Publications
Partners
- The advertising regulator found a Pick n Pay catalogue to be misleading after the retailer promised customers two bottles of Kanonkop wine for R200 but didn't clarify which stores were excluded.
- One customer who visited the Pick n Pay outlet at Maponya Mall was told the promotion was unavailable at Pick n Pay QualiSave stores.
- The regulator found that the signage indicating that the Maponya outlet is now a QualiSave store was neither big nor clear enough.
- For more stories, visit the Tech and Trends homepage.
The Advertising Regulatory Board (ARB) has ruled that Pick n Pay issued a misleading advertisement when it promised customers two bottles of Kanonkop wine for R200 but did not specify that its new middle-market outlets were excluded.
One disgruntled customer took the retailer to the ARB after being told in-store that the Pick n Pay Hyper/QualiSave at Maponya Mall was not included in the promotion, which was valid between 24 July and 6 August.
The giant retailer says the Pick n Pay in Maponya Mall is a QualiSave store; therefore it was not included in the promotion.
QualiSave stores focus on the retailer's growing middle market, offering offer essential items at lower prices. They normally have their own specials, which can be found on the retailer's website or catalogue.
Pick n Pay told the ARB that the outlet at Maponya Mall "was rebranded and converted to a QualiSave store a few months ago".
But the retailer also said the store was a Hyper outlet, meaning "it is a larger store with a wider product offering. This particular Hyper does fall under the QualiSave banner. As per the image you supplied, it does have the QualiSave signage below the Pick n Pay Hyper signage."
This was in reference to the store bearing both Hyper and QualiSave branding.
However, the regulator found that the only branding which shows that the store has converted to a QualiSave was neither big nor clear enough.
It said: "Given that QualiSave is not well established as a separate concept from a normal Pick n Pay, and given the lack of clear QualiSave signage at the store in Maponya Mall, which used to be a normal Pick n Pay Hyper until a few months ago, the complainant cannot be faulted for expecting the advertised deals to be available at the store in Maponya Mall."
'Pick n Pay can't promise and not deliver'
The ARB also noted that the bottom of the page of the catalogue said: "Promotion valid at Pick n Pay supermarkets and selected hypermarkets in Gauteng, Free State, North West, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Northern Cape."
There was no additional disclaimer on which stores qualified for the promo.
A News24 article indicates that the QualiSave brand was launched recently, meaning many customers may not yet know that QualiSave outlets are separate from "normal" Pick n Pay supermarkets and hypermarkets.
The authority found that Pick n Pay failed to clarify in the advert that the special wasn't available at QualiSave stores and also failed to clearly identify the Maponya Mall outlet as a QualiSave store.
For this reason, the ARB found the Pick n Pay catalogue to be misleading by omission and said the retailer should take into account such details in future.
"While such a disclaimer would not cure the lack of clear signage at the store in Maponya Mall, its presence in the catalogues for normal Pick n Pay supermarkets and/or hypermarkets in future should at least alert consumers to the fact that there are separate QualiSave stores where the advertised deals are not available," said the ARB.
