(RELAXED LOUNGE MUSIC) www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2023 - Tonight, the Fair Go's basket of groceries returns ` we're back checking prices at each of the three big supermarkets. - KAITLIN: Obviously, we're expecting to pay more at the checkouts today than two years ago, but by how much, do people reckon? - A lot. - You're going to have to look around to find anything cheaper nowadays. - And are you putting the right items in your recycle bin? - I always thought I was pretty switched-on when it came to recycling, and then discovered just the other day that some items I've been putting in the recycling bin are not in fact recyclable. - Plus ` their contractor fled, leaving their driveway in disarray ` but then they got a surprise call. - Sort of restoring my faith in people. - (LAUGHS) - But we wanted to do it because... cos of the Tongan community. - Tena koutou katoa ` welcome to the show. Well, New Zealanders have voted, the campaign is over, and one thing we can all agree on is the cost of living dominated this election. - And with that in mind, we decided it was time to check the prices of Fair Go's basket of groceries, which we have been tracking since 2021. - Mm-hm. Yes, while the politicians battled to secure their final votes, Kaitlin pulled out our shopping list and hit the shops to find out what's changed since two years ago. (UPBEAT POP MUSIC) - Mmm. - KAITLIN: We've made it to the end of the campaign trail... - Here we go. - ...where food is no longer free. - What can I buy for $4.15? A couple of protein bars, a lot of rice. - I like bargain-hunting at Pak'nSave, yeah. - 500g of cheese` that's 11 bucks. - Yeah. - But just how expensive have things become? Not in months, but in years... two years, to be exact. Garth's been checking the prices on common grocery items throughout 2021, 2022, and 2023. - As you'd expect, we're paying more for the basics and those little extras. - He looks a bit busy working on another story ` that's still to come on the show, so I'm subbing in to do the latest shop at our major supermarkets. A different face, but the method is the same ` always on a Wednesday at the same locations in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland, buying the same staples and indulgences ` a bit of dairy, protein, carbs, rounding out the food triangle with some sugar, and better feed the washing machine too. Obviously, we're expecting to pay more at the checkouts today than two years ago, but by how much, do people reckon? Eh... - A lot. Like, it depends where you go. I used to shop at Countdown most of the time, but, like, I've noticed the prices have significantly gone up. - I don't know anything, like, about math, but all I know is... I can't get more snacks any more, so... so that sucks. - Yeah, it's been so hard for us to buy. Especially as he's a teenager. - There's nothing cheap. You're going to have to look around to find anything cheaper nowadays. - Let's go back to that time in 2021, when Auckland was still in a Level 3 lockdown. Neither Chris was primed to be minister, and I was a brunette. Should never have cut it. Grocery food prices are 19.3% higher than they were in September two years ago. And while our basket is different to the official one used for measuring food inflation, we definitely saw it in our latest supermarket shop. What would our 2021 selves think of that? - Hi. - Hi. This must be a surprise. - Are you... - You. Yeah. October 2023. - Huh. What happened to your hair? Never mind. Uh` do you want some lunch? - You might want to make that stretch for another meal. - Why? It's really good. Cheese, bacon... - Yeah... about those fillings. When we shopped for cheese in September 2021, the average price across supermarkets in our basket on that day was $13. In October 2023, it was nearly 16. (CASH REGISTER CLICKS) Bacon was $6, but on our latest shop, it was nearly $2 more, and bread was up 27% to $3.69. - At least have some chocolate, anyway. - Are you sure you want to share? On the day we bought it in October, a standard block of Cadbury was around $4 on average. It was 3 bucks when we did a shop in 2021. How are your laundry supplies? - Fine. Cost me about six and a half bucks. - Cost me just over eight today. All of those product prices are affected by whatever special was on that day, so it's just a snapshot, rather than a price tracked over time. But it's what many of you have been telling us ` like buying cheese... - Heaps more expensive, yeah. We, like, used to buy Mainland, and now we're buying the cheapest one because it's not $18 or something for a block. (CHUCKLES) - Ooh... like, $10? (LAUGHS) A lot. - ...chocolate... - I think the cakes have got smaller and they've kept the prices the same. - ...and laundry powder. - Yeah, it's definitely more expensive. And wool wash and things ` you sort of measure it a lot more than what you used to. - Now, when we put everything on our list into a basket, here's how they compared two years apart. When we shopped at Countdown in September 2021, our basket total came to $63.50. This month's shop was $72. Pak'nSave was 58.49 ` two years on, 69.72, an increase of 19%. And both times, our most expensive shop was at New World ` $69 compared to $79. And although food cost increases have slowed in recent months, this economist points out prices are still well above general inflation. - Food price inflation is up 15% to 