News & Updates

One of the most common questions we ask ourselves in the current climate is “Am I getting the best deal possible?” All purchasers have one important similarity: they don’t want to pay more than they need to. Whatever the size of your budget, it’s notably important to ensure you pay a fair price. So how do you know that you’re getting a good deal—even in a tight market? You need to know how to best assess the price of any purchase, so you can make a sound decision.

Under Australian Consumer Law, businesses must display clear and accurate prices. This means they are required to display the total price of a product or service. Certain grocery retailers must also display unit pricing on their shelf labels.

Price control
The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART) is the independent pricing regulator for services supplied by the NSW government including water, energy, public transport and local government costs.

IPART sets maximum prices and conducts pricing reviews of these regulated services to:
•    protect consumers from unreasonable price hikes and price gouging
•    ensure regulated service providers remain financially viable
•    encourage regulated service providers to improve economic efficiency and maintain or improve service quality
•    encourage competition where possible.

Multiple pricing
Multiple pricing is when a business displays more than one price for the same items or service. If this happens, the supplier must sell the item or service for the lowest displayed price or withdraw the item from sale until the price is corrected.

If a price is published in a catalogue or advertisement, it is a displayed price. Retailers can correct a printed pricing error by publishing a retraction in a publication with a similar circulation to the original advertisement.
Unit pricing

Supermarkets and online retailers must comply with the Unit pricing code if they sell certain food-based grocery items. Unit pricing allows consumers to quickly compare product of different sizes and brands to work out which one offers the best value.

The Unit pricing code is a mandatory industry code under the Commonwealth Competition and Consumer Act 2010. It applies to:
•    grocery retailers with more than 1,000 squares metres of floor space who sell the minimum range of food-based grocery items
•    online retailers who sell the minimum range of food-based grocery items.
Smaller retailers not covered by the Unit pricing code may choose to adopt unit pricing if they sell the minimum range of food-based grocery items. However, if a retailer opts-in to unit pricing, they must comply with all the code's requirements.

Component or drip pricing
Component pricing (also called ‘drip pricing’) is where a ‘headline’ price is promoted at the beginning of an online purchase before additional fees and charges (which may be unavoidable) are incrementally disclosed or ‘dripped’. Common in airline, accommodation and ticket booking services, this can lead to the customer paying more for an item than they realised.

Businesses can apply some fees and charges (like booking and service fees) however they cannot mislead customers into paying these fees without advising up-front how much it will cost.

Businesses cannot promote or state a price that is only part of the cost, unless they also prominently advertise the single (total) price. This means that customers should be able to identify the total price in an advertisement just as easily as prices for all the other aspects.

The single price must be:
•    clear at the time of the sale
•    as prominent as the most prominent component of the price.

The single price is the total of all measurable costs and includes:
•    any charge payable, and
•    the amount of any tax, duty, fee, levy or charges (for example, GST or airport tax).

Comparison pricing
Businesses may make comparisons between product prices. This might include the price they are selling an item for now and:
•    the price at which they previously sold that item (‘was/now’ pricing)
•    the ‘cost’ or wholesale price
•    a competitor’s price
•    the recommended retail price (RRP).

It’s against the law for businesses to mislead consumers about the price of an item or service. Learn more about misleading or deceptive claims in advertising and what you can do about it.

So how do we use this information to determine if we are getting fair value for a purchase or an expense? We must first delve deeper into what the meaning of “fair value” is:

What Is Fair Value?
Fair value is the estimated price at which an asset is bought or sold when both the buyer and seller freely agree on a price.

To determine the fair value of a product or financial investment, an individual or business may look at actual market transactions for similar assets, estimate the expected earnings of the asset, and determine the cost to replace the asset.

Fair Value vs. Market Value
Fair value is a broad measure of an asset's intrinsic worth and requires determining the right price between two parties depending on their interests, risk factors, and future goals for the asset. Fair value is most often used to gauge the true worth or intrinsic value of an asset.

Market value is the observed and actual value for which an asset or liability is exchanged. It reflects the current value of the investment as determined by actual market transactions and can fluctuate more frequently than fair value.

