The Chaser Report - The Vibes are Down, Down

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

The federal court battle between Coles and the ACCC has kicked off, with the defendant arguing that when it says "Prices are down," that's not to be taken literally. Charles and Dom explore what it means for "prices" to be "down", and how you can come away with some savings at the checkout.Install Price Check Guy's extension: https://linktr.ee/PriceCheckGuy---Listen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gatigle Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Where prices are down. Charles, have you seen the new discount on our memberships? Subscriptions to the Chaucer Report have gone down down, down. Oh, really? So prices are down, down, down, does that mean that they're cheaper than they were yesterday?

No. No, it means that they're down. If you look at the word, it's like we put them, instead of putting them up on the website, we put them down on the website. That's it. Right. That's the only difference. So what you're doing is you're using the Cole's definition of the word down because

just today, the barrister for representing Coles said that the judge in the new price gouging case that the ACCC is running against Coles and actually Woolworths said that the The words down down didn't mean that there was somehow to be taken as sort of an indication of lower prices or anything like that. It was just a sort of general vibe. Well, actually, he said basically you should just ignore all that marketing and that whole line of inquiry was invalid because that's just, that's not actually part of price scourging case. To sort of say something's down down doesn't mean anything. It's just a sort of vibe, really. Let's vibe through some ads and then look at this in more detail.

So, yeah, look, one of the examples was I think there was an item that was $4. Yeah. And then they put it up to $6 for two weeks or something like that. And then they went down down to $4.50, which is down from the previous price. Yes. And so, Dom, are you surprised by this? Or do you, have you installed the price check guy app on your Chrome extension? What's that?

Right. So this is the thing that I wanted to talk about this for months, but I sort of thought maybe this is just too obscure. There's this guy. This is honestly true. On TikTok, this guy who I think actually is the reason why the ACC have been shamed into actually running a case against these big supermarkets. What he's done is he's created this extension that you can install in Chrome and I think

Firefox and a few other browsers. And you go to sort of the Coles website or the Woolworth's website. And it will track for you the history of that price across. Why would you do that? I don't know. Well, he just is very good at data. He also posts videos about looking up government data sets for parliamentary expenses and stuff like that. So, like, we're not talking.

Like, he's not an influencer in the style of, say, Kim Kardashian. But, I mean, he's. Did we learn nothing from 984, Charles? Everything that's happened before this moment is not real. it's into the memory hole it doesn't exist. If, Charles, if the big red hand is pointing downwards, that means the price is down and you can't prove otherwise. Unless you have the data.

And one of the things, so you're absolutely right. And this is not just like in one case where it's sort of like, I think the case that you're doing about might have been something like a box of chocolates, like Cadbury favourites or something. But there's literally hundreds and hundreds in both dolls and Woolworth's case where they put it up and down, up and down, up and down. And part of his point is, are the up prices really real or are they just there to make it look like it's down? But then the other fascinating thing is, and where he trips up everyone, not just Colson Woolworths,

but also things like Amart and fantastic furniture and all these big retailers, Harvey Norman, is when they hold Black Friday sales, all his Black Friday sales content is just coming out and out. Like he's been catching up because there's so much content where retailers, I think there was one at Amart where they'd been selling this couch or something for $2,000 for literally, you know, the past year. And then they temporarily put it up to $2,600. Yeah. And then they put it down to $2,000.

And it was a huge saving on Brack Friday, even though it was the same price. Isn't this what they always do? There's another example here on the Guardian website. up, by the way, of Strepsils, $5.50 on a down-down promotion for a year and a half. In fact, nearly two years. Then it goes down, it goes down from $5.50 to $7. Yes. You might see it is up, but prices always go down.

So, yeah. And then it goes to $6 and it says was seven. Now, it was. It was seven for 28 days. They're not lying. They're not telling you the whole story. No, they're just sort of. Well, so this is, and then today, then to.

Today, the Herald's just run an article just this afternoon. The headline is, Down Down was all about the vibe, not specific discounts. Coles claims in court. Oh. And... Is that the Dennis DeNuto argument in court by Colt? Yes. Yes.

Wow. And so John Sheehan, who's the Kings Council for Coles, he's the lead barrister in the case, said, the Down-Down campaign, which draws consumers and... and makes them sort of suggest that things are on sale. He said, it's all, with respect, a bit of a furphy. So the A.C.,'s representative of Gary Rich SC, says that the price is utterly misleading, which I think is a form of praise, isn't it? Right.

