Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Wednesday morning, and the ACCC has begun to swing the new tools handed to it a week ago. In Kalgoorlie, the regulator formally blocked Coles from acquiring a suburban IGA in the first live application of the new merger regime, a signal that grocery consolidation across regional Australia is now genuinely constrained. In the Federal Court, the ACCC has filed proceedings against Amazon Australia over its Prime Video ad rollout, alleging more than one million subscribers were misled into a $2.99 per month ad-free upsell between November 2023 and August 2025. Meanwhile Accent Group has told shareholders to reject a Frasers takeover bid, FTI Consulting is warning that the current wave of retail insolvencies is still building, and federal parliament has passed the Unfair Trading Practices Bill, banning subscription traps and drip pricing from 1 July 2027. Five fresh Australian stores today, none of them carried over from Monday.

ACCC Blocks Coles Kalgoorlie: New Merger Regime Bites

The ACCC has formally blocked Coles Group from acquiring an IGA-branded supermarket in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the first substantive decision under the new mandatory merger notification regime that came into effect on 1 July 2026 (Lawyerly, 7 July 2026). Under the regime, any acquisition above defined thresholds must now be notified to the ACCC in advance and cannot complete until cleared, replacing the old voluntary regime that let the majors quietly roll up regional independents. Coles had argued the Kalgoorlie site was a routine store-level acquisition, but the ACCC held that consolidating a metropolitan-scale major with the local IGA in a remote market of roughly 30,000 residents would materially reduce competition for households with no realistic weekly alternative (Mirage News, 2 July 2026).

The precedent is significant. The West Australian noted that the decision is the first application anywhere in Australia of the new regime, and consumer advocacy groups have flagged that the ruling puts every other regional acquisition Coles or Woolworths might contemplate over the next twelve months under a much brighter spotlight (The West Australian, 3 July 2026). For households in regional Australia the practical read is that independent supermarkets, IGA-branded and otherwise, are now materially more likely to remain independent, and that the two majors will need to justify any regional expansion on public-benefit grounds before completion. For weekly shoppers everywhere it reinforces the pattern that emerged with the excessive pricing prohibition six days earlier: the era of unilateral supermarket action is ending, and the promotional cycles that come next will lean harder on genuine discounts rather than reference-price theatre.

Amazon Faces Federal Court Over Prime Video Ad Rollout

The ACCC has filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon Australia Services, alleging misleading conduct and unfair contract terms in relation to the November 2023 Prime Video ad-tier rollout (Variety Australia, 1 July 2026). The proceedings, lodged on 29 June, cover an estimated one million-plus Australian Prime subscribers who between November 2023 and August 2025 either had advertising inserted into previously ad-free Prime Video content or were pushed to a $2.99 per month ad-free upsell. The ACCC alleges Amazon changed the terms of the subscription contract unilaterally, without adequate disclosure or the option to cancel without penalty, and that its communications to affected subscribers were misleading about their options (Tribune India, 1 July 2026).

The Deccan Herald summary put it starkly: the ACCC is asking the Federal Court to declare the changed subscription terms unfair under the Australian Consumer Law, seeking penalties and consumer redress that could total in the tens of millions of dollars (Deccan Herald, 1 July 2026). This is the same pattern as the earlier US Federal Trade Commission Prime cancellation settlement, but here the alleged conduct is a live unilateral variation of a paid subscription rather than a signup dark pattern. Household read: keep every confirmation email for any streaming, telco, insurance or software subscription; screenshot the pricing page the day you sign up; and prefer Australian-owned services where possible because the local regulator now has an active proceeding on the record. If you are one of the more than one million Prime subscribers who paid the $2.99 uplift, keep the receipts, the case may yet produce a redress mechanism.

Accent Group Rejects Frasers Takeover: Panel Application Filed

Accent Group, the ASX-listed Australian footwear operator behind Platypus, Skechers, Hype DC, The Athletes Foot and Stylerunner, has doubled down on its rejection of a takeover approach from UK-listed Frasers Group, controlled by British retail billionaire Mike Ashley (FashionUnited, 1 July 2026). Accent’s board reaffirmed on 7 July that the current Frasers proposal materially undervalues the business and does not reflect the growth pipeline across the Accent portfolio, and confirmed it has filed a Takeovers Panel application seeking orders to prevent Frasers from proceeding with any coercive tactics during the current market window (TipRanks, 7 July 2026).

The context is that Frasers has been quietly accumulating stakes in Australian retail names and simultaneously divesting non-core European businesses, including the recently announced Sports Direct Malaysia sale (Ragtrader, 3 July 2026). For Australian shoppers the immediate read is that the more than 550 Accent-owned stores across Platypus, Skechers, Hype DC and The Athletes Foot are all continuing to trade independently at full capacity, and the current 50 per cent off winter sale at Platypus (item 4 in today’s Top 5) is running on Accent’s own terms rather than any distressed pricing. The bigger read is about ownership: the boardroom argument this week is over who gets to control an Australian-founded, ASX-listed retailer with 130-plus stores of footwear inventory and a customer base squarely inside the Australian shopping economy.

Retail Insolvency Wave: 1,000 More To Come, FTI Warns

FTI Consulting has published a fresh forecast warning that the current wave of Australian retail insolvencies is still building, with an estimated 1,000 retail insolvencies expected across FY26 versus 319 recorded in FY22 (Ragtrader, 2 July 2026). The list of names already in administration or receivership across the past twelve months includes Betts (134-year-old Perth footwear icon), Stax, GeedUp, Glue Store, Lincraft, SurfStitch, Ally Fashion, Jeanswest, Wittner and Mosaic Brands (owner of Millers, Rivers, Katies, Noni B and Autograph). FTI’s read is that persistent margin compression, weak discretionary spending in fashion and homewares, and refinancing pressure as pandemic-era debt facilities roll off are combining to force a structural reset of the mid-tier retail base.

The practical read for Australian shoppers is twofold. First, gift cards and store credits at any mid-tier fashion or homewares retailer should be redeemed rather than held, because voluntary administration can freeze balances overnight. Second, the ranges most likely to see genuine markdowns over the next quarter are winter clearance in fashion and mid-price furniture and homewares, exactly the categories where Domayne, Dissh and GAZMAN in today’s Top 6 are pricing hard. The market rebalance is real, and it is happening at the store shelf as much as in the courts.

Unfair Trading Bill Passed: Subscription Traps Banned

Federal parliament passed the Unfair Trading Practices Bill on 2 July, delivering on the reform package flagged by Assistant Treasurer Andrew Leigh earlier in the year (Andrew Leigh MP, 2 July 2026). The legislation bans a defined list of unfair trading practices under the Australian Consumer Law, including subscription traps (making it easier to sign up than to cancel), drip pricing (adding mandatory fees only at checkout), and manipulative use of dark patterns in online purchase flows. The full ban comes into force from 1 July 2027, giving retailers and platforms twelve months to redesign their signup, checkout and cancellation systems.

Alongside the bill, the Reserve Bank of Australia held the cash rate at 4.35 per cent at its 8 July meeting, maintaining a hawkish bias with the next meeting scheduled for August (RateSniffers, 8 July 2026). ABS data covering May showed household spending bounced back after a soft April, and The West Australian noted that the retail sector is entering the second half of 2026 with steadier demand than a year ago (The West Australian, 6 July 2026). The combined read: on the consumer protection front, the rules are tightening in the shopper’s favour; on rates, the tightening cycle is holding rather than easing, which continues to squeeze big-ticket discretionary spend and gives the promotional pressure across today’s Top 6 categories real underlying force.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Take On The New Retail Reality

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from Monday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on Wednesday.

1Today’s Top
DiscountJB HiFiElectronicsUp to 50 per cent off JB HiFi’s This Week’s Hottest Deals: laptops, TVs, headphones, gaming, small appliances and mobile from the ASX-listed Australian electronics retailer with 300+ stores nationwide, price beat guarantee and next-day metro delivery.50%OFF2DomayneFurniture & HomewaresUp to 50 per cent off Domayne’s Hot Deals: sofas, beds, dining, homewares and major appliances from the Australian-owned Harvey Norman Group brand, with EOFY carryover pricing, interest-free finance and free metro delivery on qualifying orders.50%OFF3DisshWomen's FashionUp to 50 per cent off Dissh’s Sale: tailoring, dresses, knits, denim and outerwear from the Brisbane-founded contemporary womenswear label with modern minimalist styling and free returns, plus their signature winter capsule reduced.50%OFF4Platypus ShoesFootwear & SneakersUp to 50 per cent off Platypus Shoes’ Sale: sneakers, casual footwear and boots from Nike, Adidas, Converse, Puma, New Balance and Vans at the Accent Group-owned Australian sneaker specialist with 130+ stores and click-and-collect in-store.50%OFF5Chemist WarehouseBeauty & HealthUp to 50 per cent off Chemist Warehouse’s Clearance: skincare, fragrance, vitamins, haircare and personal care from the Australian-owned pharmacy giant with 600+ stores nationwide and $10 flat shipping under $99.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of other Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts mid-week. GAZMAN (the Top 6 ticker pick) has 50 per cent off menswear shirts, chinos, knitwear and outerwear from the Australian-founded menswear brand with 40-plus standalone stores nationwide. Domayne‘s sister brand Harvey Norman is running EOFY carryover Hot Offers across furniture, bedding and appliances from the Australian-founded ASX-listed group. Dissh‘s winter capsule sits at 50 per cent off from the Brisbane womenswear label. Platypus Shoes is holding 50 per cent off sneakers from the Accent Group specialist. Chemist Warehouse’s Clearance is running deep on skincare and fragrance from the Australian-owned pharmacy leader. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

The through-line across today’s five stories is the same one that has been building since the start of the new financial year: the regulator is now materially closer to the household than to the multinational. The ACCC has blocked its first grocery acquisition under a merger regime that is one week old. It has filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon over Prime Video conduct that touched more than a million Australian subscribers. The Unfair Trading Practices Bill has passed, so subscription traps and drip pricing are legally on notice from July next year. Accent Group is fighting off a UK takeover attempt with a Takeovers Panel application. And FTI Consulting is warning that another 700-plus retail insolvencies are still to work through the system, which is exactly why the winter markdowns at today’s Top 6 stores are running deeper than usual for a Wednesday in July. Every one of those movements shifts a small amount of pricing power, product depth or after-sale protection back toward the household budget.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “womens knitwear under 80” or “sneakers on sale mens”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on the second Wednesday of the new financial year.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Monday morning, and the balance of power between Australia’s largest retailers and the households that keep them profitable has just shifted materially. The ACCC’s new excessive pricing prohibition is six days live, with penalties for Coles and Woolworths of up to the greater of $10 million, three times the benefit, or 10 per cent of annual turnover. In Perth, 134-year-old footwear icon Betts has entered voluntary administration and will close 20 of its 35 stores, with 120,000 pairs of shoes, bags and accessories going on clearance from Friday. The fuel excise cut is now live at 16 cents a litre, saving households roughly $8 to $10 per tank, but only through 2 August. Amazon’s Federal Court case with the ACCC over Prime Video contract changes is still running alongside a fresh US$2.25 million FTC settlement. And retail spending has just come in 5.8 per cent higher year on year for May. The winter shopping calendar has a new tempo, and today’s five stores respond to it.

ACCC Turns On Coles and Woolies: Price Watchdog Now Live

The federal government’s excessive pricing prohibition for Coles Group and Woolworths Group came into force on 1 July, giving the ACCC direct authority to prosecute either supermarket for pricing conduct deemed excessive under the new regime (Retail Insight Network, 29 June 2026). The threshold covers any grocery retailer with more than $30 billion in annual revenue, which in Australia is only Coles and Woolworths. Penalties for a proven contravention are the greater of $10 million per contravention, three times the benefit gained, or 10 per cent of the offender’s annual Australian turnover (The Market Online, 29 June 2026). The Food and Grocery Code is also now mandatory rather than voluntary, and the ACCC has been allocated more than $30 million in additional funding to police it (SBS News, 30 June 2026).

