Price Disclaimer
KAI-ching is a free, independent New Zealand grocery price-comparison tool at kaiching.co.nz. This page explains where our prices come from, their limits, and how our price-history features work, so you know exactly how much to trust the numbers.
- Prices come from each supermarket's own website, not in-store, and can be out of date.
- Price-history features ("lowest in N weeks") only appear once we've built up enough real weekly scans, so most products won't show them yet.
- Always check the price at checkout before you buy, it's the only number that's guaranteed accurate.
Where our prices come from
We scan Woolworths, Pak'nSave and New World's own websites on a regular schedule (roughly weekly). We don't have any special relationship with these supermarkets, we're simply reading the same prices they publish online. That means our prices can lag behind manager's specials, regional pricing differences, and in-store-only promotions, and may not always match what you see at the checkout.
Our prices are Auckland prices. Pak'nSave and New World stores are individually owned and set their own prices, and their websites show prices for a chosen store — ours come from Auckland stores. If you shop elsewhere in New Zealand, your local prices (especially at Pak'nSave and New World) may differ from what we show. Regional price support is on our roadmap.
Loyalty cards and multibuys
Comparisons use the standard shelf price — the price everyone pays without a loyalty card. Where we've captured a member price (for example Woolworths Everyday Rewards), we show it as a separate "w/ Rewards" note on the product, but it doesn't change which store we call cheapest. New World and Pak'nSave club or card deals may not be captured at all, and multibuy offers ("2 for $6") aren't compared yet. If you're a heavy loyalty-card or multibuy shopper, your real totals may differ from ours.
Price history and "buy now or wait"
Working out whether something is a genuine deal or worth waiting on needs prices tracked over many weeks. Because we're a new tool, we're still building that history from real weekly scans. We only show price-history signals (like "lowest in N weeks" or a price trend) once a product has enough genuinely recorded weeks to mean something — so for now most products won't show one at all. We'd rather show nothing than a number we can't stand behind. Everything you see is built from real scans; we don't fill gaps with estimated or simulated prices.
"Real deal" vs "fake special"
Some retailers mark items as "on special" against an inflated "was" price that isn't a genuine everyday price. Right now we flag a "Fake special" only from verifiable, same-scan evidence — for example, when one store's "special" is still dearer than another store's regular price for the same product. As we accumulate more real weekly history, we'll also compare a special against a product's own genuine recent prices. We base these flags on prices we've actually recorded, never on the retailer's own tag alone.
Not affiliated
KAI-ching is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Woolworths, Pak'nSave, New World, or Foodstuffs. Product names, images and prices belong to their respective retailers and are shown for comparison purposes.
Contact
Spotted a price that looks wrong? Let us know: hello@kaiching.co.nz.