The Week Coles, Woolies and Wesfarmers Talk | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 23 August 2026

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

Sunday morning briefing for Australian shoppers. This is the week Coles, Woolworths and Wesfarmers file FY26 results (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), and the tone from those three conference calls will set grocery and department store pricing through to Christmas. ASIC s investigation into Super Retail Group (Rebel, Supercheap Auto, BCF, Macpac) is still running after the whistleblower settlement. BIG W has switched on nationwide same day delivery through DoorDash. Amazon is still in the Federal Court over Prime Video ads. And if you have shopped Oz Hair and Beauty, your data may be in the wild. Today s Top 5 opens with Sportsgirl at up to 90 per cent off, sitting right in the fashion sweet spot.

The Week That Sets Christmas Pricing: Coles, Woolies, Wesfarmers Report

Australian shoppers should mark three dates on the kitchen calendar. Coles Group files its FY26 result on Tuesday 26 August, Woolworths Group follows on Wednesday 27 August and Wesfarmers (owner of Bunnings, Kmart, Officeworks and Target) files on Thursday 28 August. Motley Fool Australia put the combined consensus net profit for the three groups above 5.6 billion dollars, and IG Australia s Coles FY26 preview flagged consensus for Coles sales of about 45.63 billion dollars, EBIT of 2.30 billion and a full year dividend of 77.1 cents.

The reason this matters to a household grocery budget is that each CEO uses the full year result to signal price investment for the next six months. Watch Coles for updates on Everyday Rewards, Own Brand and how far it is willing to lean into protein and health food (following the same behaviour shift the Guardian flagged yesterday). Watch Woolworths for Everyday Extra economics and Australian Food margin. Watch Wesfarmers for Bunnings comparable sales, Kmart Anko homewares depth and any word on a rumoured standalone Anko homewares format. If you are deferring a big ticket appliance or a Kmart homewares splurge, wait until Thursday afternoon when Wesfarmers has spoken; the pricing shape of September through November usually becomes obvious in the next 48 hours after those three calls.

Super Retail Under the ASIC Microscope: Trust and Pricing Watch

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigation into Super Retail Group over its handling of two former executive whistleblowers remains ongoing, per Colin Kruger at The Sydney Morning Herald. Super Retail settled with the two whistleblowers in September for undisclosed terms, and the annual report showed 11.3 million dollars set aside for associated costs and a further 7 million in unpaid performance bonuses withheld from former chief executive Anthony Heraghty. The regulator is still probing how the company handled whistleblower complaints and related governance and disclosure issues, per Clayton Utz s corporate risk toolkit.

For the household shopper the practical read is not the courtroom mechanics but the pricing shape. Rebel, Supercheap Auto, BCF and Macpac are all owned by Super Retail Group, and all four chains are running noticeably aggressive winter to spring clearance right now (sports gear, camping stock, auto accessories, outdoor apparel). That is consistent with a group under external pressure choosing to move stock and preserve category share. It is a genuine window for household buyers who need running shoes for spring, a hydration pack for a summer walking holiday, or a car battery and wiper blade replacement. Compare the Super Retail chain price against the specialist independent, and do not assume the loyalty program alone gets you the deepest number.

BIG W Same Day Delivery Goes National Via DoorDash

BIG W has switched on same day delivery across select postcodes nationwide through a new DoorDash partnership, first reported by Yahoo Finance on 17 August and confirmed on the Woolworths Group newsroom on 14 August. Orders placed before 12pm are delivered by 5pm the same day. Orders placed after 12pm are delivered by 5pm the following day. The delivery fee is 12 dollars, and if a postcode and product are eligible, the option appears at checkout on bigw.com.au. Katy Rogers, head of sales and partnerships at DoorDash Australia and New Zealand, said the move unlocks a faster delivery service across BIG W s everyday essentials range so families can access what they need when time matters most, per the Woolworths Group release.

The timing is sharp: Book Week 2026 ran 16 to 22 August and BIG W has positioned same day delivery as the fix for last minute costume scrambles, with costumes eligible from 10 dollars. Beyond costumes the real value is on everyday essentials (school lunchbox refills, kids underwear, cleaning supplies, party plates for a birthday drop) where a 12 dollar fee often beats the fuel plus parking cost of a Sunday store run. It also puts BIG W ahead of Kmart on same day metropolitan delivery, and in most of the eligible postcodes it undercuts Amazon Prime for household commodity essentials because there is no annual subscription attached. Check bigw.com.au for your postcode.

Amazon Prime Video Case Still Live: What Australian Subscribers Should Know

The ACCC v Amazon Prime Video Federal Court proceeding (VID702 of 2026) continues through case management. The regulator alleges that Amazon Commercial Services included multiple unfair contract terms in annual Prime subscriptions between November 2023 and August 2025, then relied on some of those terms to introduce ads to Prime Video from July 2024 with only a 2 dollars 99 a month ad free upcharge as the alternative. ACCC chair Gina Cass Gottlieb said Amazon left subscribers with no choice but to pay more to maintain the service they had originally signed up for.

The regulator is seeking penalties, declarations and refunds on behalf of more than one million Australian annual Prime subscribers. Maximum penalty per contravention is the higher of 50 million dollars, three times the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover during the breach period. For an Australian household the direct action is simple: if you have an Amazon Prime annual subscription that was in place before August 2025 and you paid the ad free upcharge, keep the payment records. Any refund order will depend on being able to identify the affected subscribers. It is another reason every store featured in today s Top 5 is Australian owned with local fulfilment.

Oz Hair and Beauty Data Breach: If You Shopped There, Check Now

Oz Hair and Beauty confirmed a cyber incident to customers this week, following a listing on the dark web leak site of a new threat actor called xpl0itrs. The threat actor claimed to have stolen 2.1 million customer records. The company has told customers the incident was of a third party provider (unnamed), and the accessed data includes full name, contact information (email address and or mobile number) and purchase data (currency used, total spend, purchase location and customer creation date). No credit card details, payment information or invoice details were involved. The company reported to the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Have I Been Pwned added the dataset on 19 August, with 2 million unique email addresses confirmed in the leak. If you have shopped at ozhairandbeauty.com in the last few years, three practical steps. First, run your email through haveibeenpwned.com to confirm exposure. Second, watch for hair and beauty themed phishing (SMS and email) in the next few weeks; the attacker holds enough purchase history to make a convincing lure. Third, if you reused the password on that account elsewhere, change it everywhere else immediately and turn on two factor authentication on your primary email and shopping accounts. The company said its systems are secure to keep using; the risk sits with the leaked personal information already in circulation.