The mechanics matter for households. RMIT economist Peter Sarno points out that the new regime targets pricing that is materially higher than could be justified in a competitive market, and that the ACCC now has both the mandate and the resourcing to build cases from supermarket price data (RMIT, 29 June 2026). ABC AM’s coverage on 1 July confirmed that the government has also expanded the ACCC’s grocery price monitoring role in parallel, so shelf-price accuracy, unit pricing and promotional integrity are now under continuous surveillance (ABC AM, 1 July 2026). The practical read for shoppers is that overtly discounted specials are more likely to be genuine, and that the promotional cycles across the two majors will be leaning heavier on real price cuts rather than reference-price theatre. If you have been holding off on a switch across your weekly grocery shop, the next twelve weeks are the moment to test whether the promised discipline is real.

Betts Shuts 20 Stores: 120,000 Pairs on Clearance Friday

Perth-founded footwear icon Betts, which has been trading continuously since 1892, has entered voluntary administration and will close 20 of its 35 Australian stores in the coming weeks (PerthNow, 2 July 2026). Administrators Pitcher Partners were appointed on 2 July and confirmed that seven of the closures are in Western Australia, including the flagship Hay Street Mall store in the Perth CBD, along with Cockburn Gateway, Mandurah Forum, Watertown Perth, DFO Perth Airport, Whitford City and one of the two Joondalup locations. A further 13 stores will close across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia. The remaining 15 stores will continue trading, and the brand’s online business (bettsshoes.com.au) will be the primary growth channel going forward (ABC News, 2 July 2026).

For the Australian shopper the practical read is a large, time-limited clearance event. Pitcher Partners has confirmed that a combined 120,000 pairs of shoes, bags and accessories will be on clearance across the 20 closing stores from Friday 3 July, with markdowns escalating as the administration process progresses. Household priorities to consider: school shoes for the July holidays, winter boots for southern states, and any wide-fit or comfort ranges that Betts has historically stocked stronger than the national chains. If you shop at any of the 20 closing locations, it is worth a Friday-morning visit before the best sizing goes. The 15 continuing stores will absorb the loss inventory over the following six weeks, so remote and regional shoppers will likely see the clearance run online through mid-August as well.

Fuel Excise Halved: Live Until 2 August Only

The federal government’s temporary fuel excise reduction from 32 cents per litre to 16 cents per litre came into force on 1 July and runs through to 2 August 2026, with the ACCC monitoring pump prices at over 800 retail sites to ensure the reduction is passed on to motorists (Supermarket News, 29 June 2026). For a family with two cars and a combined weekly refuel of around 100 litres, the saving is roughly $16 per week, or $65 over the month the cut is live. Households in regional Australia where fuel prices sit higher on average will see a proportionally larger saving on total motoring cost (The West Australian, 29 June 2026).

The hard deadline is Sunday 2 August, at which point the excise reverts to 32 cents per litre. The ACCC has publicly warned retailers against front-loading price rises immediately after the cut ends, and consumer groups have flagged this window as an opportunity for households to catch up on any deferred driving-heavy tasks. Practical suggestions for the four weeks: complete the July school holiday road-trip, fill the second car and any spare jerry cans on the final Sunday, and time the servicing that involves a long drive to a specialist workshop while the pump price is meaningfully lower. The saving is real but time-bound, and there is no signal from Treasury that the reduction will be extended.

Amazon: ACCC Case Continues, FTC Settlement Paid

Amazon has agreed to a US$2.25 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission over its Prime signup and cancellation dark patterns, announced on 30 June (Yahoo Finance, 30 June 2026). The settlement covers conduct between April 2019 and August 2025 that made Prime cancellation deliberately obscure, with the FTC finding that Amazon designed the flow to minimise customer awareness of the cancel option. Separately, the ACCC’s Federal Court proceeding against Amazon Australia over Prime Video contract changes is continuing, with the regulator alleging that Amazon unilaterally altered subscription terms for more than one million Australian Prime members between November 2023 and August 2025, moving customers to a $2.99 per month ad-free upsell without adequate consent (ABC News, 30 June 2026). Regional coverage in The News International summarised the case as the ACCC’s largest unilateral-contract-change proceeding to date (The News International, 1 July 2026).

The read for Australian households is unchanged from last week: exercise real caution with any long-term subscription where the seller retains the right to unilaterally alter terms mid-contract. Keep the confirmation email for every subscription change, and prefer Australian-owned retailers where the Australian Consumer Law applies cleanly and the local regulator has active enforcement teeth. For everyday shopping, the Australian-owned alternatives across today’s Top 6 sit on much stronger ground on both consumer guarantees and returns terms.

Retail Spending Up 5.8 Per Cent, Wage Rises Live

Australian retail spending grew 5.8 per cent year on year in May 2026, the Australian Bureau of Statistics confirmed at the end of June, with cost-of-living pressures driving households toward essentials and value categories rather than curbing overall spending (Retail Asia, 30 June 2026). The categories carrying most of the growth were supermarkets and food, health services and beauty, and household appliances, while discretionary apparel and footwear stayed roughly flat. Small-business retailers across the country also confirmed a firmer trading pattern than a year ago, with local specialty stores flagging a lift on winter and school-holiday categories.

The July round of cost-of-living changes reinforces the picture. The national minimum wage rose 3.75 per cent from 1 July to $26.44 per hour ($1004.72 per 38-hour week), lifting take-home pay for around 2.9 million workers on award rates (The Guardian, 30 June 2026). Payday superannuation is also live, meaning employers must now pay super contributions within seven business days of each payday rather than on the old quarterly cycle (AreaSearch, 30 June 2026). Parental Leave Pay has been extended to 24 weeks and now attracts superannuation. The combined effect for the average household is a small but real lift in weekly income at exactly the same moment retailers step into their post-EOFY winter push, which is why the promotional pressure on shelf pricing across today’s Top 6 categories is running heavier than usual for early July.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Take On The New Retail Reality

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from yesterday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on Monday.

1Today’s Top
DiscountRebel SportSport & FitnessUp to 60 per cent off Rebel Sport’s Sale hub: running shoes, cross-trainers, football boots, gym apparel, weights, bikes and camping gear from the ASX-listed Super Retail Group’s flagship Australian sports specialist, with over 400 stores nationwide and click and collect in one hour.60%OFF2Modern FurnitureFurnitureUp to 60 per cent off Modern Furniture’s On Sale collection: sofas, dining, bedroom, office and outdoor pieces from the Australian-owned Melbourne-based furniture retailer, with EOFY clearance rolling into July and free Sydney and Melbourne metro delivery on select ranges.60%OFF3SportsgirlWomen's FashionUp to 50 per cent off Sportsgirl’s Sale: winter knits, denim, dresses, coats, boots and accessories from the Australian-owned Melbourne-founded fashion brand (part of the Sussan Group), with online exclusive extra cuts and free returns in-store.50%OFF4Culture KingsStreetwear & SneakersUp to 50 per cent off Culture Kings’ Sale: streetwear, sneakers, caps, jerseys and hoodies from the Aussie streetwear icon (part of the US-listed A.K.A. Brands but AU-headquartered in the Gold Coast), with new drops from Nike, Adidas, Puma and homegrown labels.50%OFF5Bras N ThingsLingerieUp to 50 per cent off Bras N Things’ Sale: bras, briefs, lingerie, sleepwear and shapewear from the Australian-owned Sydney-founded intimate apparel specialist (part of ASX-listed Hanes Australia), with online-only markdowns and buy three save more bundles.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, another handful of Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts to kick off the new financial year. YD (the Top 6 ticker pick) is holding menswear suits, shirts, chinos and knitwear up to 50 per cent off from the Australian menswear specialist under Retail Apparel Group. Rebel Sport has EOFY runover cuts up to 60 per cent across running, football and gym gear from the Super Retail Group flagship. Culture Kings‘ Sale sits with 50 per cent off streetwear and sneakers from the Gold Coast-founded streetwear icon. Bras N Things has 50 per cent off lingerie, sleepwear and shapewear from the Hanes Australia intimates specialist. Modern Furniture‘s On Sale holds 60 per cent off sofas, dining and beds from the Melbourne-based furniture retailer. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

The through-line across today’s five stories is that a genuine rebalance is underway. The ACCC has the mandate and the money to take Coles and Woolworths to court over pricing conduct that would have been untouchable a year ago. A 134-year-old Perth footwear icon has been forced to shrink, and 120,000 pairs of shoes are about to hit clearance because the market discipline has arrived. Motorists are paying half the excise for four weeks, and the ACCC is watching the pumps. Amazon is paying penalties on two continents. And retail spending is running 5.8 per cent higher year on year on the back of a minimum wage rise and payday super. Every one of those movements shifts a small amount of pricing power, product depth or after-sale protection back toward the household budget. Monday morning is a good time to notice that.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “kids school shoes under 40” or “winter coat womens on sale”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on day six of the new financial year.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Sunday morning, and the retail battle for Australian household budgets has a new front. Metcash has relaunched its Big Family Big Prizes campaign across more than 3,200 independent stores under the IGA, IGA Local Grocer, Foodland and Mitre 10 banners, a direct fightback against the Coles and Woolworths duopoly. Card surcharges will be banned on debit and credit transactions from 1 October, freeing shoppers from a $960 million annual tax on plastic. In Kalgoorlie, the ACCC has blocked a Coles airport-adjacent second store and the community has publicly cheered the decision. Amazon has paid a US$2.25 million FTC settlement while the ACCC’s Federal Court case over Prime Video contract changes rolls on. And at David Jones, incoming chief executive Erica Berchtold enters week one with a $95 million loss on the P&L and a new Hilco lending facility on the balance sheet. It is a busy Sunday, but every headline lands the same way: better options for the Australian shopper.

IGA Fires Back: Metcash Relaunches Big Family Big Prizes

Metcash has relaunched its Big Family Big Prizes consumer promotion across more than 3,200 independent Australian stores from 1 July, spanning IGA, IGA Local Grocer, Foodland and Mitre 10 banners nationally (Retail World Magazine, 30 June 2026). The mechanics are straightforward for shoppers: any purchase at a participating store enters the customer into weekly draws for cash prize pools running through the campaign period, with in-store point-of-sale collateral and shopper marketing behind the relaunch. The campaign lands in the same week Metcash confirmed the appointment of former Unilever ANZ chief executive Nicky Sparshott to the Metcash board as a non-executive director, adding grocery marketing depth at the top level of Australia’s largest independent grocery wholesaler.

The commercial context is important. Metcash is the wholesale supplier and marketing engine behind the country’s largest genuinely independent grocery network, and Big Family Big Prizes is one of the few national brand-marketing pushes in Australian grocery that is not owned by Coles Group or Woolworths. The relaunch also lands ahead of the federal government’s expanded ACCC grocery pricing surveillance role, which took effect on 1 July and gives the regulator sharper teeth on shelf-price accuracy, unit-pricing compliance and promotional-price integrity. Independent retailers are the direct beneficiaries of any tightening of the duopoly’s promotional discipline, and Metcash’s timing is deliberate.

For Australian households the practical read is a real prompt to add an IGA visit to the weekly shop, particularly for households outside metropolitan Coles and Woolworths corridors. Big Family Big Prizes overlays on top of the IGA Rewards program and any store-level specials, which means the offer stacks. If you have not walked into an IGA, Foodland or an IGA Local Grocer in the last twelve months, the fresh produce, meat and specialty ranges have quietly rebuilt. Sunday afternoon is a reasonable time to test it.