Fair Value through dynamic pricing
Dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy that utilizes variable prices instead of fixed ones to determine this fair value; such as availability. It can benefit consumers by creating situations where they are able to attain a better deal by taking advantage of this variability.

Dynamic pricing examples
Some of the most common examples of dynamic pricing can be found with ride-sharing services, airlines, BnBs and hotels, and e-commerce stores. 

Ride-sharing services
Dynamic pricing is widespread with ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft. In this industry, snowy, rainy, or stormy days and the rush hour dictate the prices (surge pricing) to get extra benefits from these environmental or time-based conditions.

The food delivery industry uses follows similar practices.

Airlines
While many people can usually organize their flight a few months in advance, the same cannot be said for many business people, as they often need to reserve flights at the last minute. Because of this, airplane price tickets change in a manner of minutes.

BnBs and hotels
Prices of BnBs and hotels are correlated with seasons and different holidays, events, and other special days in the year. By using dynamic pricing, this industry can generate more revenue. Sometimes, they use urgency and scarcity levers to generate even more income.

E-commerce stores
Many e-commerce stores adjust their prices based on different factors, including market price, seasons, competitors, and internal efforts such as the launch of a new collection or the beginning of the outlet season.

Is dynamic pricing fair?
In its purest form, we all should theoretically be perfectly ok with dynamic pricing, because we, the consumers, ultimately have a decision of whether we’re going to purchase the product or not. The onus is on the producer to make sure the price presented meets our willingness to pay to ensure a purchase -- aligning to our own personal equilibrium price with real-time pricing.

If you’re not willing to pay for the product, you’ll leave and maybe come back when there’s a sale or a cheaper version. If you’re willing to pay for the product, then your utility is met and you’re none the wiser about your friend getting a cheaper price. It’s perfect pricing and harmony in the free market. We’ve found price transparency is key and will definitely continue to advocate for more, rather than less.

What does all this mean for Storage?
The storage industry in Sydney can be confusing. There are many operators and thousands of spaces with different storage prices. When researching for a storage space there are many factors to consider including, access, administration fees, cleaning fees and much more. With that in mind, if you are looking for the best value storage with no hidden extras in Sydney, Kennards is the answer.

With over 40 locations and over 320,000 square metres available, Storage prices vary by location and prices change regularly. There are also a range of sizes.    

Storage unit prices are also more cost effective for upper level units. These are still easy access with generous lifts and an abundance of moving carts. 

So, if you are looking for cheap storage near you, consider the upper level spaces in any of the Kennards Storage centres.

If you are willing to travel a little further, then more low-cost storage options become available.

Generally, storage units in the Western suburbs will cost less than the city.

The most popular storage unit at Kennards Self Storage is about 9 square metres. That is 3m x 3m and about the same size of a half garage.

At the time of publishing this post the following prices were on offer for a half garage in Western Sydney:

Campbelltown Storage       $313/month

Bankstown Storage            $295/month

Hoxton Park Storage          $313/month

Penrith Storage                  $314/month

St Marys Storage                $295/month

Wetherill Park Storage        $223/month

Prospect Storage                $222/month

Kennards Self Storage has easy access individual storage spaces that are accessible 24 hours a day and there are over 90 centres in Australia and New Zealand, so there is one close to you!!

Kennards Self Storage is all about transparency and convenience. You can see every storage size and price on our website. Simply:

Log on to www.kss.com.au and you will easily find your local Kennards Self Storage.

You will also find moving boxes and storage unit prices. There are a lot of cheap storage solutions out there but ask yourself are you getting bang for your buck.

Kennards Self Storage has alarmed spaces. Back to base CCTV Monitoring and no lock in leases,
Kennards Storage prices are fair and transparent. The website has prices easily viewed for every type of size needed. Prices are simply affected by supply and demand. Renting one is as easy as clicking the keyboard a couple of times. We will even cover your insurance for the first month to the value of $30,000. We can even rent you some storage shelves for your storage unit to help you maximise the use of your space!

Kennards Self Storage, the People who Care.