Happy Easter!
We’re going to resist the temptation to bring you the survey that shows the chocolate in your Easter eggs is marked up by 70% on the cost of such treats at any other time. After all, buying the broken bunnies next week isn’t as much fun as finding them in the garden, even though it makes financial sense.
Either way, we’ll be buying 3,000 tonnes of chocolate at Coles alone!
Here’s some perhaps surprising news about the way we think of prices. In a move that the Financial Review claims is being touted as “a simpler way for shoppers to stick to a budget”, Woolworths is moving all its prices to round numbers.
The conventional retail wisdom has always been at $5.99 appears cheaper than $6.
But the supermarket monolith is progressively rounding all its prices to numbers with a zero at the end because, says the Fin, it makes it “easier for customers to add up the cost of their shop.”
“I haven’t seen the psychology report on the matter but there is a lot more simplicity in pricing in retail now,” Mr Steve Donohue, the chain’s director of buying and merchandise.
He said round prices were not only easier for shoppers to remember , when comparing the price of products, it also made for simpler mental arithmetic for customers working to a tight budget.
The iconic Australian brand ‘The Reject Shop’ is, ironically, being rejected by consumers. After the company warned the market of expected second-half losses starting at $5 million on Friday, their share price suffered a precipitous drop from $8.00 a share to $4.16.
Their shaky position is representative of a larger shift in the retail marketplace, with traditional variety stores suffering as chains like Daiso and online shopping sites like Amazon continue to eat their lunch.
Many Australians are sentimental towards the brand, which has provided countless teenagers with their first jobs over the years and becoming a staple in shopping centres across the country. However, no amount of sentiment can fill their empty coffers and it seems that a radical overhaul of the brand is a necessity.
The Budget could have some good news – according to The Australian, The Turnbull government will pursue a “cradle-to-grave” housing affordability package.
A “mutual obligation superannuation plan” for first-home buyers, tax breaks for downsizing the family home in retirement and a social housing plan to alleviate rental stress could be on the cards, says the paper.
And finally – a mea culpa.
Last week, we suggested the big property weekend could see the start of the end of the housing bubble. How wrong were we? The auction clearance rare continued unabated.
But this week, at least we got a peak into what the experts think will happen to our overheated housing market.
According to CoreLogic Moody’s Home Value Index, Sydney’s detached housing index will rise 7.2 per cent before falling up to 1.4 per cent up to 2020. Apartments will rise 7.5 per cent in 2017, then fall 1.2 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.4 per cent over three years. They will then start to rise again.
In Melbourne, things will be similar. Except apartment prices won’t fall.
That’s the experts’ view.
After last week, we’re saying nothing!