Card Surcharge Ban Locks In For 1 October

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s final report on the retail payments system, published at the end of March, confirmed that surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa transactions (debit, prepaid and credit) will be banned from 1 October 2026 (NEWS WIRE, 28 June 2026). The Treasurer’s office has confirmed the RBA’s proposed timeline, and the industry-facing implementation guidance to acquirers and merchant service providers has already been issued. The practical effect for a household paying by tap or insert at a cafe, a hair salon, a taxi rank or a corner store is that the 1 to 2 per cent surcharge that has quietly been added to millions of transactions each day disappears from the receipt.

The Australian Retailers Association and the Council of Small Business Australia have both flagged that merchants will need to renegotiate acquiring fees with their banks and payment providers, and some are expected to bake the cost back into a broader margin recalibration. That is a real risk for prices on the shelf, and the ACCC has signalled it will watch for any coordinated price adjustment in the six months either side of the ban. Consumer Action Law Centre welcomed the change and noted that surcharging has functioned as a regressive tax on households without cash alternatives, particularly younger shoppers, renters and international students. The net position for the average Australian is a genuine improvement on out-of-pocket costs at the checkout, and the compounding annual saving for a household that spends $60,000 a year on cards is meaningful.

Kalgoorlie Backs ACCC After Coles Store Blocked

The community of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has publicly thrown its support behind the ACCC’s decision to reject a proposed second Coles supermarket on the site adjacent to the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Airport, with residents citing concerns about small-business competition and long-term local pricing (ABC News, 3 July 2026). The decision, handed down earlier in the week, was the first time the ACCC has formally rejected a supermarket store proposal under the expanded review process that took effect this year (ABC News, 1 July 2026). Coles has said it is disappointed with the outcome and is reviewing its options, but has not indicated any intention to appeal at this stage.

The Kalgoorlie outcome sets a real precedent. The ACCC’s expanded remit on grocery competition, combined with the price surveillance role that took effect on 1 July, gives the regulator broader tools than it has had at any point since the current supermarket duopoly settled into place two decades ago. For the Australian shopper, the practical consequence over the next twelve months is likely to be more transparent shelf pricing, faster action on unit-price errors and a stronger footing for independent retailers to secure planning approvals in regional catchments. The Kalgoorlie community’s public backing of the ACCC decision matters because it is a signal that the appetite for a rebalance is real, and not confined to the capital cities.

Amazon Pays FTC Settlement, ACCC Case Continues

Amazon has agreed to a US$2.25 million settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission over its Prime signup and cancellation flow (the so-called dark-pattern case), announced on 30 June (Yahoo Finance, 30 June 2026). Separately, the ACCC’s Federal Court proceeding against Amazon Australia over Prime Video contract changes is continuing, with the regulator alleging that Amazon unilaterally altered subscription terms for more than one million Australian Prime members between November 2023 and August 2025, moving customers to a $2.99 per month ad-free upsell without adequate consent (ABC News, 30 June 2026). Lawyerly’s court filing summary sets out the specific consumer-law breaches the ACCC is pursuing (Lawyerly, 30 June 2026).

The read for Australian households is unchanged from earlier in the week: exercise real caution with any long-term subscription commitment where the seller retains the right to unilaterally alter terms mid-contract. Read the fine print on renewal, retain the confirmation email for every subscription change, and prefer Australian-owned retailers where the Australian Consumer Law applies cleanly and the local regulator has active enforcement teeth. For everyday shopping, the Australian-owned alternatives across today’s Top 6 sit on much stronger ground on both consumer guarantees and returns terms.

Berchtold’s First Week At David Jones: $95M Loss And A New Playbook

Erica Berchtold has stepped into the David Jones chief executive role in the same week the department store’s parent Anchorage Capital confirmed a full-year loss of $95 million and an 8.7 per cent decline in sales to $2 billion (FashionNetwork.com, 28 June 2026). The company has also secured a new three-year asset-backed lending facility with Hilco Global, which provides the working-capital headroom to fund the Inspire 30 strategic plan Berchtold will oversee. Inspire 30 is understood to sharpen the David Jones proposition around premium fashion, beauty and gifting, and to accelerate the store-refresh programme in flagship Sydney and Melbourne locations.

For the David Jones shopper the near-term signal is EOFY-and-into-July clearance discipline, followed by a tighter buy on premium womenswear, beauty exclusives and food hall as the Berchtold era’s own product mix takes hold from spring. The loyalty programme (David Jones Rewards) is likely to see refinement inside the first hundred days. If you shop David Jones on rewards or holiday-gifting cycles, the next quarter is genuinely the most interesting the store has had since Anchorage took over.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Reset The Winter Wardrobe

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from yesterday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on Sunday.

1Today’s Top
DiscountTemple & WebsterFurniture & HomewaresUp to 70 per cent off Temple & Webster’s Sale Furniture: sofas, dining tables, bed frames, storage, outdoor furniture and homewares from the ASX-listed Sydney-headquartered Australian online furniture retailer, with EOFY clearance rolling into July across thousands of items and free shipping on orders over $100.70%OFF2KathmanduOutdoor & AdventureUp to 60 per cent off Kathmandu’s Outlet: down jackets, waterproof shells, hiking boots, thermal base layers, packs and travel gear from the Australasian outdoor brand (part of ASX-listed KMD Brands), covering the winter transition and shoulder season, with click and collect from stores across the country.60%OFF3MyerDepartment StoreUp to 50 per cent off Myer’s Offers hub: womenswear, menswear, kidswear, homewares, beauty, cosmetics and small appliances from the ASX-listed Australian department store, with the Winter Wardrobe sale running alongside brand-partner promotions and Myer One member exclusives.50%OFF4Cotton OnFashionUp to 50 per cent off Cotton On’s womens sale: winter tees, hoodies, denim, dresses, jackets and basics from the Geelong-founded Australian-owned global fashion group, with online exclusive markdowns and free shipping thresholds through the Cotton On Perks membership.50%OFF5BondsUnderwear & BasicsUp to 50 per cent off Bonds’ sale: winter warmers, everyday underwear, socks, sleepwear, activewear and kids essentials from the Aussie icon owned by ASX-listed Hanes Australia, with online-only cuts across the Zippy, Chesty and Original ranges.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, another handful of Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts this weekend. Big Bedding (the Top 6 ticker pick) is holding quilts, sheet sets and pillows up to 50 per cent off from the Australian bedding specialist. David Jones has EOFY discounts up to 50 per cent live for Erica Berchtold’s first weekend at the helm, with an extra 20 per cent off clearance. Target Australia‘s Clearance continues with strong toys and kidswear cuts under the Wesfarmers-owned discount department chain. Koala‘s clearance is holding on mattresses, sofas and bed frames from the Australian-founded direct-to-consumer bedding brand. Domayne‘s Hot Deals rolls into July from the Harvey Norman Group Australian furniture retailer. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

The through-line across today’s five stories is that Australian shoppers are picking up leverage. The independent grocery network is back on the offensive with a $6 million national campaign. Card surcharges disappear from every receipt in 88 days. The competition regulator has just used its new grocery powers to block a Coles store in a regional community that publicly backed the decision. Amazon is paying penalties on two continents. And at David Jones, an Australian retail leader with an e-commerce brain has just taken the top job. Every one of those movements shifts a small amount of pricing power, product depth or after-sale protection back toward the household budget. Sunday afternoon is a good time to notice that.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “kids winter jacket under 50” or “quilt cover queen on sale”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on day five of the new year.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Saturday morning, and Australian retail wakes to a genuine changing of the guard. David Jones, the country’s oldest department store at 188 years, has named Erica Berchtold as its first female chief executive, replacing Scott Fyfe. Down the aisle, Coles has confirmed it is in talks to buy Greencross (owner of Petbarn and City Farmers) in a deal reported at close to $4 billion, its biggest strategic swing in more than a decade. At the other end of town, Accent Group’s board is urging shareholders to reject Frasers Group’s hostile 65 cents a share takeover bid. And Amazon has told 16,000 staff they are being cut loose. It is a lot for a Saturday, but the direction is unmistakeable: Australian retail leadership is being remade in real time, and payday super, live from Tuesday, now sits underneath all of it.

David Jones Names Its First Female CEO In 188 Years

Erica Berchtold has been appointed chief executive of David Jones, the first woman to hold the top job in the store’s 188 year history and the sixth chief executive since it was founded on George Street in Sydney in 1838 (Retail Show Australia). Berchtold replaces Scott Fyfe, who exits after a long stretch running the department store through the Woolworths South Africa era, the private equity carve-out and the transition to Anchorage Capital ownership. FashionNetwork’s Australia team framed the appointment as the culmination of a shortlist that had circulated inside the David Jones board for most of the second quarter (FashionNetwork.com).

Berchtold arrives with a resume that reads like a tour of Australian premium retail: former chief executive of The Iconic during its ownership under Global Fashion Group, prior senior roles at Country Road Group, and a stint at David Jones itself earlier in her career. The West Australian’s business desk positioned the move alongside the broader premium department store rebuild that Anchorage Capital has been running since it took the reins (The West Australian retail desk). Chair Bruce Rockowitz said in the appointment statement that Berchtold’s task is to sharpen the David Jones proposition against a rebuilt Myer, an aggressive premium-fashion pure-play from The Iconic, and a beauty and cosmetics category that is being fought over by MECCA, Sephora and Chemist Warehouse’s Ultra Beauty roll-out.

For the Australian shopper the read is optimistic. Berchtold’s history at The Iconic points to a leader who reads e-commerce data closely, moves quickly on product depth in womenswear and beauty, and is unafraid to trim under-performing categories. Expect David Jones’s beauty hall, its private-label womenswear line and its home category to see the sharpest early changes. Loyalty program mechanics (the reworked David Jones Rewards) are also likely to see refinement inside the first hundred days. If you shop David Jones regularly, the next six months will be the most interesting the store has had in a decade.

Coles Confirms Talks To Buy Petbarn Owner Greencross

Coles Group has confirmed it is in advanced discussions with US private equity firm TPG Capital to acquire Greencross, the Australian pet care platform that owns Petbarn, City Farmers and Greencross Vet Hospitals, in a deal Reuters reported at close to $4 billion (Reuters, 1 July 2026). Coles chief executive Leah Weckert said the talks are incomplete and that the outcome is not certain, but the confirmation alone was enough to send Coles shares 4.2 per cent lower on the day as the market digested the scale of a category diversification well outside the supermarket’s traditional beat.

Greencross runs more than 250 Petbarn and City Farmers stores across Australia and New Zealand, plus a national veterinary network. For Coles, the strategic logic is a defensive push into pet care, a category running at a decade of compounding growth as pet ownership in Australia sits at record highs and premium pet food and vet spend continues to outpace grocery inflation. It is also a fenced-off category where the two supermarket majors have historically had minimal presence, unlike toys, apparel or homewares where they have retreated. For shoppers who buy pet food and supplies, the near-term implication is a possible loyalty-program tie-in (FlyBuys reaching into Petbarn) if the deal proceeds, and heightened competitive pressure on independent pet retailers and PETstock (owned by Woolworths) through the second half of 2026.

Accent Group Rejects Frasers’ Hostile Takeover Bid

The board of Accent Group has urged shareholders to reject a hostile 65 cents per share off-market takeover bid from British billionaire Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group, calling the offer “significantly inadequate” and undervaluing the Australian-listed footwear retailer (The West Australian). The bid opened on 30 June and runs to approximately 30 July 2026. Inside Retail’s coverage set out the board’s argument that the offer fails to account for the growth potential of the wholesale distribution business, the Skechers Australia partnership and the pipeline of new Nude Lucy stores (Inside Retail).

