Coles customers have been hit with a price increase when shopping online, with its paper bags now costing 50 cents more than before. The flat 'paper bag fee' has gone up for the first time in more than seven years, rising from $1.50 to $2 on May 11, but shoppers were only notified when they reached the checkout page.
Once customers selected their items to purchase and clicked the 'checkout' button before the increase came into effect, the message 'we've increased our paper bag fee to $2 for online orders scheduled from Monday 11th May' appeared. The message has since disappeared.
The supermarket's paper bag fee remains at $2 regardless of how many bags are required for the order, matching Woolworths' fee. Customers are also able to go bagless on some delivery types.
A Coles spokesman told Daily Mail the store made the change after 'a recent review'. 'We regularly review our online shopping offer to ensure it continues to provide customers with a convenient and reliable service,' he said. Coles customers have been hit with a price increase for online shopping, with the supermarket's paper bag fee rising by 50 cents.
'As part of a recent review, we have updated the bagging fee for online orders from $1.50 to $2 per order, which is displayed at checkout before customers place their order.'
The price hike comes at a time when Coles Group's 2026 half-year financial results revealed there was a 27 per cent increase in online orders.
Coles has already been in the news in the past week, but for the wrong reasons, with the supermarket giant found to have misled shoppers with illusory discounts. Federal Court judge Michael O'Bryan's verdict was that it had deliberately disguised price hikes as discounts under its 'Down Down' price campaign.
'Thirteen of the 14 Down Down tickets that were the subject of consideration in the joint liability trial were misleading because the relevant products were not sold at the 'was' price stated on the ticket for a reasonable period,' he said. 'If the ordinary consumer were told that the product had been ordinarily sold by Coles at the "was" price for a period that was materially shorter than 12 weeks, the consumer would not believe that the 'Down Down' price was a genuine discount to the 'was' price. As a consequence, the discount represented on the tickets was not genuine.'
'Our priority has always been – and will continue to be – delivering value to our customers,' he said. 'The court found that all price increases resulted from supplier cost price increases and were, therefore, commercially justifiable. This case highlights the importance of clarity for both retailers and customers alike. And the need for clear, practical guidance on minimum price establishment periods to ensure the retail industry can avoid unnecessary litigation in future.'
