Coles, Woolies, Kogan and more: Choice’s 2023 Shonky Awards winners unveiled

Supermarket giants cashing in during a cost of living crisis, underperforming personal alarms, an expensive subscription trap and rental platforms demanding excessive data have been named as some of the winners of consumer advocacy group Choice’s 2023 Shonky Awards.

Now in its 18th year, the Shonky Awards recognises the worst products and services from the past year, uncovered by Choice experts, that have left customers feeling frustrated and out-of-pocket.

Choice CEO Alan Kirkland said the organisation would love to never award another Shonky again.

“But over the past year we have continued to find terrible examples of businesses doing the wrong thing by their customers, leaving us with no shortage of nominees to choose from,” he said.

Kirkland said 2023 has been yet another hard year for many Australians. 

“When facing a cost of living crisis, people want to be confident that their money is well spent, but unfortunately our Shonky winners have only disappointed us during this difficult time,” he said. 

“We’ve seen Coles and Woolworths record huge profits, and rental platforms taking advantage of people desperate for a home. 

“Microsoft has been hawking an Xbox ‘fridge’ that doesn’t actually cool anything, Kogan is tricking customers into a $99 annual subscription, and personal alarms continue to fail when they’re most needed.”

The winners of the 2023 Choice Shonky Awards:

Coles and Woolworths

When it comes to grocery shopping in general and supermarket giants Woolworths and Coles, Choice has asked the same questions that many Australians are asking during their trips to the grocery aisle — why has everything suddenly become so expensive?

A nationally representative survey conducted by Choice in September found that more than 60% of shoppers said they believe the big two are making a lot of money from the price hikes, and less than 20% think Coles and Woolworths are doing enough to keep prices low.

Kirkland said Coles and Woolworths have each recorded over a billion dollars in profits this year and people are questioning whether that’s justified.

“The same survey found 88% of Australians are worried about the cost of food and groceries, up from 56% in January 2021,” he said. 

“While Coles and Woolies have been promoting how they’re supposedly helping with the cost of living, in the background they’ve been banking huge profits. 

“At the same time, frequent changes in prices mean it’s hard to tell if you’re even getting a genuine discount. They are well and truly deserving of a Shonky award.”

According to Choice, Woolworths arguably was the worst of the pair, with the group announcing a $1.62 billion profit in August, while over at Coles the group posted a $1.1 billion profit.

RentTech

Finding a home as a renter is already difficult enough, particularly when rents have risen dramatically and vacancy rates have plummeted to new lows, with Choice stating that third-party platforms should not be taking advantage of these circumstances to collect excessive data.

Kirkland said a Choice investigation from earlier this year found that over 40% of renters have been pressured to use third-party rental platforms, such as 2Apply and Snug, to apply for a home.

“These platforms require people to hand over unjustifiable amounts of personal data, putting them at risk of data breaches and information being used unfairly when screening rental applications,” he said. 

“Governments need to regulate these businesses to ensure that tenants are protected from unfair practices.” 

Personal alarms

The search for the best personal alarm continues for Choice, with the organisation testing over 40 personal alarms in the Choice labs since they began reviewing them in 2017.

Yet Kirkland said Choice still can’t recommend a single one.

“Personal alarms are meant to provide peace of mind for carers wanting to keep their loved ones safe, but we’ve found these alarms often fail to perform their most basic functions,” he said. 

“Our tests focus on personal alarms that are intended to call a person’s nominated contacts in an emergency, but the models we have tested frequently failed to deliver on their most important job. 

“The reception on these devices is sometimes so poor that the emergency call feature simply won’t activate, leaving people without help when they need it most.”

Kogan

Choice has awarded online retailer Kogan a Shonky Award for using deceptive website design to trick people, pre-selecting the free shipping option for all customers, and sneakily signing them up for a Kogan First membership trial.

In fact, Kirkland said when Choice conducted a mystery shop of Kogan with 19 shoppers, six accidentally signed up for Kogan First, and none of them knew how much they had agreed to pay after the trial ended.

“If you were buying something online and the free shipping option was already selected, why would you choose another option?” he said. 

“Unfortunately, if you miss the fine print when buying something through Kogan, you may find you’ve inadvertently signed up to a two-week trial of their ‘Kogan First’ program, and committed to pay $99 when the trial is up.”

Xbox Mini Fridge

The Xbox Mini Fridge, the result of a partnership between Microsoft and Ukonic, has received a Shonky Award this year for failing to cool anything other than expectations according to Choice.

Kirkland said this ‘fridge’ took a lengthy 24 hours to bring eight drink cans to 21°C in Choice’s 32°C test chamber. 

“For context, 21°C is warmer than tap water,” he said.

“To make matters worse, the Xbox fridge’s energy consumption is so high that it uses around the same amount of electricity as a regular full-sized fridge, without actually cooling anything. It also pooled an alarming amount of moisture in our testing. 

“The Xbox fridge’s many problems meant it was an obvious choice for a Shonky award.”