France-Epargne’s investor-facing summary emphasised that the Accent board’s rejection is unanimous and that the independent expert report accompanying the target’s statement placed a fair value materially above the 65 cents on offer (France-Epargne). Accent Group owns and operates The Athlete’s Foot, Platypus, Skechers Australia, Hype DC, Stylerunner, Nude Lucy and Glue Store, distributing footwear brands including Vans, Merrell and Timberland across Australia and New Zealand. For the Australian shopper, the immediate implication is unchanged: continue shopping the Accent brands and their sale ranges as normal. If Frasers were to ultimately succeed, the risk is a shift in inventory strategy toward the Sports Direct discount model, which could compress the premium positioning that stores like Platypus and Stylerunner currently occupy.

Amazon Cuts 16,000 Jobs Globally

Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy has confirmed the company is cutting approximately 16,000 corporate jobs globally, part of an ongoing efficiency drive that has now stretched across multiple rounds since 2023 (Fidelity syndication of the Reuters wire, 28 June 2026). The cuts land on top of the ACCC’s Federal Court proceedings over Prime Video contract changes filed in Australia earlier this week, and follow a US Federal Trade Commission settlement over the Prime signup and cancellation flow. For Australian employees the specific national breakdown has not been published, but the impacted teams sit across corporate, operations planning and devices.

The read for the Australian shopper is unchanged from Monday’s brief. Continue to be cautious with any long-term subscription commitment where the seller can unilaterally alter terms mid-contract, keep pressure on marketplace operators over transparent pricing and delivery representations, and prefer Australian-owned retailers where locally negotiated consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law apply cleanly. For pet supplies, fashion and beauty in particular, the alternative Australian retailers featured in today’s Top 6 are stronger picks on both service and returns terms.

Payday Super Kicks In: Retail Workers See Compulsory Super Weekly

From 1 July, payday super became mandatory across Australia. Employers must now remit compulsory superannuation contributions within seven business days of every payday, rather than the previous quarterly cadence (Lawpath compliance summary). Lander and Rogers’s employment team walked through the operational implications for retail employers, most of whom pay staff weekly or fortnightly (Lander and Rogers). The Guardian Australia’s Katy Gallagher framed payday super alongside the minimum wage rise and the paid parental leave extension as the three biggest 1 July shifts for Australian workers (The Guardian, 30 June 2026).

For retail workers, the practical benefit is significant. Prior to 1 July, an award-covered retail assistant on a weekly pay cycle could be owed up to 13 weeks of super contributions at any given time (all payable quarterly, and subject to the risk of unpaid super if the employer ran into cash-flow trouble). Under payday super, the money now lands in the employee’s fund within a week of each pay day, which materially reduces the risk of unpaid super and slightly increases lifetime compounding. Retail employers who paid quarterly are now paying weekly or fortnightly, which imposes a real cash-flow discipline on the sector but is now legally non-negotiable.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Restock The Household

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from yesterday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on Saturday.

1Today’s Top
DiscountBest&LessKids FashionItem-level cuts up to 88 per cent off Best&Less’s Clearance rail: kids fashion, teen apparel, womenswear, homewares and underwear from the Sydney-headquartered Australian-owned value department chain, with verified item-level cuts like the Girls Tie Front Linen Vest at $1.98 down from $16 and click and collect from more than 190 stores across the country.88%OFF2MacpacOutdoorUp to 71 per cent off Macpac’s clearance range: technical outerwear, insulated jackets, kids adventure apparel, hiking pants, base layers and travel packs from the Australian-owned outdoor brand (part of ASX-listed Super Retail Group), with verified item-level cuts like the Kids’ Pack-It Jacket at $22.77 down from $79.99 and free delivery on orders over $100.71%OFF3Colette by Colette HaymanWomens FashionItem-level cuts up to 69 per cent off Colette by Colette Hayman’s Sale: crossbody bags, wallets, jewellery, sunglasses, hair accessories and travel pieces from the Brookvale-based Australian-owned accessories brand, with verified item-level cuts like the Denim Chrissy Wallet at $9 down from $29 and free shipping on orders over $80.69%OFF4Chemist WarehousePharmacyItem-level cuts up to 68 per cent off Chemist Warehouse’s Clearance: skincare, cosmetics, haircare, fragrance, vitamins, oral care and everyday health basics from the family-owned Australian pharmacy giant, with verified item-level cuts like the NYX Bridgerton Butter Gloss at $5 down from $15.99 and click and collect from more than 600 stores nationwide.68%OFF5RockwearSportUp to 64 per cent off Rockwear’s Sale: leggings, sports bras, activewear tops, tees, joggers and gym accessories from the Queensland-founded Australian-owned womens activewear brand, with verified item-level cuts like the Luxe Acid Wash Boyfriend Tee at $20 down from $54.99 and free shipping on orders over $100.64%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, another handful of Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts this weekend. JB Hi-Fi‘s This Weeks Hottest Deals is live with cuts up to 60 per cent, including the ECOVACS DEEBOT N50 Omni Robotic Vacuum at $799 down from $1,999 from the ASX-listed Australian electronics retailer (the Top 6 ticker pick today). David Jones is running EOFY discounts up to 50 per cent on the Erica Berchtold era’s first sale event, with an extra 20 per cent off clearance. Target Australia‘s Clearance is holding at 4,364 products live with a 20 per cent off toys and kidswear sub-promotion running under the Wesfarmers-owned discount department chain. Domayne‘s Hot Deals continues into July from the Australian furniture retailer. Koala‘s clearance is live on mattresses, sofas and bed frames from the Australian-founded direct-to-consumer bedding brand. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

Four days into the new financial year the tone is set. The two biggest premium retail leadership stories of the calendar year (Berchtold at David Jones, and Coles making a $4 billion swing at Petbarn) landed within 72 hours of each other. Accent Group is defending itself against a hostile British bid. Amazon is cutting corporate staff globally on top of an active ACCC court case. Every one of those decisions gets made against the same backdrop of payday super rules, higher award wages, tighter grocery enforcement and the annual EOFY tax cut hitting employee bank balances. The Australian retail landscape on 4 July 2026 is genuinely different from what it was on 4 July 2025, and the pace of change is accelerating.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “kids winter jacket under 50” or “womens leggings on sale size 12”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on day four of the new year.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Day three of the new financial year, and Friday brings a payday-sized cluster of shifts for the Australian shopper. The national minimum wage lifts 6 per cent to $26.44 an hour, taking the weekly floor above $1,000 for the first time, with modern-award rates up 4.75 per cent in step. The competition regulator has filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon Australia over allegedly unfair Prime Video contract changes that stung more than a million local subscribers. The fuel excise has been cut in half to 16 cents a litre until 2 August, with the ACCC on the record telling service stations not to pocket the difference. And the penalty unit that anchors every fixed fine in the country ticks up from $330 to $364. The wallet is a little heavier this morning, and so are the consequences for anyone caught misbehaving in the retail market.

The Minimum Wage Just Crossed A Thousand Dollars A Week

From 1 July, the National Minimum Wage rose 6 per cent to $26.44 per hour, or $1,004.90 for a 38 hour week (Hall and Wilcox employment law summary). Modern award minimum wages lifted 4.75 per cent on the same day, flowing through to more than 2 million Australian workers on award-reliant pay (OAHI payroll compliance briefing). The Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review 2025 to 26 decision, handed down in early June and taking effect from the first full pay period after 1 July, is the largest wage rise ordered by the Commission in six years.

Katy Gallagher, writing for The Guardian ahead of the changeover, framed the package alongside the day one lift in super to 12 per cent, paid parental leave stretching from 24 to 26 weeks with super attached, and payday super rules requiring employer contributions in step with wages from 2026-27 (Guardian Australia, 30 June 2026). Retail Trade sits among the highest-concentration award-reliant industries in the country, so the flow-on effect is largest in supermarket checkouts, apparel shops, homewares and quick service retail. Inside Retail’s Aleksandra Cvetanoska analysed the operating cost implications for retailers who employ under General Retail Industry Award pay bands (Inside Retail, 30 June 2026).

For the shopper the read is direct. The wage floor lift is a genuine consumer stimulus into July, particularly for lower-quintile households where retail spending is more elastic. Combined with the stage 3 tax cuts that landed a full financial year ago and continue to compound, disposable income is materially higher on 3 July than it was on 3 July 2025. The counter-signal is the modest but real cost pressure this puts on retailers who employ a lot of award-covered staff, which is most of the mid-tier fashion, homewares and hospitality chains. Watch pricing behaviour across those categories over July and August: some will absorb, some will pass through.

ACCC Files Federal Court Case Against Amazon Prime Video

The competition regulator has filed proceedings in the Federal Court against Amazon Commercial Services Pty Ltd over allegedly unfair contract terms used to introduce mid-contract advertising and price hikes on Prime Video (Nassim Khadem for ABC News, 30 June 2026). The regulator alleges more than one million Australian Prime subscribers were affected between November 2023 and August 2025, when ads were rolled into Prime Video and the ad-free tier was introduced as a paid upgrade without meaningful consent from existing annual subscribers.

Yahoo Finance framed the Australian case alongside a fresh US Federal Trade Commission settlement, describing it as a regulatory two-front week for the marketplace giant (Yahoo Finance, 30 June 2026). Under recent amendments to the Australian Consumer Law, penalties for unfair contract terms can now reach the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover during the breach period (NewsGram international coverage). ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in the filing statement that the case will test how far a subscription platform can rewrite the deal on customers who have already paid up front for a year.

For the Australian shopper the practical implication is unchanged from Monday. Audit every one-year prepaid streaming, membership or software subscription for adverse-changes clauses, and be sceptical of any product that quietly moves you from an ad-free experience to an ad-supported one mid-contract. If you were caught by the Prime Video shift between November 2023 and August 2025, the ACCC’s proceedings do not automatically compensate you, but a successful case is likely to open the door to redress.

Fuel Excise Halved To 16 Cents A Litre

The federal government’s temporary fuel excise cut took effect on 1 July, halving the excise from 51.6 cents a litre to 25.8 cents a litre, and dropping through to a headline saving of approximately 16 cents a litre at the pump once GST and retail margins are accounted for. The cut runs until 2 August. The ACCC has publicly warned retail service stations not to hold the reduction back at the bowser (AMR Times reporting the West Australian’s coverage). Broker.com.au’s mid-year macro summary places the excise cut alongside the RBA holding the cash rate at 3.85 per cent, framing July as a modest household-cash-flow reprieve (Broker.com.au macro roundup).

The shopper move is to compare the board price at your regular fuel outlet against the state average on accc.gov.au fuel price monitoring before filling. Any servo running noticeably above the state average through July can be reported to the regulator, and the reports feed the ACCC’s next petrol monitoring report. Because the excise cut is temporary, retailers who use fuel intensively (last-mile logistics, in-store cafes, food service) can also plausibly pass on softer freight costs through July. Watch supermarket fuel dockets: the 4 cents a litre discount is now stacking against a lower base.

Penalty Units Just Went Up: Fixed Fines Bite Harder

Also from 1 July, the Commonwealth penalty unit rose from $330 to $364, a 10.3 per cent lift indexed under section 4AA of the Crimes Act (ACCC fines and penalties reference). Every fixed-dollar penalty that references a penalty unit ticks up in step, which is most of the sanctions in the Australian Consumer Law, Competition and Consumer Act, and hundreds of secondary regulations. Johnson Winter Slattery’s competition team walked through the flow-on for corporate breaches, noting the corporate maximum for a competition or consumer law contravention is now the greater of $100 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of adjusted Australian turnover during the breach period (JWS commercial law update).