And so actually, the other thing that I should just mention about this price check guy on TikTok, and he's also on Instagram, I noticed as well, is the other thing that he is, which we are not really being in this podcast, is incredibly careful about, making any allegations. So yesterday, or the day before when the ACC announced this price gouging suit, he posted a TikTok going, well, I've never accused, you know, I've never accused coals of price gouging. That's for the ACC to say. Oh, I see. So he's obviously worried that, I don't know why he's worried that these big multi-billion dollar organizations might have a legal budget to sort of sue into oblivion anyone who makes accusations against them.

Well, let me be clear, Charles. Maybe there's some other reason why. I'm just seeing prices that go down. Even when it goes from $5.50 to $7, you could argue it goes down. If you'd view the prices direction, I don't know, for in the United Kingdom, for instance. It's a downward price if you're looking at it upside down. And look, maybe the be all and end all of society is not lower prices. Maybe the point is there are, you know, what if having slightly higher prices on, I don't know, laundry detergent leads to an outbreak of world peace?

Like, there's other factors to consider, don't you think? Like, there's sort of, it's such a specific, this is the problem in the A.RBLEB, they've focused very specifically on the fact that prices seem to not have gone down when they claim to have gone down, right? Well, they keep interesting. There's lots of other things happening in the world. What about, you know, Kim Kardashian's new campaign? Don't they also keep wanting the ad to be true in all senses of the word? Oh, this is the thing that's really difficult. Because no one's denying that the price did go down.

It was $7 and now it's $6. Before that it was $5.50. Who can even keep up? Charles, the other thing I'd say is, don't we all own shares in coals through our super? Yes. So isn't this good for all of us? Aren't we just basically increasing our own profits in retirement? In many ways, this is an Aussie thing to do.

It's a form of savings for us, Charles. So it looks like you're paying more, but actually you're saving for your retirement. I really like that argument, I think. And the good thing is that the more shares you own, the more savings you get, which is a very cold-like sort of... That's right. That's right. But the other thing is, Charles, in this time of inflation and cost of living pressures,

yes. The more expensive things are, the less you can. can buy. So if you make food more expensive, really, even though you're saying it's down, you're helping everybody to diet because they can afford less food. Isn't that good for our increasingly fat nation? I am willing to bet that all these arguments that you are saying, I think, ironically, are going to actually run up the flagpole by the KC. Nothing ironic. For coals. Nothing ironic. My arguments are going down down. God. Probably. News a few days after it happens.

What can we learn from this about our marketing? Because, well, if I go to chaser shop.com, let's see what we have. I mean, do we do this? Do we say prices are down? No, no, Dom. See, the thing is, we actually follow the Apple method of marketing. So I've been very clear about this from day one, which is we don't get addicted to sales. This is the problem with a lot of other brands, right?

Shops, retailers, you know, successful shops. places like that, they all get addicted to sales where they, they, you know, like if you train a customer that something will be cheaper if they wait for it, then the customer will wait until it goes on sale. Whereas Apple never puts things on sale or maybe they do like once a year during Friday. They give you a gift voucher. They never drop the price. They just give you a gift voucher for.

Yeah. And it's sort of shitty, shitty deals anyway. And that's exactly the same as the changes shop. So you don't really ever, like you go there knowing that you. you're never going to get a better deal. This website says... In some ways, our marketing principle is up, up, prices are always up. Chasesshop.com has clothing, zero dollars aUD.

It also has two addresses that go, by the way. You might want to get on that. But it says there's a Qantas chairman's lounge membership from $6.95. These are good deals. Can I get that from Coles? Yeah, no. Well, you, I mean, unless you sort of are on the Coles board, I'm sure... I'm sure the KC for Coles.

If I may defend Coles as a shareholder, as we all are, isn't it true that you've never been able to believe these sorts of claims? I mean, the number of times I've looked at retailers, and there's one particular electronics retailer that's notorious for this, and there's a price tag that basically looks like it's gone over the top of the other one, and they look handwritten, they often handwritten, and you lift up the price tag, and it's almost always exactly the same underneath. It's brilliant. Yes.

We should do that on the chaser shop. Yeah, you should. And often there's two or three. And I'm talking about, I'll be honest, J.B. High-Fi, you often will lift up the tag. I don't know if they still do this on multiple occasions. And you'll see it's the same price like several tags underneath. It's great, fun.

