Coles Targets Women, Pays GST on Feminine Hygiene Products
Posted by Amber Robinson at 11:37 AM on July 7, 2009
It’s not often that supermarkets tempt shoppers with cheap tampons. Yet that’s exactly what supermarket giant Coles has done with week-long special on the price of all feminine hygiene products bought in stores.
What is clever about the discount is that they are just taking of the GST, i.e. the “luxury” tax imposed by the government on many consumer goods under John Howard. Because we all know that having your period is a total indulgence, right?
Hopefully the campaign will bring the issue of sexist taxes to the table again. If you want to stock up on those expensive matenity pads be quick, the sale ends tomorrow.
[Via The Dawn Chorus]
I think it’s very canny marketing on Coles’ behalf. It got my attention.
I remember being livid to hear tampons etc being described as a ‘luxury’ when the GST was first introduced. I still cant think of a single other example of such a blatantly discriminatory application of a tax.
There is a way around it of course: Import a menstrual cup from overseas, don’t pay any tax on it, and never buy another tampon again!
Hi there, just wanted to clarify, this is not a one week promotion, it’s an ongoing commitment in our stores on all these products. Regards, Jim Cooper, Coles.
It is just clever marketing by Coles advertising agency. The price that is paid for the tampons still includes 10 per cent GST that is passed on to the consumer. Every seller who supposely gives you a 10 per cent discount whether a real discount or not could say the same thing. Their marketing is false. You should be able to go into the store and say the price they want to charge you has to be reduced by a further ten percent. That would eat into their profit and they would not do it because they still have to send one eleventh of the price (the GST component) to the taxman.
You shouldn’t be taxed for being a woman? How is this equal rights? You should be taxed for being a man? This is OUTRAGEOUS. Coles has sunk to a new level of sexism. How come I have to pay GST on male hygiene products? I am going to take a stand and demand some equal rights.
But of course my point of view will be discriminated against and probably not even posted.
And what are your mail hygiene needs?
Great advertising but our Coles supermarket didn’t come through with the promise. I was charged not once but twice G.S.T on sanitary products on two occasions this week.
Shavers, shaving cream, deoderant. But that is not what I am saying. All hygiene products should be GST Free, not just the female ones. Why do women get special priviliges and men are looked over again.
On the whole I think this campaign is incoherently sexist.
Women wear deoderant and use shavers too… I don’t think these items are GST exempt for them.
It’s ridiculous. Why on earth do we whinge about paying a few cents extra for the vast quantity and choice of sanitary products we can buy, when some women in other parts of the world don’t have access to any and would gladly pay to be able to access what we pampered westerners take for granted?
This is really just a ploy to get women to shop at Coles, framed in a very catchy and indeed skin-deep (women’s liberation, feminism etc) way.
Why not cut taxes for immigrants, for gay shoppers or for Aboriginals? Probably because there are no goods sold in Coles stores specific to them, or which cannot for the world be advertised without opening some deep societal wound?
Why is this becoming such an issue only now, many decades after the first waves of feminism, and during the midst of a Global Financial Crisis?
I’m far too cynical as you can see! I should have more faith in our ‘fresh-food people’ supermarket monopolies. After all, they only have our mothers’, daughters’, wives’ interests in mind.
It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with drawing business away from the competition.
By the very nature of its marketing campaign it is about giving a certain demographic privileges. Not only is it enough for many marketing campaigns to make men look and act like buffoons, now we are being disadvantaged! Men – boycott Coles and shop elsewhere
How come ice isn’t GST for inuits?
How come sugar isn’t GST for diabetics?
How come food isn’t GST free for the homeless?
There are a lot more issues that need addressing rather than women and their hygiene. Coles is missing the bigger picture here, and until Coles addresses this problem I will also boycott Coles.
It is only a 9% discount. (1/11th = 0.09090909). Am sure you would save much more at Aldi, Franklins, etc, especially if you buy half a trolley of stuff. And especially as you are not paying for their fuel “discount” and flight schemes.
0.09090909 rounds up to 9.1%, its all in that extra .1 dude
Please, get off your moralistic high horses, Coles is just trying to address an issue that affects half the population, they aren’t trying to save the world, just make a small difference to an unfair system. If you are so concerned, lobby the government, but don’t boycott Coles you idiots!
If I was Coles I’d just bump up my prices (feminine hygiene) then take the percent off. Many of the women would be taken in by the marketing and wouldn’t check. Then I’d bump up the other womens targeted (makup, creams, etc) products to make more money. They are already getting plenty of free advertising via women with this campaign. Women always go for the emotional marketing so why not take full advantage?