As long as Australians are stupid enough to support the Duopoly we will enjoy extortionate grocery and fuel prices. Anyone who shops at either of these two stores and their associated businesses has any cause to whine about high grocery prices, because they support high grocery prices by their shopping choices. I know full well who owns the Australian regulators and who they serve, and it is not us.
It's here already (in other countries), many people earn around $2 a day and spend half of that on food. People will only hark up when it affects them (including me). It's all messed up, these criminals must be stopped. Right now. Now now now.
Are you saying that the choice to relocate was not an option until recently? Was there a cheaper tomato market in existence previously?
They were waiting for a spineless government. They were waiting for a bluescope steel, (cotties cordials/bonds clothing) style bailout. Keep an eye on McCains next!
It was all about the bottom line, as always, just like Quantas recently.... What i don't get is how could it be cheaper to manufacture in N.Z, That place is expenisve as???? And did anyone see the ACA article the other night about Dick Smith trying to market his new Tom Sauce that uses all local product.... The duoploy won't put it on the shelves because it's 20c (yes 20 fricken cents) more than other brands......for gods sake that is REALLY sad.. That's why we really are 'the lucky country'.....because we'll be lucky to own anything at all within a few years!!!
The Trade Union Party is in charge of the country, they have added more paid public holidays, increased Sundays from time and a half to double time, are bringing in a carbon tax, have let the unions off the leash, have introduced an utterly opaque and flawed Fair Work act, (Fair Work being the government enforcement arm of the Unions), they have undermined business and investment confidence and thrown the budget into a 200 billion dollar deficit and then they wonder why any company that can is moving offshore and is terrified of employing Australian staff. Interesting that the "heartland" blue collar workers who vote Labor because "they are for the working man" find themselves with less prosperity every time Labor is in government.
How long are Holden and Ford 6 cylinder cars going to survive in Australia..The people want 4's and 4wd vehicles.. If the people don't want to buy them, then there will be only one outcome. No more holdens and falcons made in Australia. The days of being a manufacturer in Australia have long and truly gone...Price is the only consideration now.. Many of you will say, that is not me, I always try and buy locally made but surely you must admit it is getting harder and harder. If you do find a product made here, you don't get a choice as there is only one. Majority rules unfortunately so they will continue to buy as long as they are cheap. Fair suck of the sauce bottle mate! Regards Errol 43
Regarding food, prices, supply and demand. Please note your security is very important to the government, especially when it comes to food. Google 'nz food bill' for more details
The whole thing with Australian made cars irritates me rather a lot. Oil is getting more expensive. Oil is only going to keep getting more expensive. Cities are getting bigger. People don't need V8s like they used to. Build smaller cars! If you can't build smaller cars from scratch, import the components and assemble them into a car here so you getter Q&A controls, more flexibility in finding suppliers and maintain local employment.
And bring councils out of the 19th century and start allowing people to construct dwellings that allow them to live nearer their work and not have to commute. Young professionals don't need huge expensive houses, we need small, modern, hi-tech small footprint, efficient and inexpensive urban dwelling options for young professional singles who want to get a foot into some kind of property and who need to be near the city. Other countries are doing all kinds of things with re-purposed sea containers and energy efficient designs. No-one would want to live in a tiny place forever, but it's a great option for a person in their 20's to get a start.
Cheap labour and a weak dollar. I just spent a couple of weeks in Victoria and everything seemed expensive when prices were converted to NZ dollars. The most recent example that springs to mind was an aussie company moving their call centre from Sydney to Auckland to reduce the wage bill.
I have not read all of the posts in this thread as yet so apologies if i am duplicating. Start rant: Groceries, in part, should be more expensive than they are at present. IN Australia the supermarket duopoly has had it far too easy for too long. How many farmers are getting screwed on prices and now have to resort to finding another rare buyer, taking on more debt to get big enough to survive on the small margins, put up with the buyers refusing to buy their produce simply because they are too large/too small/have a bend/have a bird peck etc etc? The supermarkets are generic branding their own goods and require competitors to pay top dollar for miniscule shelf space. They dictate to customers what they want us to buy. In December I could not find ANY Australian grown olives anywhere in the Coles i used to shop at here in Newcastle. The 'Fresh' section was all imported and the bottled olives were also all imported. The supermarkets, with their extended trading hours, have forced small business to stay open longer at the expense of their families, accept smaller margins and significantly contributed to the death of suburban shopping strips. The small businesses that suffer because of supermarket practices include butchers, greengrocers, chemists, health food stores, bakeries, newsagents etc. Shopping malls kill atmosphere in a city. Everyone is inside, and away from the street. This is not necessary in our climate. Get people onto the street socialising, shopping at family-run businesses. Spread your money around, the community will benefit. Do not expect small businesses to stay open all hours - they have children and families too. Accept produce that does not look perfect. These goods just go to waste and taste just the same. Think about the distance that your food has travelled to get to your plate. Try to reduce the food miles by buying local produce. I urge everyone reading this to join me to avoid supermarkets, shopping malls and mega chains for 2012. It is not more expensive. Have a think about alternative sources. Is there a local co-op where you can buy dry goods in bulk? Is there a community supported agriculture venture near you? Can you buy your meat from the butcher, the bread from a baker, newspaper and cards from the newsagent? Is there a bulk buy warehouse near you? etc etc? Just have a serious think about who you give your money to and whether they deserve your custom. I'm positive that the little guy would appreciate it ten times more than the manager of the supermarket... as would all the many more workers that are employed by the little businesses as opposed to the small number of teenage employees that are given jobs by the duopoly. It can be done and be done just as cheaply. Just avoid those supermarkets and shopping malls.
Just to be clear..when you say "inflation figures" are you talking about CPI or M3 growth (i.e. true monetary inflation)? I only ask because everyone here is on about grocery prices. hard unadjusted numbers that the ABS calculate CPI are available on request, but, the numers are huge and come in the form of a 'data cube'. For instance, just for tobacco, the numbers include all the brands, sizes, quality and types of tobacco (cigarettes, loose, pipe, chewing etc) and the locations these products were sourced. It's easier just to keep your reciepts and compare the cost of items year to year. If you're talking about inflation figures re M3 growth...it gets trickier to get true unadjusted figures. http://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/tables/index.html#prices_inflation go down to "money and credit statistics"...there's a "money aggregates" xls file you can download.
Do you sing the jingle when you buy your $1 bread and $2 milk, and feel, happy? To quote http://www.dennisjensen.com.au/news/132/accc-must-act-on-grocery-duopoly: "Buried in the PWC report was one of the most insidious findings you will likely find in a report of this nature: It appears that food price inflation has potentially boosted supermarket and grocery store turnover as a proportion of total retail turnover. There are also suggestions that the measured level of food price inflation may underestimate the true rise in the cost of grocery goods. That is, the MGRs may be running 'loss leaders', or providing lower prices, on high volume food staples included in the CPI food basket, thereby hiding the rise in prices of other grocery goods which are growing at a greater rate. Even if the ACCC can find some justification to ignore the 80% market concentration of Coles and Woolworths, how does the ACCC explain away the deliberate manipulation of the CPI index and obvious price collusion by these two multinationals?"
I was wondering why there was a clearance sale on the cracked peppers only, figured the plains were on the left. No, took a closer look and they're clearing out the 250gms for 98c a pack, but they were long gone. Thank f they had the 225gm box on special for $2! [imgz=http://forums.silverstackers.com/uploads/696_jatz.jpg][/imgz]