Sitting alongside the price-gouging prohibition on Coles and Woolworths (still live from Tuesday, see ACCC supermarket excessive-pricing prohibition), and SBS News’s explainer on how the ban lands for consumers (SBS News explainer, 1 July 2026), the enforcement environment for large retailers going into the second week of the new year is measurably tighter than it was a fortnight ago. Andrew Leigh MP’s summary of the government’s price-gouging framework (Andrew Leigh policy note) sets out the political logic behind the tightening. For the shopper it is simple: if you spot a “was” price at a major supermarket that looks confected, or a subscription auto-renewal that quietly shifted terms, report it. The reports actually go somewhere now.

Five Fresh Australian Stores To Spend That Wage Rise

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from yesterday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on day three of the new financial year.

1Today’s Top
DiscountKmartDiscount StoreItem-level cuts up to 97 per cent off Kmart’s Clearance rail: kids sports bottles, toys, homewares, apparel and pantry basics from the Australian-owned discount department chain, with verified item-level cuts like the Sage Sports Bottle Bag at $0.20 down from $6 and click and collect from more than 300 stores nationwide.50%OFF2SussanWomens FashionUp to 93 per cent off Sussan’s On Sale collection: womens tops, dresses, denim, knitwear, sleepwear and accessories from the Melbourne-founded Australian-owned womens fashion brand, with verified item-level cuts like the Silver Oval Stud Earrings at $1 down from $14.95 and free delivery on orders over $100.93%OFF3Pillow TalkBeddingItem-level cuts up to 92 per cent off Pillow Talk’s Shop All Sale: quilt covers, sheet sets, cushions, towels, table linen and seasonal placemats from the Australian-owned bedding and homewares specialist, with verified item-level cuts like the Gingerbread Christmas Paper Placemat 24 Pack at $0.97 down from $12.95 and click and collect from more than 65 stores.40%OFF4Novo ShoesFootwearUp to 81 per cent off Novo Shoes’s sale range: heels, boots, flats, sandals and workwear from the Australian-owned footwear retailer founded in 1976, with verified item-level cuts like the Zylvia Silver Heel at $15 down from $79.95 and free Australian shipping on orders over $70.81%OFF5Mr Toys ToyworldToysItem-level cuts up to 80 per cent off Mr Toys Toyworld’s Toy Sale: preschool, dolls, construction, board games, plush and outdoor toys from the Queensland-founded Australian-owned toy retailer, with verified item-level cuts like the Tile Town Pet Vet playset at $19.97 down from $99 and click and collect from stores across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, another handful of Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts as the EOFY tail plays out. Myer has its Stocktake Sale live with a further 60 per cent off, including the Jamie Oliver Tefal Triple Frypan Set at $125 down from $429.95 (the Top 6 ticker pick today) from the ASX-listed Australian department store. Rebel Sport is still running up to 50 per cent off selected footwear and activewear. Temple and Webster‘s EOFY Sale continues at up to 50 per cent off with the Gala 4 Seater Boucle Sofa with Double Chaise at $1,199 down from $2,499 from the ASX-listed Australian-owned furniture retailer. Macpac‘s up to 50 per cent off apparel continues from the Australian-owned outdoor brand. Domayne‘s Half Yearly Sale is extended with 55 per cent off selected accessories. All Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

Three days into the new year the picture is settling. Households are carrying a genuine cash tailwind this month (bigger wages, lower fuel, tighter grocery enforcement, higher fines for anyone who tries to game either shoppers or subscribers). The retailer picture is more mixed: mid-tier chains with heavy award-covered workforces are absorbing a real wage lift while trying to hold sticker prices through the EOFY tail, and the biggest players are operating under enforcement scrutiny that has genuinely stepped up. The shopper move this week is to use the lower fuel and higher take-home pay to consolidate deferred household purchases (bedding, footwear, kids essentials, small furniture) while retailers are still clearing FY2025 to 26 stock. And if you see something that looks off (a suspicious grocery ticket, a mid-contract subscription tweak, a servo not passing through the excise cut) report it. The regulator has three fresh sticks this week and looks willing to use them.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “kids school stationery under 10” or “womens boots size 8 on sale”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on day three of the new year.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Day two of the new financial year, and the shopper’s world has quietly rewired overnight. As of Tuesday, Coles and Woolworths sit under a world-first excessive-pricing prohibition, with the ACCC now empowered to interrogate any grocery sticker it finds significantly above the cost of supply plus a reasonable margin. On the same morning the regulator blocked a proposed Coles lease in Kalgoorlie, the first use of its new merger powers to protect a smaller local competitor. Australia Post lifts parcel, Express Post and international rates from today, which reshapes the shipping economics of every EOFY tail deal. And the retail sector heads into July on the back of a 5.8 per cent lift in annual spending. The pieces on the board have moved.

The Price-Gouging Ban Is Live: Coles And Woolies On The Clock

From 1 July, any grocery retailer with more than $30 billion in annual Australian revenue (currently only Coles and Woolworths) is prohibited from engaging in excessive pricing of grocery products (ACCC pricing guidance). The new prohibition is an addition to the Food and Grocery Code, defining excessive pricing as pricing that is “significantly excessive when compared to the costs to the supermarket to supply the product plus a reasonable margin”. Financial penalties for a breach are the greater of $10 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 10 per cent of adjusted annual turnover.

ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe framed the enforcement posture on ABC AM this morning: “This isn’t about preventing price increases when justified. It’s about ensuring that there is a valid rationale for those increases” (Isabel Moussalli reporting for ABC AM with Barbara Miller, 1 July 2026). The regulator has flagged it will pick priority product categories using consumer and supplier reports, then work backwards through supermarket cost and margin data. Julia Kanapathippillai’s analysis for Mediaweek notes the same day the regulator blocked a proposed Coles supermarket lease in Kalgoorlie WA (Mediaweek, 26 June 2026), the first live use of its expanded merger powers to protect a smaller regional competitor.

For the shopper the read is practical. The new law is unlikely to move sticker prices overnight (the regulator itself acknowledges the difficulty of proof), but the disclosure and monitoring regime is a real one. Any shopper who spots a suspicious “was” price at Coles or Woolies can now report it via accc.gov.au, and the report joins the ACCC’s priority-monitoring pool. Combined with the Federal Court’s May decision that 13 of 14 Coles “Down Down” tickets were misleading (Justice O’Bryan, penalties pending, theoretically up to $650 million), the pricing-disclosure environment for the majors is meaningfully tighter than it was a fortnight ago.

Australia Post Lifts Parcel And Express Prices Today

From this morning, Australia Post has raised prices across the domestic Parcel Post and Express Post services, international parcel and letter services, local pickup and delivery, mail redirection and mail hold, unaddressed mail, and MyPost Business rates (Australia Post 2026 pricing update). Passport and ID photo services also rose. The changes flow directly into the shipping economics of every online retailer that uses Australia Post for standard delivery.

The shopper move is straightforward. Ahead of the EOFY tail (many Australian retailers keep their end-of-financial-year deals live for the first few days of July), consolidate multi-item orders into a single delivery to spread the higher postage across more units. Chase “free shipping over $X” thresholds, which most Australian-owned retailers still honour and which now save more than they did last week. And check whether your favourite retailer absorbs the change or passes it on: many mid-tier retailers have historically eaten small postage rises to keep basket abandonment down, but a rise of this scale is likely to surface on the checkout screens of the shipping-heaviest categories (homewares, furniture, larger apparel orders).

Retail Spending Enters July On A 5.8 Per Cent Uplift

Australian retail turnover grew 5.8 per cent over the year to May 2026 to $39.67 billion, with growth recorded across every retail category (Australian Retail Council media release). Australian Retail Council Chief Economist Glenn Fahey said the figures show resilience despite subdued consumer confidence and ongoing cost-of-living pressure. Northern Territory (up 8.1 per cent) and Western Australia (up 7.3 per cent) recorded the strongest state growth, while Victoria (5.1 per cent) and New South Wales (5.3 per cent) saw more moderate lifts.

The ABS’s Monthly Household Spending Indicator confirms the story from the demand side: May 2026 household spending rose 1.3 per cent month on month, reversing April’s 1.1 per cent drop, with clothing and footwear (up 2.7 per cent) leading the rebound followed by miscellaneous goods and services and transport (ABS media release, 25 June 2026). Reuters framed the number as evidence household demand is holding despite the RBA’s cash rate sitting at 4.35 per cent, which the market now regards as the peak of the cycle (Reuters, 25 June 2026). The Q2 CPI print due 29 July is the next real hinge for household planning.

Amazon Prime Case Rolls Into Court: Regulator On Two Fronts

Yesterday’s lead is still developing. The ACCC’s Federal Court action against Amazon Australia over alleged unfair Prime contract terms sits alongside a fresh US Federal Trade Commission settlement, with Yahoo Finance framing the pair as a regulatory two-front week for the marketplace giant (Yahoo Finance, 30 June 2026). The Australian case, filed 30 June, targets Amazon Commercial Services Pty Ltd over five allegedly unfair terms used to introduce ads to Prime Video mid-contract. For the Australian shopper the practical implication is unchanged from yesterday’s brief: audit every one-year prepaid subscription for adverse-changes clauses.

Five Fresh Australian Stores For Day Two Of FY2026 To 27

Five stores. Five categories. All fresh names today (none carried over from yesterday’s Top 6), audited at dawn on day two of the new financial year.

1Today’s Top
DiscountBooktopiaBooksUp to 90 per cent off Booktopia’s Big Book Sale: kids and teens fiction, cookbooks, biographies, novels and reference from the Sydney-based Australian-owned online bookseller, with verified item-level cuts like the Morganville Vampires Book 3 at $4.75 down from $19.99 and free Australian shipping on orders over $60.90%OFF2Best & LessValue FashionItem-level cuts up to 86 per cent off Best and Less’s $2 and Under clearance rail: kids stationery, socks, undies, tees and value basics from the Australian-owned value fashion chain, with verified item-level cuts like the Pop Note Pad Assorted at $0.98 down from $7.00 and click and collect from more than 200 stores.86%OFF3David JonesDepartment StoreUp to 80 per cent off David Jones’s mid-year sale: homewares, cookware, glassware, beauty, fashion and manchester from the iconic Australian department store, with verified item-level cuts like the Orrefors More Multi Tumbler 4 Pack at $55 down from $145 plus an extra 50 per cent off selected sale styles at checkout.80%OFF4SmiggleKids & ToysItem-level cuts up to 77 per cent off Smiggle’s Nothing Over $50 sale: pencil cases, backpacks, lunchboxes, water bottles and keyrings from the Melbourne-founded Australian-owned kids stationery brand, with verified item-level cuts like the Peeps Alphabet Keyring at $3.00 down from $12.95 and click and collect from Smiggle stores nationwide.77%OFF5Chemist WarehouseBeauty & HealthItem-level cuts up to 68 per cent off Chemist Warehouse’s clearance: makeup, skincare, vitamins, fragrance, haircare and pharmacy from Australia’s largest chemist chain, with verified item-level cuts like the NYX Bridgerton Angel Food Cake Royal Butter Gloss at $5.00 down from $15.99 and free delivery on orders over $50.68%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, another five Australian-owned stores are running strong cuts as the EOFY tail plays out. Temple and Webster has its EOFY Sale live at up to 50 per cent off, with the Gala 4 Seater Boucle Sofa with Double Chaise at $1,199 down from $2,499 (the Top 6 ticker pick today) from the ASX-listed Australian-owned furniture retailer. Rebel Sport is running up to 50 per cent off selected footwear including the Theragun Prime G5 at $275 down from $499. Domayne‘s Half Yearly Sale is extended with 55 per cent off selected accessories. Kmart‘s clearance is live from the Australian-owned discount department chain. Macpac‘s up to 50 per cent off apparel continues from the Australian-owned outdoor brand. All five are Australian-owned or locally fulfilled and worth a scan.

