Where the price data comes from
The prices you compare in the app do not come from anyone walking round the shops, and not from user reports. They come from information the chains are required by law to publish themselves.
What the law requires
The price transparency chapter of the Law for the Promotion of Competition in the Food and Pharma Sectors, 5774-2014, requires every large retailer, meaning a chain above the law's thresholds for number of shops and turnover, to publish online the prices of its products in each of its branches, and to keep that publication current. The declared aim was to make real price comparison possible and to give shoppers a stronger hand against the chains.
The law also says what has to be published: which shops the chain has, what each of them sells, what it costs, and which promotions are running there at the time. The result is a public record anyone can read, branch by branch.
What it means for you
Three things worth knowing:
- Prices are not a secret. You do not have to go round the shops to find out what costs what where.
- The comparison is per branch, because that is how the prices are published. A chain's national average is not charged at any till.
- The chain publishes; it does not promise real time. Consumer protection law requires the price to be marked on the product in the shop, and the price on the shelf is what you pay at the till.
Where the record stops
The publication covers chains, not every shop in Israel. A product without a standard barcode, such as vegetables weighed at the till, cannot always be compared item for item. And a new product can be on the shelf before it is in the publication.
Nor does the law cover everything a chain sells. It defines what counts as a product for this purpose and leaves out, among other things, perfume and cosmetics, electrical goods and textiles, books and toys. What is not published cannot be compared.
That is exactly why the app says "no price" rather than guessing.
Link
The chains' price sites, at the Consumer Protection and Fair Trade Authority
Common questions
Do all shops have to publish their prices?
Only a large retailer as the law defines one, by number of shops and by turnover. An independent corner shop is not covered, so it does not appear in the comparisons either.
Why is the price in the app sometimes out of date?
Because it comes from the branch's latest publication. A price changed in the shop but not yet published cannot show up here.
