Consumer groups are pushing for larger prints on unit prices of grocery items for shoppers to benefit the most from comparative unit prices that supermarkets post based on a common weight, volume or number.

The advocates recommended to a federal Treasury review for bigger numbers and letters, better colours and positioning of the unit prices which retailers started to use in 2009 to help consumers compare grocery items due to the different weights and volumes of goods sold in supermarkets.

The unit pricing system required the prominent display of the information near the retail price.

Ian Jarratt, spokesman of the Queensland Consumer Association, cited as an example of bad unit price printouts an Aldi store in Brisbane because the display was partially or wholly covered by other signs. Aldi insisted it was a printing error which the retailer is addressing. The store, the first in Australia to voluntarily put in place the unit pricing display years before the federal government mandated its use, said what Mr Jarratt cited was an isolated incident.

Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths insisted that their shoppers are comfortable with the manner the two retailers operate their unit pricing display system.

Mr Jarratt cited other examples of poor unit pricing display such as when the printout is at the bottom of the price tag away from the retail price and small prints on tickets that advertise specials at a Coles stores, unit prices of frozen chicken was given in grammes while a similar product beside the item displayed kilogramme price and pricing of bottled mineral water at Woolies at 100 millilitres besides another brand with a per litre unit price.

Coles said it received only 15 unit pricing complaints throughout all its outlets in Australia in 2011 and none were about the legibility of the printed display.

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