Our Take

The consumer regulator has just moved from prosecuting individual “was” price offences (Coles Down Down, JB Hi-Fi) to sitting in the enforcement chair on Coles and Woolworths pricing full time. That change is structural. It does not lower a single sticker this morning, but it changes the settings on every future price rise: the burden of proof on “significantly excessive” pricing now sits with the two biggest chains and the ACCC. Combined with the parcel rate lift from Australia Post and the wage plus tax uplift that arrived yesterday, the household enters the second day of the new year with a materially different mix of cash in and cash out. The move for shoppers this week is to lock in EOFY tail purchases while retailers are still absorbing postage, and to route any high-conviction grocery complaints to the ACCC where they now count.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “kids school stationery” or “boucle sofa under 1500”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on day two of the new year.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Day one of the 2026 to 2027 financial year, and three things land in the shopper’s lap on the same morning. The National Minimum Wage steps up 5.97 per cent to $1,004.90 a week. The income tax rate on the $18,201 to $45,000 bracket falls from 16 per cent to 15 per cent. Paid parental leave extends from 24 to 26 weeks at the minimum wage, payday super begins, and the Super Guarantee reaches 12 per cent. At the same time, the consumer regulator has just pressed the button on its biggest subscription-economy case of 2026: a Federal Court action against Amazon Australia over allegedly unfair Prime contract terms that paved the way for ads on Prime Video. The first pay packet of the new year is bigger, and the consumer watchdog is on the warpath.

The ACCC Just Sued Amazon Australia Over Prime Video Ads

On Tuesday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission filed proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against Amazon Australia (Amazon Commercial Services Pty Ltd) over allegedly unfair contract terms in Prime annual subscriptions. The case alleges Amazon AU included five unfair terms in its Prime contracts between November 2023 and August 2025, and then relied on those terms to introduce advertising to Prime Video in July 2024 and charge subscribers an extra $2.99 per month for an ad-free option, with no refund offered to subscribers who chose to cancel (Amber Schultz reporting for Bloomberg, 30 June 2026).

ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in a statement that “Amazon AU included multiple unfair terms in its contracts with Australian annual Prime subscribers, and it then relied on some of these terms to bring ads onto Amazon Prime Video” (Lim Hui Jie reporting for CNBC, 30 June 2026). More than 850,000 annual Prime subscribers in Australia were affected, and the ACCC has also alleged that Amazon US (Amazon.com Services LLC) was knowingly concerned in the conduct (Caron Beaton-Wells writing for The Conversation, 30 June 2026). The maximum financial penalty is the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of adjusted turnover during the breach period.

For the shopper the read is direct. Any recurring subscription (streaming, mobile plan, energy retail, gym, software, news, kids subscription box) bought as a one-year prepaid product can have its terms quietly degraded mid-contract. The ACCC case sends a market-wide signal that adverse-changes clauses without pro-rata refunds will not stand. The lever every household has tonight is to read the cancellation and adverse-changes clauses on every recurring spend before the next renewal, and flag any one-year prepay where the terms can be unilaterally degraded.

The Pay Rise Starts Working Through Pay Slips Today

The Fair Work Commission’s 2026 Annual Wage Review takes effect with the first full pay period on or after 1 July. The National Minimum Wage lifts 5.97 per cent, taking the weekly rate from $948.00 to $1,004.90, or $26.44 per hour (Australian Unions minimum wage fact sheet). Modern award minimum wages rise 4.75 per cent across the board, benefiting around 2.8 million Australian workers, with the lowest-paid 100,000 entry-level workers receiving the bigger 5.97 per cent uplift (Caitlin Cassidy and Sarah Basford Canales writing for the Guardian, 30 June 2026).

The income tax cut compounds with the wage rise. The marginal rate on the $18,201 to $45,000 bracket steps down from 16 per cent to 15 per cent, worth up to $268 per taxpayer per year (Effie Zahos and team at Canstar). For a full-time minimum-wage worker the combined uplift, weekly cash plus annual tax saving, is the most meaningful real-wage shift since the 2024 stage 3 cuts. The first pay packet of the new financial year is the moment a household budget gets to recalibrate.

Payday Super, Parental Leave, And Two State-Level Cost-Of-Living Wins

From this morning, employers must pay superannuation simultaneously with wages instead of quarterly (the payday super regime starts). The Super Guarantee also reaches 12 per cent today, completing the SG ramp-up. Paid parental leave at the National Minimum Wage extends from 24 to 26 weeks (an extra 10 days, totalling 130 days) for children born or adopted from today, giving Australian parents a full six months of paid leave at the floor wage (ABC News, 30 June 2026).

Two state-level wins land at the same time. In NSW, toll relief and public transport relief measures begin today. In Victoria, the Essential Services Commission cuts the default electricity price for the 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 period. Standing electricity plans in NSW and south-east Queensland are also expected to fall between 3.4 per cent and 10.7 per cent versus 2025 to 2026 (Tory Shepherd writing for The Guardian, syndicated via Inkl). The household budget enters the new year materially lighter on fixed costs in two of the three biggest state energy markets, on top of the wage and tax wins.

Five Fresh Australian Stores For Day One Of FY2026 To 27

Five stores. Five categories. Six fresh names today (none repeated from yesterday’s EOFY close), audited at dawn on day one of the new financial year.

1Today’s Top
DiscountSurfstitchSurf & ActiveUp to 90 per cent off Surfstitch’s sale: tees, hoodies, board shorts, dresses, swim, fleece and outerwear from the Gold Coast-founded Australian-owned surf retailer, with a stand-out item-level cut like the Nat’v Basics Miami Bodysuit at $6 down from $60 and free Australian shipping on orders over $100.90%OFF2MyerDepartment StoreUp to 82 per cent off Myer’s Stocktake Sale: homewares, kitchenware, beauty, fashion, manchester and small appliances from the iconic Australian-owned department store, with verified item-level cuts like the KitchenAid Medium Stoneware Baker at $10 down from $56 and click and collect from 50 plus stores nationwide.82%OFF3DuskHomewares & CandlesUp to 80 per cent off Dusk’s End of Season Sale: candles, diffusers, incense, ceramics, throws, bath and home fragrance from the Australian-owned candle and home specialist, with verified item-level cuts like the Nova White Incense Holder at $5 down from $24.99 and click and collect from 130 plus Australian stores.80%OFF4JB Hi-FiElectronicsUp to 54 per cent off JB Hi-Fi’s hottest deals: robot vacuums, tablets, smart watches, laptops, headphones, TVs and small kitchen from the iconic Australian-owned electronics chain, with verified item-level cuts like the ECOVACS X11 OmniCyclone robot vacuum at $1,388 down from $2,999 and click and collect from 200 plus stores nationwide.53%OFF5Pillow TalkBeddingUp to 52 per cent off Pillow Talk’s storewide sale: quilt covers, sheets, pillowcases, throws, towels, decor and bath from the Australian-owned bedding specialist, with verified item-level cuts like the Isadora Palm European Pillowcase at $11.95 down from $24.95 and free shipping on orders over $100.52%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, five other Australian-owned stores are still running deep cuts this morning. Koala is at 30 per cent off the Bottlebrush Rug at $315 from $450 from the Sydney-headquartered Australian-owned furniture and mattress brand (the Top 6 ticker pick today). Target is running an extended clearance from the Australian-owned mid-market department chain. Best and Less has its winter clearance live from the Australian-owned value fashion retailer. Lightspot is still running up to 89 per cent off the lighting clearance from the South Australian-owned lighting specialist. Macpac has continued the up to 50 per cent off Macpac apparel range from the Australian-owned outdoor brand. None are in today’s Top 5 but each is worth a scan over morning coffee.

Our Take

Day one of the new financial year is the strongest combined household uplift since the 2024 stage 3 cuts. The wage rise, the tax bracket cut, the parental leave extension and the energy price falls in two states all land at once. At the same time the ACCC’s Amazon case is the loudest message to the subscription economy in years: unilateral mid-contract degradations of paid services without refunds will be litigated. The two stories together tell a single shopper story. The household enters FY2026 to 27 with more weekly cash, lower fixed costs, and a regulator on the side of the consumer challenging the contracts the household signs without reading. The discipline this morning is to take the uplift, audit the recurring subscriptions for unfair adverse-changes clauses, and put the freed dollars into items the household actually uses.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built for that decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “winter work shoes” or “robot vacuum under 1500”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Browse Today’s Sales on day one of the new year.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

The very last day. Tuesday 30 June closes the 2025 to 2026 financial year at midnight tonight, and tomorrow morning three big consumer-side levers all flip together. The National Minimum Wage lifts 5.97 per cent to $1,004.90 per week (or $26.44 per hour). The income tax rate on the $18,201 to $45,000 bracket steps down from 16 per cent to 15 per cent. And the new $1,000 instant tax deduction (no receipts required) becomes live for around 6.2 million Australian workers. Tonight is the household’s last chance to convert genuine work purchases into a deduction on the 2026 tax return. The retailer’s final lever, the markdown signage, is at its sharpest of the cycle.

The National Minimum Wage Lifts To $1,004.90 Per Week Tomorrow

The Fair Work Commission published its 2026 Annual Wage Review decision on 3 June, and the package starts working through pay packets from the first full pay period on or after 1 July. The National Minimum Wage lifts 5.97 per cent, taking the weekly rate from $948.00 to $1,004.90 (or $26.44 per hour). Modern award minimum wages rise 4.75 per cent across the board (Fair Work Centre summary of the 2026 Annual Wage Review, 4 June 2026). For the around 2.6 million Australians whose pay is set directly by an award, the lift lands in the first pay slip of the new financial year.

Solicitors Patrice Mucciaroni and Jasper McLane of Johnson Winter Slattery covered the package in their June 2026 employment update, noting alongside the wage decision that the Superannuation Guarantee also reaches 12 per cent on 1 July (the final scheduled step of the SG ramp), and that Victoria has separately legislated a statutory right for eligible employees to request work from home. For the shopper the read is direct: the next pay packet is the meaningful weekly bump since the 2024 stage 3 cuts. The dollar lands in the household budget on Friday week for most weekly-paid workers.

The 16 Per Cent Tax Bracket Falls To 15 Per Cent From Tomorrow

1 July is also the day the second leg of the recalibrated stage 3 cuts begins. The marginal tax rate on the $18,201 to $45,000 bracket steps down from 16 per cent to 15 per cent. The maximum saving on the new bracket alone is $268 per taxpayer per year, and the cut compounds with the 5.97 per cent NMW lift for low to middle income households (ATO published resident tax rates for 2026 to 2027). Combined with the new $1,000 instant tax deduction that goes live with the 2026 to 2027 income year (no receipts required, benefiting around 6.2 million workers when the 2027 return is lodged), the household balance sheet steps into the new financial year with three meaningful consumer-side wins inside 24 hours.

Lawpath’s summary of the 17 changes hitting Australian businesses on 1 July 2026 lists the package end to end. For the EOFY shopper this morning the implication is targeted: the dollar earned tomorrow lands in a slightly bigger pay packet under a slightly lower marginal rate, and the dollar spent tonight (on genuine work-related items) lands in the 2026 tax return that the household can lodge from tomorrow. The dollar spent on the same item from Wednesday onward loses the deduction lever for 12 months. The arithmetic favours acting tonight.

