He said the supermarket was passing through price rises where it could but in some cases the company was absorbing the hikes,if “it feels like it’s too much pressure on our customer”.
Beef prices continue to go up and up... there comes a point where you can’t actually pass it on to customers
Woolworths CEO,Brad Banducci
Banducci said that while it was difficult to separate current shopping trends from the impacts of the pandemic,it was clear that cost of living pressures were changing how people shopped.
“We are seeing some customers trade down from beef into more affordable sources of protein and trade across from fresh vegetables into more affordable frozen and canned offerings,” he said.
He highlighted that while it was hard to see the shift on a macro level,more budget-conscious trends were playing out when looking at individual product categories. Trends included shoppers switching up beef mince purchases for chicken or pork mince,or moving from fresh to frozen fish.
The company also flagged with analysts on Thursday that the business was having to face lower margins on beef as prices climbed throughout the year while shoppers’ budgets were squeezed.