20% in the past couple of years. We're seeing within the consumer price index, the food price index, and we're seeing within your basket that you've measured compared to two years ago. - Any bets on what a basket could cost in 2025? - Well, we certainly hope that inflation is going to be under control in the next two years. The problem is what we've got at the moment is a whole complex web of challenges that suggest that inflation is going to be a lot more sticky than what we've been used to. So getting it down from 6% to 2%, or food inflation from 9% to 10%, down to 2%, it looks like it's going to be a really tough job to achieve. - So will Saturday's result make a difference? - What we're seeing from both the political parties is a little bit more what I call gimmick, as opposed to real substance. You know, one wants to take GST off fruit and vegetables; you've got the other main political party wants to put more money into people's pockets in the form of tax relief ` well, that's just going to add to more expenditure and inflation. - Cameron says another option is for them to step back and let the Reserve Bank do its job. - Pretty brutal way to get rid of inflation, and the brutal way is to take interest rates up. You know, interest rates going up actually encourages us to spend less. - Or make parts of our economy work harder, including supermarkets. - The more competitive forces we see out there, the more we tend to see the inability of firms to pass on price increases willy-nilly to the general consumer. - But the major players say they're already working to keep prices down. Countdown, which saw the smallest basket cost increase of the three supermarkets, says it knows times are tough. - It's pleasing to see that our absolute focus on value and partnering with our suppliers has had a positive impact on our result in this basket comparison. As we head into Christmas in 2024, our focus continues to be on delivering value for our customers and keeping food and groceries as affordable as possible. - While Foodstuffs, which owns Pak'nSave and New World, told us it's fighting inflation by buying well and finding efficiencies in its business. - We're proud to have kept Foodstuffs prices below Stats NZ's food price index for 17 months in a row now. - Our advice to New Zealanders is to shop the specials and seasonally to get the best bang for their buck. - Because it all adds up. - Hey. You need it more than I do. - Bought a bag of grapes yesterday` - Ooh! - $12. - Grapes. Can't be buying grapes. - The kids'll be having, like, one each, and that will be it, and they'll be going away in the family heirlooms. - (LAUGHS) - $12. Pumpkin ` $12. That's just` Oh. Anyway. Sorry. I could be here forever. - The positive from that story is that we've cloned Kaity` - Yes! - ...and I think the world is a better place for it. All right, e haere ake nei ` coming up ` recycling. Are you doing it right? - Polystyrene ` that stuff's not so good. Shouldn't be in there. Anything that is soft plastics, carpet, anything textile shouldn't be in there. Chips packet, you know, chocolate wrappers... food, obviously. Appliances, clothing, hose, metal... - Soccer ball. - Soccer ball. - No? - Absolutely not. - And the champs who stepped in to fix the mess a fleeing contractor left behind. - They did a really good job, so... really, really happy. - Kia ora. Nau mai, hoki mai ` welcome back. Now, recycling ` I think most of us agree it is absolutely worth doing, so when we're done using these, they can be made into something that can be used all over again. - Can I have the talking bottle? Thank you. But sadly, there's still way too much recycling going to landfill, and too much waste going to recycling plants that shouldn't be. - Mm. So, this Recycling Week, I went to the source to find out how we can make sure everything's going where it should. (RELAXED ELECTRIC GUITAR MUSIC) At this recycling facility in Auckland's Onehunga, close to a quarter of what's trucked in has to be trucked right back out to landfill. - A lot of people want to remove their guilt of putting things into landfill by putting in their recycling bin and hoping, wishing that it gets recycled. Unfortunately, it doesn't. - It just sort of becomes someone else's problem. - It becomes someone else's problem. - For 500,000 Tamaki Makaurau households, this is where your recycling comes to live another day ` 1000 truckloads each week full of recycling ` well, not that... or that. - Polystyrene ` that stuff's not so good. Shouldn't be in there. Anything that is soft plastics, carpet, anything textile shouldn't be in there. Chips packet, you know, chocolate wrappers... food, obviously. Appliances, clothing, hose, metal... Unfortunately, this site does receive things like dead animals, or green waste ` the garden stuff that they can't process if there isn't an outlet for it. - Across Aotearoa, recycling facilities are dealing with similar contamination problems. Most of what goes to landfill from this Auckland plant is just simply materials that can't be processed here. A small amount ` less than 2% ` could be recycled, but is too contaminated. - You can see a whole lot of food contamination over there. - Yeah. - There's recyclables within that ` you know, you've got your Coke bottles, your milk bottles, but all that food is just devaluing the product to the point that it is not recycled. - So we're sending