Michael ThornWoolworths have long used discount promotions and shopper docket vouchers to drive supermarket customers to its 1,200+ Woolworths owned bottle shops, BWS and Dan Murphy’s.
However, the latest marketing ploy from the ‘fresh food people’, which uses discounted booze to lure customers to its deli is well and truly on the nose.
This week’s deal entitles shoppers with a receipt for any Woolworths seafood, fresh meat or deli item to purchase up to two six-packs of Heineken or Hahn Super Dry at BWS for $10 each.
Since there is no minimum supermarket spend to qualify, this deal is available to savvy drinkers who make a purchase as small as a single slice of ham or mozzarella.
For our part, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) have long argued for an end to such shopper docket promotions.
There is strong evidence linking this type of aggressive alcohol discounting and promotion to risky binge drinking. And further evidence suggesting that young people are targeted by and particularly vulnerable to such promotions.
This latest Woolworths offer that entitles shoppers to two six packs of beer for $20 is no less dangerous and extremely irresponsible.
According to a report in The Age, the Woolworths promotion is an attempt by the supermarket to increase sales at its delicatessen counters and claw back recently lost market share.
Woolworths is still reportedly the market leader, accounting for 43 per cent of total national deli sales valued at $4.7 billion dollars, but dropped a whole 1.1 per cent over the last four years.
By engaging in such reckless alcohol promotion, Woolworths sends a very clear message to the Australian community about the corporate giant’s priorities.
And it’s not about putting the health of Australians first – as a number of Twitter users wryly noted.
Woolworths’ – cheap beer and a pokie empire, but want us to think they’re the ‘fresh food’ people? @FAREAustralia http://t.co/Pz6GdCWoSi
— Charles Livingstone (@CLdeFootscray) July 22, 2015
A slice of salami and 6 Heinekens $10.20 #feedthefamily http://t.co/9ZZTLvz7RN — Hipstergeddon (@hipstergeddon) July 21, 2015
Buy your recreational drugs cheaply from Woolies. Woolies sponsors domestic violence. http://t.co/55PMYU16KO
— Dean Frenkel (@DeanFrenkel) July 21, 2015
@blu_boys @Aussie_Ace @woolworths Way to encourage responsible drinking Woolies. #TeamStraya drinking culture. — Willow iCate Moon (@guerresoliel) July 21, 2015
Did they think about making meat cheaper rather than pushing booze? Woolies #alcohol deli & meat fight http://t.co/6mDq4leDxm via @theage
— Sandra Jones (@ProfSCJones) July 21, 2015
We can’t damn Woolworths or any company for that matter for seeking to maximise profits. It is after all a company’s reason for being.
Yet we are right to condemn a company when, in its drive to put profit before all else, it is willing to risk the health and safety of all Australians.
The Woolworths Board’s Charter clearly states that one of the key responsibilities of the Board is to consider “the social, ethical and environmental impact of Woolworths’ activities and operations”.
It seems to me that Woolworth’s either has no insight into the risks and the extensive harms caused by cheap booze – which is responsible for 15 deaths and 430 hospitalisations in Australia each day. Or it has no regard for its own governance arrangements.
In its pursuit of market leadership and increased profits, Woolworths would be wise to acknowledge its corporate social responsibility commitments.
I have written to Woolworths Chief Executive Officer Grant O’Brien to express my disappointment and called on him to cease this promotion.
This is yet another example of why shopper dockets, and other promotions which involve loss-leader pricing models and the heavy discounting of alcohol, should be banned. And yet another reminder of the urgent need for Australia to review its flawed industry-led alcohol marketing regulation system.
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