Pak'nSave
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| Type | Private subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Headquarters | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Number of locations | 48 (December 2011) |
| Parent | Foodstuffs |
| Website | www.paknsave.co.nz |
Pak'n Save is a New Zealand discount food warehouse chain owned by the Foodstuffs cooperative.
Founded in 1985, Pak'n Save was the last of the three major New Zealand supermarkets (Countdown, New World, and Pak'n Save) to be founded. As of December 2011, there are 48 Pak'n Save stores operating across the North and South Islands of New Zealand.
Pak'n Save's key policy is to provide everyday food and groceries at low prices. Stores are large and have a no-frills environment, often with unlined interiors and concrete floors. Customers are also asked to pack their own bags, and charged for plastic bags in most stores.
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[edit] History
Pak'n Save was developed as a result of a trip by a number of Foodstuffs executives to the United States in 1985. On that visit they saw Cub Foods, operated by SuperValu, Pak'n Save operated by Safeway, and a number of other box warehouse supermarkets. Foodstuffs then copied this format in the New Zealand market. The original Pak'n Save format was almost an identical clone of Safeway's Pak 'N' Save chain in Northern California.
The first Pak'n Save opened in 1985, at Kaitaia in the North Island, and the South Island in 1988 at Invercargill.[citation needed] The biggest Pak'n Save is Lincoln North Pak'n Save in Auckland, which opened in 2004.[citation needed] Stores were opened in the Auckland suburb Mt Wellington in early August 2006 in the new Sylvia Park shopping mall, and on 5 December 2006 in Hawera.
[edit] Operations
As of December 2011, there are 48 Pak'n Save stores across the North and South Islands of New Zealand. Stores are often located in suburban areas, and are usually open until at least 10 pm (although some notable exceptions include Pukekohe, which closes at 8 pm).
The name probably originates from the cost-saving practice of requiring that customers pack their own groceries. Pak'n Save provides the cardboard boxes used for shipping products to the store, or plastic supermarket bags can be purchased at the checkout for 10 cents at North Island stores. South Island stores charge customers 5 cents per plastic bag. Customers are encouraged to purchase longer-lasting bags or to bring their own.
The stores are laid out as supermarket aisles, but with minimalistic design. Extra products that are not on shelves are stacked above the shelves on the pallets they were delivered in. This means that the floor space can be used for retail and storage. The stores are supplied daily from their co-operative distributor Foodstuffs.
Pak'n Save stores often buys stock in bulk. This process means that stores don't offer a wide variety of products as full-service supermarkets - a 2009 Consumer magazine survey noticed this especially in the pet food and toilet paper categories.[1]
Some stores have self scanning facilities, where the customer scans each item as they put it in their trolley. This reduces waiting time at the checkout, as payment is the only thing that occurs (apart from random re-scans). Conventional checkout operator scanning is also available.
[edit] Competition
Pak'n Save's main competitor is Countdown, owned by Woolworths Limited. The brand also faces some internal competition from Foodstuffs' full-service supermarket, New World.
In the annual Consumer magazine survey of supermarket prices, Pak'nSave has been named the country's cheapest supermarket in all nine surveys since the current survey methodology was adopted in 2003, although not necessarily in all regions. The latest survey in 2011, which was based on the purchase of forty common items including bread, milk, biscuits, tinned foods and cleaning products, had a Pak'n Save in northern Christchurch on $126, ahead of nearby New World and Countdown supermarkets on $135 and $136 respectively.[2] The survey was taken with 28 products specifying a specific brand and pack size and 12 products just the pack size with surveyors going for the cheapest. The survey excluded meat and produce due to quality comparison issues, and alcohol due to regional variability, local licensing rules and heavy discounting practices.
Pak'nSave also came out the cheapest supermarkets in the 2001 and 2002 Consumer magazine surveys. These surveys were paper surveys where prices on 140 items were recorded by surveyors visiting the supermarket and recording the shelf prices. However, the method was prone to supermarkets cheating by temporarily marking down shelf prices while the surveyor was in store, and the method was scrapped in 2003 after the Dunedin Pak'nSave was caught in the act.[3] Since then, the survey is conducted on only forty items, purchased by undercover surveyors through the checkout and the prices taken from the till receipt, with the food purchased donated to local food banks.
[edit] Marketing
Pak'nSave is well known for its "cut price" television and print adverts utilising a stick figure, nicknamed "Stickman". In 2011, the Stickman adverts were one of the the finalists for Best Ad in the annual Fair Go Ad Awards, but ultimately lost by landslide to the New Zealand Lotteries Commission's "Wilson the Dog" adverts.[4]
[edit] Loyalty schemes
[edit] Fuel discounts
Pak'n Save offers fuel discounts to shoppers for spending a qualifying amount on shopping. Pak'n Save stores with on-site Pak'n Save Fuel filling stations offer vouchers to use at these stations. The Pak'n Save Fuel vouchers are unique in that they can only be used at the fuel site associated with the store of purchase, whereas all other New Zealand supermarkets' fuel discount vouchers operate at any participating station across the country. Stores without on-site Pak'n Save Fuel filling stations offer vouchers for use at BP service stations.
[edit] References
- ^ "Where to find the cheapest groceries". nzherald.co.nz. 2009-09-11. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10596570. Retrieved 2009-12-17.
- ^ "Pak 'n Save takes cheapest title". The Press. 3 June 2011. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/5097263/Pak-n-Save-takes-cheapest-title. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
- ^ Dearnaley, Matthew (5 September 2003). "Grocers scramble after 'skulduggery' in survey". The New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3521874. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
- ^ "Fair Go ad awards - 26 October". Television New Zealand. 26 October 2011. http://tvnz.co.nz/fair-go/ad-awards-26-october-4484728. Retrieved 23 February 2012.
