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We’ve probably all suspected it happened, but now there’s proof. Supermarkets lead us to believe that their house brand products are exclusive to their stores, but now glitches in the system have shown that they’re all really the exact same product with different labels. So we’re often paying more for the identical item.

A few incidents over the last few weeks have left consumers scratching their heads with confusion as supermarket’s secrets have inadvertently been revealed.

It’s The Same Juice…Different Label

A customer shopping at Coles recently discovered Woolworths-branded fruit juice displayed on the shelves at her local Coles supermarket.

Luci Anne, from Port Lincoln, shared her odd find in a TikTok video, showing images of the 2-litre bottles of $2 Woolworths’ Multivitamin Juice stacked right next to the Coles-brand of the same product, which is also sold for $2.

“Even Coles knows Woolworths is superior,” she commented on the video.

Luci then followed up with a second video showing how she tried to purchase the item but when she tried to scan the juice at a self-checkout, an “item not found” message was displayed.

 

woolworths and coles juice
Same same…but different! Pic Via: TikTok

Something Went Wrong!

Viewers were quite amused by Luci’s video, which has attracted over 72,000 likes and more than one thousand comments.

“There’s a glitch in the matrix,” one commenter said.

Same Factory! Same Product!

Many were convinced that the discovery was proof that supermarkets displayed pretty much the same products with different labels.

“Aldis, Coles, Woolies & Drakes all use similar products. I worked in a food factor and legit same product different label to different store,” one person said.

“Because it comes from the same factory. That juice is the same as some of the more expensive ones.”

“I work at Woolies and sometimes we get other store’s shipments. We have gotten stuff for IGA once (like Black and Gold brand),” shared another.

Is This A Prank?

Luci spoke to news.com.au saying:
“The young dude that helped me at the self-service said, ‘Surely someone is pranking us,’ and then showed his co worker and they had a laugh about it,” Luci said.

“I told them there was a whole box on the shelf he went to got it off and I got my bottle of juice for free,” she added.

Coles Said They Had No Idea How It Happened

Coles told news.com.au that they were investigating the incident:
“All cartons are scanned at different points throughout our supply chain and we’ll be following this up with our supplier and Distribution Centre today to find out how this product ended up on our shelves.”

It Happened At Aldi Too

This is not the first incident of confused product identities. A few weeks ago, a Queensland shopper reported that she found Woolworths-branded frankfurts in the fridge section of Aldi.

The Aldi version of the product is priced at $2.39, while the Woolworths housebrand cocktail frankfurts sell for $2.50.

aldi-frankfurters
Pic Via Facebook

It’s A Scam!

The customer shared the photo of the Cocktail sausages on the Aldi Mums Facebook group and shoppers were convinced that this was proof that they were being ripped off.

“This just proves they use same suppliers and with the look-a-like packaging as printers for different brands can use same ink,” one shopper said.

“Yep, shows people how the same product is just rebranded and priced differently according to each individual company,” another declared.

“It all comes from the same factories, just get labelled differently for different stores. Same as breads from Tip Top they still put it in an Aldi bag,” said another.

Are you surprised about these discoveries? Do you feel ripped off by the supermarkets? Tell us in the comments below.

  • I feel like this article is going to create hassle and mistreatment of the staff at the supermarkets. I hate it when the word “scam” is used, bit fear mongering in my opinion.

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  • Always suspected it.

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  • Supermarkets have been ripping off people for year’s . What gets me is when the banana plantation in Queensland got half destroyed a few years ago we were paying up to $26 kg but we would export them to new Zealand for $3.00 per kg we pay Heaps for our meat here in Australia but export it heaps cheaper it’s ridiculous


    • I think this is fairly common knowledge just maybe cheaper ingredients used for the more home brand labels.

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  • I’ve always said that name brands are often no different so it’s no surprise.

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  • Im not sure if i believe this really happened. Seems crazy


    • Yeah I agree



      • It would have happened. Years ago I worked at Kmart and we received Target branded items a few times but thankfully our staff were on the ball and noticed before they put it on display. A lot of items are produced in the same factory with identical ingredients/recipes and then just branded according to whatever store it’s for.

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  • No surprises here to be honest.

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  • It doesnt surprise me at all.

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  • No surprise!

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  • quel surprise-NOT!

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  • Same with Perino tomatoes that are pricey in Coles, same product in Aldi for half the price. Think this has been going on a long time

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  • Wow,love this article I wish mouth of mums would do more articles like this to show every generation of the mistakes that can be made. Shopping,display service that can be misleading.

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  • Of course they come from the same factory, I don’t know how people are so shocked about that.
    Coles and Woolies buy it from them and then can sell them for whatever they please.
    Obviously the boxes of stock got mixed up but how the staff didn’t pick up on that blows my mind.
    Everything that goes into that store needs to be checked and signed off. So there would be lots of people slacking off on their job to not pick up on that.

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  • I feel like that’s been common knowledge for years. Same with homeland, most of the time it’s just left over from the branded foods.
    You can’t feel ripped off when you know it’s happening, the supermarkets have to make money somehow. Having been a checkout chick I would encourage people to not take any anger about this out on the checkout workers (it happens all the time).

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  • Im not surprised i thought this was the fact with most products anyway

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  • not really surprised

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  • Lol, that’s too funny 🙂 Some items may be the same, some are definitely different.
    Different supermarkets have different pricing, that’s not a rip off

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  • I’m not surprised. It’s marketing at the end of the day

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  • My husband keeps insisting that the milk is the same at both coles and Woolworths. I disagree, I can taste a difference one is creamier than the other and I prefer one store brand over another.
    But I do agree that there aren’t factories that produce things specifically for one of the big companies… in this instance juice. There isn’t a juice factory specifically for each supermarket just as there won’t be a sausage facility etc

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  • I am not surprised! Had thoughts this might be the case. Thus just confirms it

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  • I have noticed a few items similar but not many.

    Reply

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