Stores fear repricing nightmare

Retailers say changing the price tags of tens of thousands of products overnight to reflect a rise in GST will be a logistical nightmare.

One is picking the task could cost it hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Government has indicated that it will probably raise GST from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent in the May Budget, with the change expected to take effect from October 1.

Penny Newbigin, spokeswoman for supermarket operator Progressive, said changing price tags on shelves in its 150-odd stores would be a major project.

"When we set up a new store it takes eight people working fulltime [for] two weeks to do all the physical pricing for every item in store and we've got to multiply that by 150 stores and change it overnight. We won't have the luxury of two weeks."

Progressive was grappling with how it might handle the change. It could phase in the new prices and have old pricing and new pricing on shelves at the same time, but that could be confusing for customers.

"We will have to consider the business implications and how much customer engagement will be needed as a result."

The pricing changes would probably cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, she said.

The Warehouse chief information officer Owen McCall said it would be a big ask if it had to change the pricing of its 70,000-plus items in each of its 86 stores overnight, and its teams would be nutting out how best to handle that.

"Our systems could cope with that but I'm not sure our people could." Fairfax

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