"RobP, Are you for real? Here we are in the middle of a 'skill shortage' yet you want the 'unskilled' to get paid more than the 'skilled'!"

You've oversimplified what I said - I didn't say the unskilled should get paid more than the skilled. I effectively said the gap between them should narrow. If the gap continues to grow as it is now, it becomes too demoralising and impossible for those at the bottom.

Yabby,

"If you see many interlinked companies and their multiple layers of executives, advisers, etc as being as efficient as a single company or seven, and a pile of computers and their operators, then I have no hope of a clear answer from you. All I have claimed was that that rat’s nest of complexity served no clear and obvious purpose, yet has the effect of pouring a lot of money into the pockets of those who set it up. Money that has to come from the tills, driving up the prices we all have to pay."

Re Max's point above and your comment:

"Waste is the big killer and cost driver, eliminating it benefits both shareholders and customers."

why doesn't the grocery industry simplify, and make more efficient, the high-level consultancies and other wastage of resources that add little value to the actual product? As CJ points out there were, and probably still are, major inefficiencies in the transport chain. That'd be a good place to start. Another thing they could do is cut down the number of marketing consultants and other various hangers-on that chew the fat in the office and contribute little of any productive value.

RobP, a great deal of the changes going on within the reorganisation
of Coles right now, are exactly about that. That is why the old
management was thrown out. When there are literally hundreds of
thousands of workers involved, many not the brightest, you need
systems in place which all can follow, which are failsafe.

OTOH it used to be Coles policy to decide everything from Melbourne.
Wesfarmers take a different approach. They give store managers far
more flexibility to make their own decisions, choices about which
products to stock etc. Right now, the focus in on improving fresh
fruit and veggie quality right through. Certainly in the Coles
store where I go, the first improvements are coming through, but
the whole project will take 5 years to implement, so stay tuned.

Max, Coles and Woolies are large, but they certainly don't have
a monopoly right around Australia. Aldi are taking increasing
market share, IGA and others are snapping at their heels too.
Farmers markets are becoming increasingly common too. So
consumers have choices.

The truckies dispute was over many things, from fuel prices last
year when they peaked, to 600$ fines imposed by the Qld Govt, for
log book mistakes. Woolies don't negotiate with owner drivers,
but with large logisitics companies.

Yabby,

“RobP, yes the market sets wage rates, but we also have minimum wage protection.
As it happens, the minimum wage in 1980 was 139$ a week, so you were being
paid around 3 times as much, hardly slave labour.”

Going back to your earlier post, firstly, the 1980s is not 1980. I worked between 1984 and 1988 when the minimum wage was probably more like $160 or $170. I started with Coles as a casual in 1984 and was paid about $8-9/hr and when I left Woolies in 1988, I was paid $10/hr for working three 5-hour shifts. The thing about casual work was that they only got you in for 4-5 hour shifts. If you were a fast filler, they got you in for more nights, but they always worked you hard for your money. The other thing about being casual was that there were no sick days or other benefits (eg like job security). That was nominally compensated for in the casual rates.

You can forget the three times as much bit, as any comparison between casual employment and the full-time minimum wage is like comparing apples and lemons. It was certainly nowhere near that good.

I’ve seen Richard Goyder, CEO of Wesfarmers, on Lateline Business and it looks to me like he means business. Hopefully he will improve the quality of fresh food and the standard of service to customers by cutting out the unproductive elements getting fat in the supply chain. However, there’s no real alternative to sourcing veggies fresh locally. You can only store them in cool rooms for so long before they lose their freshness. Also, where on earth do they get their tomatoes from these days? When I was younger, the smell of a fresh tomato was strong. Now it’s like they’ve all been picked too early and never fully ripen.

Robp:

We are back onto my favourite subject:....poor quality produce!

The Tomatoes available in this area where we live in Wide Bay/Burnett are positively atrocious and it is just about impossible to buy decent Tomatoes anywhere around here. The Tomatoes that are available are grown in and around the Bundaberg area, as are the Capsicums and the like! As you commented, they are nearly tasteless, no smell and NO character whatsoever!.....why?....because they are all a Hybrid produce, force fed on chemical growth promotant and mostly picked green to allow them to be transported to market ( before they turn to slop and slime!)

We have been led to believe that the other major centre for Tomato production, Bowen, is using the self-same seed stocks and rapid growth promotant, hence the same problem with the quality of the produce. At the end of the day, when you buy Tomatoes that are disgusting, what alternative do you really have except to either buy them or do without!

We have experienced some "decent" truss-grown Tomatoes grown in Guyra, NSW, but they are not available in the stores all the time, (We suspect due to local grower resistance and threat of boycott to the local stockists!)

What amazes us that for all the years that these local producers have been supplying poor quality product to the local market, they have been allowed to get away with it unscathed, simply because we have no form of Consumer Protection organization to monitor and to penalize the many and varied rorters who set up in business!

We heard this morning that Anna Bligh is going to "name and shame" the Petroleum opportunist who rip-off the public by increasing the price of fuels by more than the 8.2cpl!....we would wage money that there is nothing done about the whole affair on Wednesday morning next when the greed-merchants UP the price by 10cpl (or even more!) and the ACCC will as usual whine that they have no power to intervene!....Result: another scam and rip-off perpetrated on the long suffering motoring public of the Twilight State!

RobP, Goyder certainly means business and I think he's very smart
and very sincere. But I think that Wesfarmers got it wrong, buying
Coles. What alot of people don't understand is that its Super Fund
managers pushing CEOs for ever rising growth. At the moment, last
time I checked, the Coles investment was not even earning bank
interest. If he doesen't fix it, IMHO his head will roll, Super
fund managers are fairly ruthless about all this and ultimately
they decide.

Ever more tomatoes are now grown hydroponically, but that is not the
problem, it goes right back to the breeders of varieties. About
twenty years ago, I was pissed off at the crap taste of Australian
peas and I knew in France, even in South Africa, there were in fact
very tasty peas called "petite pois". Time of picking is crucial
but also the variety, so I got in touch with some commercial
pea breeders and said I wanted the best tasting peas which they
had available. They were quite shocked and said the only focus was
on yield. One old line they had did taste much better, but its
yield was 30% less, so nobody grew it.

I never went ahead with the venture as I landed up doing something
else, but I see finally today baby peas are available,
picked earlier, but more expensive. So there is a price market
and a quality market, supermarkets now need to provide both.

When I buy tomatoes, I usually buy Roma tomatoes, as most of the
time their flavour is much better then the run of the mill ones