The cancelled Juicy Festival led consumer complaints to New Zealand's watchdog in 2025 with 493 enquiries, followed by the country's supermarket duopoly, according to 1News reporting.
The data reveals widespread frustration with event cancellations and grocery pricing in a high-cost-of-living environment. The list tells the story of what's squeezing Kiwis—dodgy festival promoters and supermarket pricing power.
Juicy Festival was set to operate across four cities in January 2025 but collapsed when organizers failed to secure a liquor license for the Auckland date. Approximately 30,000 ticket holders were left out of pocket when the entire multi-city event was cancelled.
According to the liquidator, there's no evidence of director misconduct—just an unfortunate situation with a large number of people owed money. That's cold comfort to 30,000 people who bought tickets to an event that never happened.
After the festival debacle, the top complaints were dominated by Woolworths and its subsidiaries: Woolworths New Zealand (322 enquiries), Pak'nSave (260), and New World (190). Combined, the supermarket duopoly—Woolworths and Foodstuffs—accounts for three of the top six complaint targets.
Mate, this is bread-and-butter consumer affairs that affects everyone. Festival tickets and grocery prices are where ordinary Kiwis feel the squeeze.
Consumers primarily complained about four issues: refund problems, promotional disputes, pricing inaccuracies, and delivery failures. The Commerce Commission noted these issues risked violating fair trading laws, emphasizing that "any representations about price must be clear, accurate and unambiguous."
The supermarkets contextualized the numbers by pointing to their scale—Foodstuffs reported roughly 1.7 enquiries per million customer visits. But the raw numbers still place grocery retailers at the top of the list, suggesting systemic frustration with pricing and service in a sector dominated by two major players.