stuff to recycling we shouldn't, and no surprises, we're sending a lot to landfill that shouldn't be there either. Each year across the motu, 12.6 million tons of waste goes to landfill, but around 30% of that ` close to 4 million tons ` could have been recycled. Rate your recycling skills and knowledge. - Fairly basic. - If we get takeaways, then I'll just reuse the Tupperware instead of buying new ones. - When it comes to this plastic bit, we haven't been putting it in the recycle bin. It goes with the rubbish. - Oh, OK. And why is that? - Well, I'm never quite sure whether they` which part of the plastic system they're in. - Yes, to be fair, it's not always straightforward, so we put a few common items to the test ` kerbside recycling bin or rubbish bin? - If it's dirty ` no, landfill. And if it's like, clean, if you wash it, recycling. - Well, this is obviously here. Uh, what is that? Either. I would put it here. - Put it here? - Yeah. - Yeah. - Probably not. - These two are the tricky ones. - Oh, OK. - They're actually both over here. - Oh, really? - Yeah. - So, a meat tray. - Yeah, I never know that, to be honest, because there's no` I put it in the recycling, but I'm not sure. - Well, you're right ` this would be great in the recycling. Well, given what we know about the amount of contamination going to our plants, there's no surprises that no one got it all right. So, I always thought I was pretty switched-on with the old recycling, and then discovered just the other day that these items ` this cream cheese, this cottage cheese ` this one even says 'please recycle' on it ` can't actually go in the recycling bin. They're made out of plastic number 6, and like these little yoghurt pottles, they'll need to go in landfill. This plastic is one of the types due to be phased out by mid 2025. Goodman Fielder and Fonterra both say they're working on transitioning to recyclable options. In short, in most places you can recycle cardboard and paper, as well as glass bottles and jars, cans and tins, and plastics with numbers 1, 2 and 5. You do need pretty good eyesight to see some of the numbers, though ` no, that's definitely a one ` and your recycling needs to be clean and bigger than a Post-it note. Do that, and you'll make the job of these people a lot easier. In fact, we were curious about what messages those at the recycling coalface really wanted to get out there, and this is what they had to say. - Soft plastics are not recyclable through our kerbside collections, and no batteries in recycling, or landfill, for that matter. - Remove lids from everything and rinse all bottles and containers. - I'm sensing a theme here. The good news is, you can recycle soft plastics and a raft of other things like clothing or e-waste, or even Tetra Paks ` just not in here. As far as recycling goes, there's a whole lot more we can do, like being really mindful when we consume. - When it comes to these materials, what we need to be thinking is about the circular economy. We need to be thinking about materials that can be kept in circulation and becoming themselves again. So, the likes of the glass, aluminium, you put it in your recycling bin and they turn into bottles and aluminium cans again. - While nailing your recycling will definitely get you a gold star, remember, recycling itself is not the gold standard for our waste problem. - Before you recycle, you should avoid or reduce how much you consume of that material. You should refuse as much as you can and reuse what you can't refuse or avoid, and then you recycle. So recycling is that fourth thing you should do. - Oh, I feel a bit guilty. - There's a lot to take in. - Yeah. - You shouldn't feel guilty, but just` you know, everyone can step up their act a little bit, right? As far as the plastics are concerned, 1, 2 and 5 ` those are the numbers to remember. Those are the ones we can recycle. - Sour cream, and those kids' yoghurt pottles, which I occasionally like, they've been going in the recycling in the Jones household, so we've got to flick them over to the rubbish. Doesn't make you feel good ` I'm sorry to all the people who've had to sort through` I never thought there were people sorting through other people's` It's our mistakes they're trying to fix. - That's right. - I'm sorry. - But those are going to be fixed soon, hopefully, so that's good. - Yes. - Look, your local council will have heaps of information on what you can recycle and we have put some Recycling Week links up on to our Facebook page, including where you can take other things to be recycled. - Speaking of recycling, we're back in just a tick, where spirits are high as some locals step up to remedy the mess a contractor left behind. - I think we made the owner of this property happy, and when they're happy, we feel... we get our satisfaction from that. - Kia ora. Nau mai, hoki mai ` welcome back. Now, putting the story out there is one thing, but putting it right is what we love most on Fair Go. - Yes, but after we ran a story on a contractor who'd done a runner to Tonga with customers' money, we thought it was the last we'd hear from him. - We were right about that, but it's not quite the end of the story. Here's Garth with a great result and the guys who stepped up to deliver it. - GARTH: Cary is literally washing away the past. Someone did the dirty on him and wife Estelle over a driveway contract, but it's cleaning up well