiative as relief for families struggling with cost-of-living pressures, citing inflation driven by the Iran conflict. The promise was straightforward: prices would not exceed the shelf price visible on launch day.
Pricing data compiled by CW Scanner tells a different story. At least four key products saw price increases during the promotional period. Chicken fillets rose 33 percent, a can of Mexican-style three bean mix nearly doubled from 60 cents to one dollar in mid-June before dropping back in August, while potatoes and donuts also climbed. Woolworths defended the moves, arguing the pre-promotion prices constituted promotional rates rather than standard shelf prices.
Professor Jana Bowden, a marketing ethics expert at Macquarie University, questioned how consumers could reasonably be expected to track price variations across hundreds of products. The term price freeze carries an ordinary meaning that customers rely upon. People cannot be expected to monitor fluctuating costs or decode technical distinctions between promotional and standard pricing. The promise appears to have fallen short of consumer expectations.
Sources: theguardian.com
The words in bold are from the article.
| 1. pledge | a. specialized |
| 2. launched | b. surpass |
| 3. fluctuating | c. special |
| 4. decode | d. different |
| 5. reasonable | e. varying |
| 6. promotional | f. interpret |
| 7. shortfall | g. initiated |
| 8. exceed | h. deficit |
| 9. distinctive | i. commit |
| 10. technical | j. sensible |
1.i 2.g 3.e 4.f 5.j 6.c 7.h 8.b 9.d 10.a