An Auckland-based Pak'nSave branch is facing 12 charges of alleged discrepancies between the promotional price displayed or advertised and the price charged at the till.
The Commerce Commission alleges that on six dates during June and October 2018, Kennedy’s Foodcentre (2003) Limited, which is trading as Pak'nSave Mangere, charged a higher price at the checkout for at least one item compared to the promotional price displayed or advertised on its website or at the supermarket shelf.
According to the commission, promotional pricing was advertised on the supermarket's Mangere-specific webpage, or on price tickets and signs in-store.
Commssion staff carried out mystery shops to check advertised prices against those charged at the till.
They alleged to find price discrepancies and raised them with customer service staff at the Pak'nSave store.
However, when commission staff returned the next day and re-purchased the products for which they had identified price discrepancies, to check whether the price discrepancies were still occurring, it is alleged that in some instances the discrepancies were still occurring.
Pak'nSave Mangere owner operator Michael Kennedy said told 1 NEWS he and his staff took pricing and getting it right "extremely seriously".
"As soon as we were aware, immediate steps were taken to minimise the chance of this happening again, including additional training in-store. We try not to make mistakes, but if we do, we always work to correct them."
Pak'nSave is owned by Foodstuffs, which licenses the operation of supermarkets through a franchise arrangement in which each store is individually owned and operated. Pak'n'Save Mangere is owned and operated by Kennedy’s Foodcentre (2003) Limited.
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