Yahoo Finance Coles shopper’s trick to scoring $45 in free groceries
The Queensland shopper was able to score a free mop, salsa, wraps and nuts thanks to the little-known policy.
A Coles shopper has revealed why it pays to take notice of supermarket price tags, after she scored $45 worth of free groceries this week.
Sharing on TikTok, the Coles shopper revealed she managed to score a mop, jar of salsa, wraps and more for free thanks to the supermarket’s Promise on Price Scanning policy.
Under the policy - which Woolworths also has - if an item is scanned at a higher price than advertised or ticketed on the shelf, you can get that item free.
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Coles releases its weekly catalogue specials each Wednesday, with offers running for one week until Tuesday.
The Queensland shopper discovered some of the special tags were not removed on Wednesday, so she ended up getting charged higher prices than what was advertised on the shelf. Because of the policy, she was able to get these items free.
“This is the result of the scanning code. I still have the mop, I still have the sauce, I still have the wraps,” she said.
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She also picked up some dry-roasted nuts, which she said scanned at four times the advertised ticket price of $1.
“So they were refunded but yes I have them,” she said. “So, I know what I am talking about in terms of the scanning code of practice.”
What is the scanning code of practice?
The scanning code of practice is a voluntary code that Coles, Woolworths and Aldi have signed up to.
Coles calls this its Promise on Price Scanning and says it applies to all of its supermarkets to ensure pricing accuracy.
“If a single item scans at a higher price than the advertised or ticketed shelf price for that item, we will give the customer that item free,” a Coles spokesperson previously told Yahoo Finance.
Woolworths calls it its Price Scan Policy and says customers are entitled to receive an item free if it scans at a price higher than the shelf price.
If multiple items scan higher than the shelf price, Coles, Woolworths and Aldi say the customer can only get the first item free - meaning you can’t get multiple of the same item free.
Customers score freebies
A number of other shoppers shared they had also received free items after they scanned at higher prices than what was advertised in-store.
“I never knew this was a thing until last weekend,” one shopper wrote. “When I mentioned something scanned wrong and she is like, ‘Oh, I will put through as free’. I thought it was her kindness until someone told me about this.”
While some people criticised the shopper for deliberately picking up on the Coles price tag errors, others argued the old tickets shouldn’t have been left on the shelves.
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