The Deduction Window Closes Tonight At Midnight

For Australian shoppers, any purchase made today that qualifies as a work-related expense can be claimed in the 2026 tax return lodged from tomorrow, while anything bought after midnight tonight rolls into the 2026 to 2027 income year and waits another 12 months for the same deduction. The categories that compound for most working households are familiar: a sturdy desk chair used eight hours a day, a reliable pair of work shoes worn five times a week, a winter work coat that lasts five seasons, a laptop bag, work-from-home consumables, headphones, work tablet accessories, professional development. The retailer’s final 16 hours of markdowns are landing into the exact household decision the deduction window forces.

Stocktake counts roll tomorrow morning in most warehouses, so today’s discounts are also the deepest the retailer can run before next financial year’s inventory accounting locks in. The combination (last deduction day plus last day of EOFY stocktake plus pay rise tomorrow) is the sharpest cluster of consumer levers all year. The discipline tonight is choosing items that compound for the household across multiple seasons, not items that depreciate the moment they leave the warehouse.

ACCC Gets New Tools To Police Unfair Contract Terms

Assistant Minister for Competition Andrew Leigh announced on Monday that the ACCC has been issued new tools to protect consumers and small businesses from unfair contract terms, the latest piece of the unfair contract terms regime that has been tightening since 2023 (Andrew Leigh media release, 29 June 2026). For the Australian shopper the practical read is that the contracts buried in subscription sign-ups, gym memberships, mobile plans, energy retail offers, software services and small-business supply agreements are now under tighter regulatory scrutiny going into the new financial year. The shopper’s lever is the same one always available: read the cancellation clause and the auto-renewal clause before tapping confirm. The regulator’s lever just got sharper.

Five Fresh Australian Stores For The Final EOFY Day

Five stores. Five categories. The deepest verified item-level discounts on Australian-owned retailers, audited at dawn on the last day of EOFY.

1Today’s Top
DiscountLightspotLightingUp to 89 per cent off Lightspot’s clearance specials: pendants, chandeliers, downlights, table and floor lamps, outdoor wall lights and LED strip from the South Australian-owned online lighting specialist, with verified item-level cuts like the Theatre Pendant at $99 down from $884.95 and free shipping over $200 nationwide.89%OFF2KmartHomewaresUp to 83 per cent off Kmart’s clearance category: homewares, kitchen, storage, kids apparel, pet, beauty and stationery from the Australian-owned mass merchant, with stand-out item-level cuts like Milk Notes at 50 cents down from $3 and Pet Treat Duck Bars at $1 down from $5, click and collect from 320 stores nationwide.83%OFF3AlfaberryBaby SuppliesUp to 81 per cent off Alfaberry’s on-sale collection: baby and kids dresses, separates, sleepwear and accessories from the Sydney-designed Australian-owned children’s label, with verified item-level cuts like the Lead Singer Maxi Velvet Dress at $15 down from $79.95, free shipping over $75 and same-day Sydney dispatch on orders before noon.81%OFF4Spendless ShoesFootwearUp to 80 per cent off Spendless Shoes’ women’s sale: heels, flats, boots, sneakers, wedges and workwear from the Adelaide-founded Australian-owned shoe chain, with verified item-level cuts like the SERAPHINA by Vybe at $10 down from $50, free Australian shipping over $60 and click and collect from 200 plus stores nationwide.80%OFF5MacpacOutdoorUp to 71 per cent off Macpac’s clearance: tents, sleeping bags, packs, jackets, fleeces, base layers and hiking pants from the Australian-owned outdoor brand, with verified item-level cuts like the Kids’ Pack-It Jacket at $22.77 down from $79.99, free shipping over $150 and 100 day returns plus the lifetime gear repair promise.71%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, five other Australian-owned stores cleared a meaningful EOFY threshold this morning and are worth a final scan before midnight. Cotton On is at up to 60 per cent off the women’s sale from the Geelong-headquartered Australian-owned fashion group, with the Soleil Sarong marked at $2 from $5. Bonds is running its 3 for $45 men’s underwear and 3 for $39 women’s underwear multi-buys from the iconic Australian-owned basics label. Williams Shoes has a women’s and men’s clearance edge from the Australian-owned footwear chain, with the deeper item-level cuts landing on heritage leather styles. Macpac also has the women’s Aurora Hooded Down Vest at around 50 per cent off as a deep secondary pick beyond rank 5. Lightspot rounds out the deep lighting edge with multiple pendants at 80 per cent plus beyond the rank 1 winner. None are featured in the Top 5 today but each is worth a final tonight check.

Our Take

The last day of EOFY 2026 is also the day the household balance sheet picks up three meaningful consumer-side wins. The pay packet is a fraction larger from Friday week. The marginal rate on the first $45,000 of earned income is a fraction lower. The instant $1,000 deduction simplifies the 2027 return for around 6.2 million workers. The retailer is running the sharpest final-day cuts of the cycle into a household balance sheet that is genuinely better placed than it was a year ago. The opportunity tonight is to take that combined uplift and convert one or two genuine work-related items into a same-year deduction (a desk chair, a pair of work shoes, a laptop bag, a winter work coat) at a markdown that will not be available again for 12 months. The discipline is choosing items the household actually uses.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built exactly for the last-day decision. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “work shoes size 8” or “desk chair under 300”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. The 30 June EOFY cutoff lands at midnight tonight. Browse Today’s Sales before the markdown window closes.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

One sleep to 30 June. The end-of-financial-year window closes at midnight tomorrow, and the macro picture landing on the Australian household this morning is awkwardly split. Headline inflation eased to 4.0 per cent for the year to May, helped by a temporary halving of the fuel excise. But the Reserve Bank’s preferred underlying read, trimmed mean inflation, climbed in the wrong direction to 3.6 per cent (up from 3.4 per cent in April). The RBA held the cash rate at 4.35 per cent in June, but reintroduced explicit language about the possibility of further hikes. The Australian Retail Council is forecasting EOFY 2026 spending growth at just 1.9 per cent, well below the 4.0 per cent inflation print. Retailers chasing soft demand are running their sharpest cuts of the cycle in the last 24 hours. The last EOFY deduction sleep lands tonight.

Headline Inflation Eased To 4.0 Per Cent, But The RBA’s Preferred Measure Worsened

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the May 2026 Monthly Consumer Price Index Indicator on Wednesday 25 June. Headline CPI rose 4.0 per cent over the 12 months to May, down from 4.2 per cent in April. The easing was largely driven by a temporary halving of the fuel excise: automotive fuel prices fell 11.9 per cent in May after a 7.0 per cent drop in April (ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia, May 2026). The good news stops at the headline. Trimmed mean inflation, which strips out volatile items like fuel and is the gauge the Reserve Bank watches most closely, rose to 3.6 per cent year on year, up from 3.4 per cent in April. Housing costs were up 6.0 per cent, food and non-alcoholic beverages up 3.3 per cent, transport up 3.3 per cent.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers, quoted in Jonathan Barrett’s piece in The Guardian, said the figures were “significantly better than what the market anticipated”, while acknowledging that “inflationary pressures persist in our economy”. For Australian shoppers the read is direct. The bills the household cannot avoid (rent and mortgage, groceries, energy and getting to work) are still rising materially faster than wages. The 4.0 per cent headline is genuine relief on the petrol bowser, but the 3.6 per cent core reading means real spending power on discretionary goods is still under pressure. The EOFY clearance shelves are landing into a household balance sheet that is increasingly choosey.

Household Spending Up 1.3 Per Cent, Clothing And Footwear Rising On Early EOFY Markdowns

The ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator for May, also released on 25 June, showed household spending rose 1.3 per cent month on month and 5.5 per cent year on year in seasonally adjusted terms (ABS Household Spending, May 2026). The trend measure rose 0.3 per cent. Inside the print, the ABS specifically flagged that “clothing and footwear spending rose in May following an April fall, driven by discounting across mid-season clearance, stocktake and early end-of-financial year sales events offered by retailers”. The retailer was effectively borrowing the customer back with the markdown, and the household was effectively letting itself be borrowed.

For the shopper this last EOFY morning the implication is targeted. The category where the ABS specifically named EOFY discounting as the demand driver (clothing and footwear) is exactly the category where the deepest verified cuts in our Top 5 sweep landed today. Spendless Shoes has women’s lines at 75 per cent off with item-level verification. The cohort the markdown is aimed at is the cohort that has already proven it is buying. The final 24 hours of markdowns are the retailer’s last lever before stock has to be cleared at any cost.

RBA Held At 4.35 Per Cent, But August Move Back On The Table

The Reserve Bank kept the cash rate unchanged at 4.35 per cent at its 16 June meeting, the fourth consecutive month on hold (Westpac IQ news, 22 June 2026). What stood out was the tone. The post-meeting statement reintroduced an explicit reference to the possibility of lifting rates again if the data stays firm. Westpac’s base case is that the next move could be a hike, with August live if inflation prints do not cool further. ANZ economist Sophia Angala, writing in the ANZ Institutional “Watch” video note (26 June 2026), said household consumption is expected to lift just 1.1 per cent this year, “less than half the pace of growth that it saw for 2025, where it lifted 2.5 per cent”.

The next RBA decision lands on 11 August. For the household with a mortgage the read is the toughest of the cycle: the rate-hold relief was brief, and the trimmed mean lift back to 3.6 per cent puts another 25 basis point hike materially on the table. For the EOFY shopper that translates to discipline. The Australian Retail Council is forecasting EOFY 2026 spending growth at just 1.9 per cent across the season (well below the 4.0 per cent inflation print), and the cohort with mortgage cash-flow pressure is the one the retailer must convert in the final 24 hours. The retailer’s last lever is the markdown signage. Tonight is the final sleep.

EOFY Final 24 Hours: The Deduction Window Closes Tuesday Midnight

Tuesday 30 June is the last day of the 2025 to 2026 financial year. For Australian shoppers, anything purchased today or tomorrow that qualifies as a work-related expense can be claimed in the 2026 tax return lodged from 1 July, while anything bought after midnight Tuesday rolls into the next financial year and waits another 12 months for the deduction. The federal government is also rolling out the new $1,000 instant tax deduction (no receipts required) which benefits around 6.2 million workers, alongside the income tax rate cut from 16 per cent to 15 per cent for earnings between $18,201 and $45,000 (delivering up to $268 back per taxpayer). The combination means the next 36 hours carry unusually high return-on-decision for genuine work purchases: a laptop bag, a desk chair, a pair of work shoes, headphones, a tablet, work-from-home consumables. The same dollar spent next week loses the deduction lever entirely.

Five Fresh Australian Stores For The Final EOFY Sleep

Five stores. Five categories. The deepest headline discounts surfaced from a sweep of every retailer on It’s On Sale, audited at dawn.