But there is a solution to this, Charles. Okay. There is a brilliant solution to this. And I think Audi's already done it. And I think everyone's going to do it. It's very common in places like Japan, which is that you have electronic pricing on the shelves. Right. Yeah.

So instead of having pieces of. paper that have to be updated, which, you know, creates jobs for, for employees and stuff. We don't want employees. All the prices are digital, so they can just change at any point in time. They do that. You can't possibly know whether they're up and down. Yeah, a lot of them are increasingly that. They've got e-ink displays.

And that way, who even knows what a price was? Can you prove that it was? How did you know? Well, how does this data guy know? Except for this price check guy who collects all the data ride. But I'm thinking price check guy is not long for this world. He's sort of Australia's Navalny, you know, like... Oh, you reckon.

Yes, I reckon. Novichok prices are down down. Well, I think maybe frog, isn't it frog poison? Wasn't it the dart frog poison that Navalny... Was it? Got done by? I mean, look, I haven't heard anything. I certainly wouldn't want to say anything to defamatory,

but it wouldn't surprise me if a Woolworths or Coles had started importing the dart frogs from the Amazon, stockpiling them to sort of get... rid of this price check guy. I'm just saying. I mean, you know, I'm not saying that's based on anything. I'm just saying I wouldn't be surprised. But also, Charles, the way technology is going, what they'll be able to do is whenever he walks into the shop, the AI cameras at the entrance will go, oh, it's a price check guy, temporarily

drop all the prices. Yes. And then put them up again. So that's actually the solution to the problem, which is always go shopping directly behind price check guy. Yes. Yes. I was so worried that we're going to just have to pay more in perpetuity for groceries, Dom.

But that is, that's genius. That's exactly what's going to happen. But do you know what I'd, the other thing I'd suggest is that if you're worried about the prices of coals and woolies and you think there's a duopoly, don't do it. Don't go to those retailers. Go to other retailers. Go to 7-Eleven. Go to David Jones Food Hall.

Go to your local IGA. Go to your local, your local corner store. And then there'll be no price check central data and you'll just pay what the price is. And if it seems like a good deal to you, which it won't, then be happy. And our local convenience store, Dom, is one of those ones that doesn't even show the price. No, no. And I actually, you get to the register and you don't know what's going to be. It's exciting, isn't it?

Yeah. And they get really pissed off if you ask the price before they, and they make you put it back. Like, if you take something up and say, how much is this? And you go, you know, and it's like a liter of milk, $15 or whatever. They then make you take it back. Like, I go, you know, like, because I sort of go, well, I think you should put that back because you're the fuck wit who's made me walk over here with a fucking bottle of milk. Like, I would never have even fucking picked it up if you, anyway, point is,

did you know that the price tag was an invention directly to stop people being ripped off? It was invented in the 1860s, and it was because before that, they had their own version of vibe-based yield pricing. Yeah. Where if you went up to, you know, and you wanted to buy something in a market or a store or whatever, the shopkeeper would just charge you what they reckoned you'd be able to afford. Like price tags had to be invented for there to be, you know, basically to stop people from being ripped off. And now our convenience stores are quite, I mean, if you go to Melbourne, God help you, there is not a single price tag in any of those fucking convenience stores. You wouldn't, they're not cool.

They wouldn't be in Melbourne. Yes, exactly. No moustache, no wax moustache. Convenient store operators are going to have a price tag. That's very dark, I say. So, yeah, okay, well, what was the point? Yes. So, yes, exactly.

Let's boycott Coles are more worse and instead go to far more expensive places. That is a way. Or just not eat. I mean, I'm trying to diet this year. That's my approach. I was not going to consume anything. Yes. It's good.

I don't eat anything. I don't grow myself. See, their price gouging is good at least for fatties. Take the, the King's Council's welcome to use that. I reckon King's Council is going to use that one. You know what? A barrister would never ever put their prices down down. Yay.

I like that. We're part of the Iconiclass Network. Catch you tomorrow. And please subscribe to our podcast, even though we haven't changed the price. We're going to put them up, admitted. No, we said it was going to go up and then we haven't gone around to it. That's probably misleading conduct. We'll probably be done by the A.

we'll see. Yeah. We're the coals of podcast except that we're... I've got to put it up. I'll put that up. That's on my to-do list. Okay. That's one point in the future.

Okay. Catch you next time. Thank you. See it. Bye.