The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > General Discussion > Massive Price Rip-off

Massive Price Rip-off

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. Page 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. All
"RobP, Max is simply jumping from consipiracy theory to consipiracy
theory right now. Yes, Woolies and Coles make a profit, but in
relation to what they do actually do, its quite slim."

Yabby,

When you look at any one element of the chain in isolation, the numbers don't look too bad. But when you sum up all the bit players in the chain and quantify their impact in terms of the price jump between farmer and retailer, it's actually quite significant. So, Coles and Woolies have a slim margin, but they more than make up their profit volume by having a large market share. You must know that when one group does well, someone else always loses, because there's only a finite amount of resources and capacity that the whole of society has to fit within. In the case of Coles and Woolies, the losers are mainly their employees who are paid lowish wages (compared with society at large), small family businesses and a lot of ordinary workers that are employed in the food chain (literally). That's why many Asians are now working as checkout operators these days, because C&W and driving down costs everywhere they can in order to maintain their margins.

"I think I am getting a more then fair deal and clearly those many other shoppers agree with me"

The operative phrase is "more than a fair deal". I'd argue that good for you equals not so good for someone else.

Overall, it sounds like you're saying that things for the consumer are better now than in the past. From a personal, relative point of view, that's fair enough. But, it still doesn't rebut the point some of us are making on this thread that there is an industry that is getting financially rewarded out of proportion to what it actually produces. Getting rid of that will flatten the playing field quite a bit and make things a lot fairer for a lot more people.
Posted by RobP, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 2:49:51 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Well said RobP, and thanks.
Yabby, I never saw a conspiracy, or suggested one.
I see it as a gradual accretion, a meeting here, a lunch there, a whole decades-long process of greedy powerful people gradually tilting the system in their favour. No cabals, no grand plan, just the natural culmination of dog-eat-dog capitalism. Human nature at it’s worst, in this context, government, public service, and private enterprise all caught in a situation not of their making, but used to their advantage
Posted by Maximillion, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 7:26:40 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
*there is an industry that is getting financially rewarded out of proportion to what it actually produces*

Absolutaly not. You should see what happens, when then is no
C&W! I know, as I live in the country lol. I have to drive 70km
to get to a Coles store. Small shopkeepers much prefer huge margins,
so straight away prices rocket 30-40%.

Next thing is small shopkeepers buy from wholesalers, who add their
cop on top. One storekeeper here in town actually goes shopping
at Coles, as its cheaper then her wholesaler. C&W have in fact cut
out that middle man. Thats why they are cheaper.

Next thing, with their home brands, they keep many a multinational
honest. Go to Coles and compare Kellogs corn flakes with Coles
corn flakes. They are not rocket science to manufacture. Yet
the price difference is enormous.

Supermarkets grew because customers flocked to them, without them
small retailers would screw the life out of us, as we can see where
there are no large chains. Consumers voting with their wallets
are driving all this, that is democracy in action for you!

Wesfarmers today is Australia's largest employer, with around
300'000 employees, IIRC. They pay reasonable wages, to people mostly
unskilled, who clearly can't earn more elsewhere. Cash in hand
is only a small part of the wages cost.

As to value, 2$ of food at Coles, can buy me enough food to keep
going for half a day. What will you give me for 2$ of your time?
Posted by Yabby, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 8:15:29 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Yabby,

I'll agree with you to the extent that circumstances in country areas are different to the city. A Woolies out there is probably a good thing to keep prices down. I'm speaking more from a city perspective, where I think that competition, and the ruthlessness that goes with it, goes too far.

BTW, where do you live in WA? I spent a few years working on a field seismic crew which was based in Perth, so I might know the area you're talking about.
Posted by RobP, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 9:37:11 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I've just done my fortnightly visit into town for provisions. I live on a property outside Broken Hill.

Here are some of the prices I paid:

Navel oranges - - $1.99 kg

Delicious apples - - $1.99 kg

Tomatoes - - $2.50 kg

Bread multigrain - - $2.60 a loaf

Sprite Zero 1.5 lt on special - - $1.50 a bottle

Silverside beef - - 3 meal's worth $7.20

Jumper - - $8.90

Warm coat - - $15.00

Pillows 2 (good ones too, on special) - - $11.20 each

Anyone who thinks Aussies are hard done by with high retail prices, is not living in the real world. You just have to "LOOK" for the cheaper prices, and you will find.

Back when I was a lad in the 20's, right up to the late 50's with the demise of the small retailers, average retail prices were MUCH MUCH higher when inflation is taken into account. I know, I WAS THERE!

In Australia, in modern times, we get things VERY easy - - - - with 1 exception, 'house and property prices' (with some geographical exceptions) which have far and away outstripped most of the developed world. Higher property prices help no one, except those who already own then sell and buy downmarket. If you make $100,000 profit on a property, generally speaking if you desire another equal quality property in the same type of area you'd have to pay that extra $100,000 towards the new property. So you get no benefit from the "so called" profit. And of course, if you're a first time home buyer, massive price increases make it more difficult to enter the market, and more difficult to pay off the mortgage.
Posted by Master, Saturday, 27 June 2009 3:25:00 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Master,

Sounds like you're doing OK out Broken Hill way. I live in Canberra and we hardly ever get prices that low at Coles/Woolies for the fresh stuff.

While the prices do fluctuate, we're paying anywhere between about $3.99 to $5.99/kg for fresh tomatoes (which taste like water) and at least $2.99/kg for apples. I recently paid $5.99/kg for Granny Smiths.

Loaves of bread you can get on special at 2 for $5 for the 650g loaves and 2 for $6 for the 750-850g range.

But what about these?

About 5 years ago I regularly used to get 825g cans of pineapple for a tad over $2. Now they're almost $3.50. That's a 70% markup. Any sort of tinned fruit and veg have gone up for that matter. The base price of any sort of biscuit has risen quite a lot over the past few years. About 3 years ago, you could get a big Cadbury's block of chocolate on special for $2.50. Now the best specials are $3.50. That's a 40% markup. So I guess it's swings and roundabouts, depending on where you live and what's in season etc.
Posted by RobP, Saturday, 27 June 2009 3:57:35 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. Page 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. 9
  11. 10
  12. 11
  13. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy