Down Down, Prices Dropped and Low Price Always: catalogue terms decoded
Australian supermarket catalogues use a lot of promotional language, and it is not designed to be compared. Each term describes a genuinely different commercial arrangement, and each should prompt a different response from you. Here is the glossary.
½ Price
What it means: the product is currently selling at approximately 50% of its stated regular price at that supermarket, as a time-limited promotion. Runs for the catalogue week (Wednesday to Tuesday).
What you should do: if it is something you use and it keeps, buy enough to last until it comes round again — typically six to ten weeks. This is the only promotion type where stockpiling clearly makes sense, because the price genuinely goes back up.
The catch: half price against its own regular price does not mean cheapest on the shelf. Check the unit price before assuming it is the best value option.
Down Down (Coles)
What it means: a sustained price reduction rather than a weekly special. Coles drops the price and commits to holding it, sometimes for many months. The hand pointing downwards and the jingle are doing a lot of work to make a stable price feel like an event.
What you should do: nothing urgent. If the product suits you, buy it at the lower price when you need it. There is no reason to buy six, because the price is not scheduled to rise next week.
The catch: because it looks like a promotion, it creates a sense of urgency that the underlying offer does not justify. That is the point of the branding.
Prices Dropped (Woolworths)
What it means: Woolworths' equivalent of Down Down — a longer-term reduction rather than a one-week deal.
What you should do: the same as Down Down. Treat it as the new normal price for that product, not as a reason to act quickly.
Low Price Always (Woolworths)
What it means: a claim about the ordinary price of a line — typically own-brand or high-volume staples — rather than a discount of any kind. Nothing has been reduced.
What you should do: ignore the label and compare on unit price like anything else. The claim may well be true, but it is a marketing position, not an offer.
Member price / Flybuys price / Everyday Rewards price
What it means: the discounted price applies only if you scan your loyalty card at the register or are logged in online. Without the card you pay the shelf price.
What you should do: join both programs, since they are free, and scan the card. But do not let a member price be the reason you choose one product over another — the discount is funded by the value of your purchase data, and the personalised offers you receive afterwards are designed to change what you buy.
The catch: member pricing is increasingly used on items that would previously have been a public special. The headline discount looks the same, but the audience is narrower.
2 for $X, or "buy 2 save $Y"
What it means: a multi-buy. Sometimes a substantial saving, sometimes barely below the single-unit price.
What you should do: divide. If two for $7 works out at $3.50 each and the single price is $3.80, the "deal" is 30 cents an item, and it has persuaded you to buy twice as much. Multi-buys are a volume mechanism first and a discount second.
Was / Now, and the crossed-out price
What it means: the crossed-out figure is supposed to be a price the product genuinely sold at for a reasonable period beforehand. Under Australian Consumer Law, a "was" price that was never really charged is misleading conduct, and the ACCC has pursued retailers over it.
What you should do: treat the "was" price as a fact about that product's history at that store, not as a statement about what the product is worth or what competitors charge.
Save $X
What it means: the difference between the regular and promotional price, in dollars. Useful, because dollars are what you actually keep — a 50% saving on a $1.20 item is 60 cents, and a 20% saving on a $60 item is $12.
What you should do: use the dollar figure, not the percentage, to decide whether a deal is worth acting on. Percentages make cheap things look exciting.
Limit 4 per customer
What it means: the promotion is deep enough that the retailer expects bulk buying, or the stock allocation is limited. It is often a signal that the discount is genuinely good.
What you should do: if it is on your list and it keeps, buying the limit is usually the right call.
New lower price / everyday low price
What it means: the base price has been reduced permanently. Not a promotion.
What you should do: nothing in particular. Note it and move on.
The compressed version. Only "½ Price" and a genuinely deep multi-buy are worth changing your behaviour for. Down Down, Prices Dropped and Low Price Always describe the ordinary price and should not create urgency. Member prices are real but come with a trade. And in all cases, the dollar figure matters more than the percentage.
Why the terminology is like this
It is worth understanding the commercial logic, because it makes the language predictable. Supermarkets compete on the perception of value as much as on price, and perception is cheaper to manufacture. A permanent small price cut branded as an ongoing campaign generates far more perceived value per dollar of margin given up than a genuine deep discount does.
Weekly half price specials, by contrast, are largely funded by suppliers buying promotional slots. They cost the retailer less than they appear to, which is precisely why they can be so deep — and why they are the promotion type most worth paying attention to.