now, and the dogs are about to get a run at last. - I'm pleased Estelle went to you guys from Fair Go, and we've come up with a good result. - But this is the closest my sparkly-white sneakers have been to fresh concrete, so who's done the work ` and who didn't do it in the first place? Time for a quick recap. This was the state of the Clendons' place when we visited months ago ` dogs penned up, frustrations pent-up at a contractor who'd vanished with most of the money. - 21,000 of the, um... what, 26? I think I'm a good judge of character, but this time it failed me. - And it had been the same story for another customer who'd paid 6 grand for this. OK. Oh... Nice doorstop. - Yeah, quite a large doorstop, actually. - And nice deck (!) - Yeah. Lovely (!) It's a bit hard perching on the post having my cup of tea. - Ian Uhatahi, the man responsible, was long gone. We hunted high and low, south of Auckland ` only traces. Then we found him streaming on Facebook from back home in Tonga. Ian Uhatahi didn't return our messages. Our search for Ian has gone as far as it can. But back in Waiuku... - How are ya? - ...just as it seemed bleakest, someone stepped up. - Everybody was like, 'Oh, has it been resolved?' And I was like, 'No.' But a week or so after that, you got a call, we got a` Sam arriving here, and yeah, just so happy ` really happy that we could resolve this. - And the thing is, what's been done here, I think your boys have basically done in four days. - Yeah. - Four and a half days ` job done. You know? So that's fantastic. - Well, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel. - Semisi Tauataina ` Sam to some ` had an offer for the couple. - You pay for the, um... the materials, and then we'll do the rest. - When we do preparation and everything, and do the concrete, it's more than 5 grand to do that, from our pocket. - Eh?! - Roughly. But anyway... (CHUCKLES) - Sam called on another helper. - We're getting nothing out of this one, but` - Costing you, eh? - Yeah. So... - (CHUCKLES) - But we wanted to do it because... cos of the Tongan community. Got a digger out here and get the boys to come and prep this area out, and... lay and then, you know, finish it off today, so... I think we made the... the owner of this property happy, and when they're happy, we feel` You know, we get our satisfaction from that, so... - Sam says he knows someone who knows the contractor who ran away. He wanted to step in and fix this, not dwell on that guy, or on the past. - Nothing to say. It's only... - I think your work speaks for itself, Sam. - Anyway ` the job's done anyway. - I think your work speaks for itself. I don't think you have to say much, cos I think you've actually done something. - (LAUGHS) Mm. We look forward, you know, now. - Yeah. For the couple, it's a relief and a considerable saving. - We had to buy the materials again, but at least they did a really good job, so really, really happy. I think if you do the calculation, I don't think it's a lot more than what the total project would have cost. - What do you think of these guys? - Oh, just sort of restoring my faith in people. - Well done. And nice lot of concrete in the front. They've built something else here ` trust. - Thank you. - Nice to meet you. - Enjoy your driveway. - Everybody's back on a firmer footing, and some are even jumping for joy. - I feel funny in here. It might be indigestion from the $12 grapes` - Aww. - ...or maybe my heart is full from watching that. Great job, Garth. - Isn't it lovely? Sam and Peter, you are good people. - Brilliant. - As for Carmen, she had already found a solution for her deck ` here it is looking lovely with some very happy-looking animals. Lots of happy animals tonight. She was, however, very grateful for the offer from Sam. - Now, that's it for our stories for tonight, but tune in on our next show for all the top tips you need to know for your summer holiday. - ALISTAR: Put your windows up so your car glides through the air without resistance. When you stop, you can put them down. - Lucky it's not too hot today. - (YELPS) I definitely do not need all this. - Try not to carry unnecessary baggage in your car ` remember, more items means more drag, which means more gas. - Now, as someone who always forgets something on the summer holiday, that is a must-watch, and also included in that is some great tips on buying air mattresses` - Mm. - ...and most importantly, keeping them inflated, rather than deflated. Yes. Or slowly deflating through the night. - Oh, yeah. - Whoa. Right, that's it from us, but if you only caught part of the show, you can catch all of it, plus past episodes, and some handy consumer information on the Fair Go page on TVNZ+ whenever you want, because we are, of course, always here to help. - We're a bit self-involved, but really, our programme is all about you at home, your consumer aches and pains ` huge, teeny-tiny ` please get in touch. We are right here. - Yes, and do remember your phone number. We're on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. You can go to our webpage ` tvnz.co.nz email us ` fairgo@tvnz.co.nz and you are still very welcome to write to us ` PO Box 3819, Auckland 1140. - Thank you for watching. Now, that is it for me ` I'm off on a wee adventure overseas with my family, but I'm leaving you in this woman's capable hands, and she is amazing ` 54% of the time. - (LAUGHS) Thanks so much.