1Today’s Top
DiscountLightspotLightingUp to 89 per cent off Lightspot’s clearance specials: pendants, chandeliers, downlights, table and floor lamps, outdoor wall lights and LED strip from the South Australian-owned online lighting specialist, with verified item-level markdowns like the Theatre Pendant at $99 down from $884.95 and the Beck 20 Pendant at $19 down from $149.95, free shipping over $200 nationwide.89%OFF2KmartHomewaresUp to 88 per cent off Kmart’s clearance category: homewares, kitchen, storage, kids apparel, pet, beauty and lighting from the Australian-owned mass merchant, with stand-out item-level cuts like Classic Loafers at $3 (was $25) and Pet Treat Carob Chip Biscuits at $1 (was $6), click and collect from 320 stores nationwide.88%OFF3AlfaberryBaby SuppliesUp to 81 per cent off Alfaberry’s on-sale collection: baby and kids dresses, separates, sleepwear and accessories from the Sydney-designed Australian-owned children’s label, with verified item-level cuts like the Lead Singer Maxi Velvet Dress at $15 (was $79.95), free shipping over $75 and same-day Sydney dispatch on orders before noon.81%OFF4Spendless ShoesFootwearUp to 75 per cent off Spendless Shoes’ women’s sale: heels, flats, boots, sneakers, wedges and workwear from the Adelaide-founded Australian-owned shoe chain, with verified item-level cuts like the WREN by Wildfire at $10 down from $40, free Australian shipping over $60 and click and collect from 200 plus stores nationwide.75%OFF5MacpacOutdoorUp to 50 per cent off Macpac’s clearance: tents, sleeping bags, packs, jackets, fleeces, base layers and hiking pants from the Australian-owned outdoor brand, with verified up to 50 per cent off across leading outdoor gear ranges, free shipping over $150 and 100 day returns plus the lifetime gear repair promise.50%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, six other Australian-owned stores cleared the 60 per cent EOFY threshold this morning and are worth a final scan before midnight tomorrow. Cotton On is at up to 50 per cent off the women’s sale from the Geelong-headquartered Australian-owned fashion group. Bonds is at up to 65 per cent off underwear, sleepwear and basics from the iconic Australian-owned label. Big W is at up to 55 per cent off the electronics clearance from the Australian-owned discount department store. Lightspot also has the Beck 20 Pendant marked 87 per cent off as a deep secondary pick beyond rank 1. Spendless Shoes rounds out the women’s footwear edge at 75 per cent. None are featured in the Top 5 today but each clears the 50 per cent threshold and runs through Tuesday midnight.

Our Take

The Monday read going into the final EOFY sleep is more nuanced than the headline 4.0 per cent CPI suggests. The Reserve Bank’s preferred core gauge moved the wrong way (3.6 per cent), the August hike is back on the table, and the Australian Retail Council is forecasting an EOFY season that grows 1.9 per cent against an inflation print of 4.0 per cent. That gap matters. The retailer who must clear EOFY stock against soft demand is running today’s sharpest markdowns of the cycle. The shopper with mortgage cash-flow pressure is being targeted with the deepest signage. The household balance sheet has 24 hours to convert genuine work-related purchases into deductible expenses before the next financial year locks them out. The discipline is choosing items that compound (a reliable pair of work shoes worn five times a week, a desk chair used for eight hours a day, a winter coat that lasts five seasons) rather than items that depreciate the moment they leave the warehouse.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built exactly for this read. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “work shoes size 8” or “desk chair under 300”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. One sleep until the 30 June EOFY cutoff. Browse Today’s Sales before the markdown window closes.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.

Neil Fairhead

CEO, It’s On Sale

inConnect

Three sleeps to 30 June. Fresh Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday shows the May retail print held at $39.67 billion, up 5.8 per cent year on year, with growth recorded across every single category and every state and territory. The headline read sits in awkward contrast to the household mood: ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence has lifted 3.5 points to 84.0 (a three-month high), yet Westpac-Melbourne Institute reports the share of Australians expecting house prices to rise next year collapsed from 66 to 52 per cent in a single month. The picture this final EOFY weekend is split. The economy is spending, but the household is bracing. The last 72 hours before midnight Tuesday is where the work-related deduction window closes and the deepest verified discounts of the cycle land.

The May Retail Print: $39.67 Billion, Growth In Every Category And Every State

The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the May 2026 retail trade indicator on Thursday 25 June. Total spending hit $39.67 billion, up 5.8 per cent on May 2025 and well above the 4.0 per cent headline CPI print released the day before. The Australian Retail Council headlined the read as resilient. CEO Fleur Brown, writing in the council’s media note, said Australian shoppers “continued to spend despite subdued confidence and ongoing cost-of-living pressures”. Every single retail category recorded year-on-year growth: food retailing $15.5 billion (up 4.2 per cent), household goods $6.6 billion (up 6.4 per cent), clothing, footwear and personal accessories $3.1 billion (up 6.9 per cent), department stores and large online retailers $1.7 billion (up 4.9 per cent), cafes, restaurants and takeaway food $5.9 billion (up 7.2 per cent), and other retailing $7 billion (up 7.4 per cent).

State and territory growth was wider than usual. Northern Territory led at plus 8.1 per cent, Western Australia at plus 7.3 per cent, Queensland at plus 6.4 per cent. New South Wales lagged at plus 5.3 per cent and Victoria at plus 5.1 per cent, the two largest retail markets pulling the national average down. For Australian shoppers the read is direct. The categories where households kept spending hardest (cafes and takeaway, services and other discretionary) are the ones now being cleared at the deepest EOFY markdowns. The retailers who already secured the 5.8 per cent growth do not need to clear stock at any price (margin holders win); the laggards are running the 70 to 80 per cent banners (deal hunters win). Both edges of the market are sharp this weekend.

Household Spending $80.6 Billion, Up 1.3 Per Cent Month On Month: Where The Money Actually Went

The ABS also released its Monthly Household Spending Indicator on 25 June, which tracks aggregated bank card transactions plus supermarket and new vehicle sales (a broader view than the retail trade headline). Total household spending hit $80,635.5 million in May, up 1.3 per cent month on month and 5.5 per cent year on year on a seasonally adjusted basis (ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator, 25 June 2026). The trend measure rose 0.3 per cent. Translation: the spending that the retail trade print captures is being topped up by services, hospitality and motor vehicle purchases the retail trade survey does not cover. The household is not, in aggregate, going dark. The household is rotating between categories.

For the shopper this Saturday the implication is the inverse of doom and gloom. Pent-up demand in categories like cafes (plus 7.2 per cent), household goods (plus 6.4 per cent) and clothing (plus 6.9 per cent) means retailers in those categories have inventory turning fast, and the EOFY clearance window through Tuesday midnight is the final lever to convert the rest. Restaurant gift cards, kitchen appliance upgrades, the winter coat that outlasts the next three seasons. These are the categories where the markdown will compound the hardest because the household has already proven it wants to buy. The 60 to 80 per cent EOFY signs landing on the home page of It’s On Sale right now are aimed exactly at this rotation.

Confidence Up 3.5 Points To 84.0, But Mortgage Holders Are Still Going Backwards

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence index rose 3.5 points to 84.0 in the week to 22 June, a three-month high (ANZ Newsroom, 23 June 2026). Four of the five subindices improved after the Reserve Bank held the cash rate at 4.35 per cent on 16 June, including the buying intentions read for major household items which is now up six weeks in a row. ANZ economist Sophia Angala, in the ANZ media note, said that confidence “among renters and outright owners is firmer, while mortgage holders remain under cash flow pressure”. The headline is uneven good news. Buying intent for the household-goods category is rising; the cohort with the deepest debt service is the only one whose confidence is still going backwards.

The asset side of the household balance sheet is also turning. Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment for June 2026 shows the share of Australians (with a view) expecting house prices to rise over the next year fell to 52 per cent, down from 66 per cent in May. That is the steepest single-month drop in price optimism in the current cycle. Combine the rising buying intentions on goods with the falling price expectations on housing and the household is rebalancing: less belief in property appreciation, more willingness to spend on what compounds today. EOFY 2026 lands exactly on this pivot. The retailer who cleared 5.8 per cent year-on-year growth in May is now competing for the household’s marginal Saturday dollar, and the only lever left in the last 72 hours is the headline markdown.

ACCC Tightens The Online Marketplace Net, Amazon On The List

The ACCC announced an expansion of the Australian Product Safety Pledge on 21 June, with Amazon, eBay, Kogan and Fruugo signing the strengthened version that lifts the bar on cross-border product safety enforcement (ACCC media release, 21 June 2026). In the 2024-25 reporting period the pledge signatories removed 31,000 plus unsafe listings, and the regulator’s 2026-27 product safety priorities now sharpen the focus on Lithium-ion battery devices, baby self-feeding products (permanent ban in force from 26 May 2026) and high-powered magnetic toys (KWM Pulse, 22 June 2026). For Australian shoppers the read is simple. A $200 product on a cross-border marketplace can be recalled and pulled within hours; the same $200 spent at an Australian-owned, locally fulfilled store carries the full Australian Consumer Law guarantee, with no enforcement gap and no shipping black hole. Every retailer featured on It’s On Sale is Australian-owned with local fulfilment.

Five Fresh Australian Stores For The Last EOFY Weekend

Five stores. Five categories. The deepest headline discounts surfaced from a sweep of every retailer on It’s On Sale, audited at dawn.

1Today’s Top
DiscountShowpoWomens FashionUp to 80 per cent off sitewide at Showpo’s End of Financial Year sale: dresses, going-out tops, denim, knitwear, swim, accessories and resortwear from the Sydney-founded Australian-owned women’s brand, with free standard shipping over $50, Afterpay across the collection and 30 day returns through 30 June.80%OFF2UGG ExpressFootwearUp to 80 per cent off UGG Express’s Australian clearance: classic short, mini and tall ugg boots, slippers, scuffs and kids ranges from the Australian-owned Sydney label with 100 per cent Australian sheepskin, free shipping over $99 and free 30 day returns nationwide.80%OFF3Costume BoxCostumesUp to 75 per cent off Costume Box’s clearance: kids and adults book week, dress-ups, accessories, wigs, makeup and themed party kits from the Brisbane-founded Australian-owned costume specialist, with free Brisbane click and collect, $9.95 flat-rate shipping and same-day dispatch on orders before noon.75%OFF4EckersleysArt & CraftUp to 70 per cent off Eckersleys Art and Craft’s clearance: paints, brushes, canvases, watercolour pads, gouache, modelling clay, easels and craft kits from the family-owned Australian art retailer founded in Melbourne in 1888, with click-and-collect from 13 stores nationwide.70%OFF5Original Mattress FactoryBedsUp to 60 per cent off Original Mattress Factory’s EOFY mattress sale: queen, king, double and single Cloud 9 mattresses, mattress toppers and pillows from the Sydney-based Australian-owned manufacturer that builds every mattress on-site, with free metro delivery and 100 night sleep trial through 30 June.60%OFF

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth A Look

Beyond the Top 5, six other Australian-owned stores cleared the 60 per cent EOFY threshold this morning and are worth a scan before Tuesday. Princess Polly is at up to 80 per cent off the women’s clearance from the Sydney-founded brand. Elite Supplements is at up to 80 per cent off whey, pre-workout and recovery from the Brisbane specialist. Rebel Sport is at up to 85 per cent off Fangear clearance from Australia’s largest sport retailer. Kick Push Skate is at up to 82 per cent off decks, trucks and complete skateboards. Betts is at up to 70 per cent off the women’s footwear clearance from the Adelaide-founded shoe retailer. Decjuba is at up to 70 per cent off the women’s clearance from the Melbourne label. None are featured in the Top 5 today but each clears the 60 per cent threshold and runs through Tuesday midnight.

Our Take

The Saturday read for the EOFY weekend is unusually rich. Retail spending is up 5.8 per cent and household spending is up 5.5 per cent in real categories that matter (cafes, household goods, clothing, footwear). Consumer confidence has just notched a three-month high. The Reserve Bank is on hold. Headline CPI is easing. House price expectations are softening, which makes the discretionary spend on goods feel less risky than it did 90 days ago. And the EOFY work-deduction window closes at midnight on Tuesday. Layered together, the macro signal is that the household budget has more permission to spend on the right items today than it has had at any point in 2026. The discipline is choosing items that compound (a quality winter boot worn for five seasons, a mattress that outlasts the next mortgage refinance) rather than items that depreciate.

The shoppable side of It’s On Sale is built exactly for this read. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live sale products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows every store currently running a discount in one place. Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask (try “ugg boots size 8” or “queen mattress under 1500”). You will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local brand here. Three sleeps until the 30 June cutoff. Browse Today’s Sales before the markdown window closes.

It’s On Sale Australia’s home for genuine retail deals. Browse today’s featured stores at itsonsale.com.au.