The Australian Competition and Consumer commission has designed Unit Man, a caped calculator character to be introduced to supermarkets and grocery catalogues across Australia to help the public better understand unit pricing. 

Unit pricing allows shoppers to compare the price of products of different sizes and brands by showing prices per standard unit of measurement such as by volume or by weight.

ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said the character had been developed to capture consumer attention and encourage shoppers to make the most of unit pricing.

Unit Man will start to appear in grocery catalogues and online in early November. Consumers will also see Unit Man at some checkout screens in the lead-up to 1 December when unit pricing becomes compulsory for supermarkets with a floor space greater than 1000sqm that sell a minimum range of food-based groceries.

"Many consumers are likely to have some familiarity with unit pricing as it has been progressively rolled out across product ranges in the large grocery retail stores," Samuel said.

The pricing initiative arose out of the ACCC's 2008 Grocery Inquiry. It provides greater transparency to consumers about pricing and promotes competition between retailers.

Samuel said unit pricing would build on other activities to promote competition in the grocery sector including the recently announced ACCC agreement with Coles and Woolworths to phase out all restrictive provisions in supermarket leases.

Under that agreement both companies will not include restrictive provisions in any new supermarket leases and will phase them out of existing ones. A similar agreement is now being sought from other supermarket operators.

"Reducing barriers to retailers getting into the market through the abolition of restrictive provisions, together with empowering consumers to make well informed decisions at the checkout through unit pricing, goes to improving competition in the grocery sector at a range of levels, with Australians potentially paying lower prices as a result."