Putting New World’s Massive 5% Student Discount to the Test

Words by Ethan Manera (he/him) and Maia Ingoe (she/her) 

If you get the feeling you're being fleeced at the self-checkout, you're not mistaken: the price of food has increased a fat 8.9% over the past year. The cost of living crisis has financially crippled Aotearoa and students are feeling the squeeze. But there seems to be a glimmer of hope on the financially chequered horizon: New World Metro. 

The multi-billion dollar supermarket giant Foodstuffs—who own New World, Pak’nSave, Four Square, and Liquorland—are standing up for the little guy, offering us struggling students a generous 5% discount off kai, (at their Willis Street store on Sundays). Hallelujah. 

Salient wanted to put this to the test and see if this saving really stacks up against a more affordable competitor. We did two identical shops from New World Metro and Countdown Cable Car Lane, buying some student basics to investigate whether this 5% saving can heal our bruised bank accounts.

VUW even endorsed the promotion, sharing the New World Student Sundays promotion on its instagram account, a small gesture of support to students doing it tough. A top comment on the post read, “YIPPIE 5% WOOOOO HOOOOOO”. 

While they didn’t get paid for the promo, Academic Deputy Vice-Chancellor Stuart Brock said “the university is committed to providing as much support and as many types of support for its students as it can”.  

To make the comparison fair, we purchased an identical list of goods from each supermarket, opting for the cheapest option available and buying the same brands where possible. Our list was made up of the following ten items: a five-pack of Indomie noodles, oat milk, pasta sauce, U by Kotex pads, three cans of baked beans, frozen fries, frozen vege, a block of tasty cheese, a hot rotisserie chicken, and as a necessary sweet treat: a Blue V.

At New World, our total shop racked up a whopping $63.00. After calculating the 5% discount, the price marginally reduced to $59.85—an insignificant but welcome reduction.

At Countdown, the same selection of ten items (give or take a change in oat milk brand) took $58.90 out of our bank account. 

Overall, the New World discount didn’t actually save us anything, and it actually cost us a marginal 95 cents more than Countdown. 

We approached Foodstuffs for comment, who were not keen to respond without seeing our receipts, saying “we’ve been unable to verify the accuracy of The Salient’s shop as they’ve declined to share any details with us”. The spokesperson said their 5% Student Sundays were well received “The feedback has been positive, and the discount was well used on the first day it was available.” They added that Foodstuffs was “doing everything we can to keep prices low”. 

This year, the Commerce Commission found that major supermarkets make more than $1 million in excess profit daily. Foodstuffs made $52 million in profit in the 2023 financial year.