Yabby, there you go with “statistics”, which as we all know, are too unreliable to be anything other than a representation of what the compiler would like you to see.
I’ve looked at those sites, and they are quite at odds with the prices here at the moment.
When we have to pay $6 for a one kilo bag of tasteless, tough-skinned tomatoes on a Monday,, and by the end of the week the same bags are being sold at $9, and that effect carries across a lot of meat and vegetables, $30+ for lamb, cheap bacon at $12/kg, I could go on. The Megaliths also largely set the price of fuel here too, yet despite the fact our petrol sails past us on it’s way to southern ports, for trucking back here, none of them are willing to invest in a suitable port here, despite a huge gas terminal and associated facilities. Where’s the efficiency in that? Not to mention the subsidiary costs born by the taxpayer in maintaining the roads and the increased danger on those same roads, have a look at the road-trains hauling fuel, they’re massive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxidLqkubVc

As for my alleged “hatred” of the capitalist system, I’ve made no secret of my disgust at its unfairness and excesses, but I think you’re still just playing the man, not answering my questions, and ignoring the reality of the Australian retail scene. You praise efficiency, yet ignore any questions about the management of the monies involved in the day to day operations of the Megaliths, the multiple layers and fees and costs associated therewith..

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.

The market is about establishing a value for something, that is all. People are
free to sell their labour, like the deli is free to sell you a newspaper. Everyone
has choices. Nobody has yet suggested a better way of establishing value.

I have yet to see people like you prepared to pay extra for groceries, in order
to pay higher wages to shelf stackers. You want the market to supply them
to you as cheaply as possible.

Govt is free to pay low wage earners extra, which they do through welfare
payments.

Max, sorry but in this case I think that the ABS has a little more credibility
then you do, when it comes to statistics. Perhaps you should shop around
a little.

Darwin is still little more then a large country town in the end, based on
the population. Building a port there is up to Govt, not companies.

AFAIK, both Coles and Woolies use logistics operators like Toll or
Fox to move their freight around, rather then own their own trucks.

As to your questions, they are so wishy washy, with no specifics,
that there is nothing to answer. Wild claims and allegations won’t
do it for you, I am afraid, be specific.

Maximillion - I know you live in a flat, but is there any way you could grow some of your own fruit & vegies? You'd be amazed what you can grow at home, even in pots. With Darwin's climate, you could grow stuff all year round.

Admittedly we have a reasonable-sized garden, but we grow much of our own F&V.

As far as C&W are concerned, I've pretty well abandoned them in favour of IGA & Foodworks. Where I live in rural southern Queensland, the range and prices compare very favourably - and we can also access local produce direct from the growers.

I think the further north you go, the more you suffer from transport and storage costs for fresh food - if you buy from the major chains, anyway. When I lived in Townsville in the 1980s and 90s, I was astounded to learn that fruit and vegetables grown in the Burdekin region 100km south was transported to the Brisbane markets by road (a further 1600km south), and then shipped back to the major supermarket chains up north. It was much the same with seafood - not so sure about meat.

Maybe things have improved, but I always found that to be a really irrational way of marketing food.

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'!

Gee I hope you never get elected into parliment and have some say in how wages are set as there will be no one around to do the 'skilled' jobs. We will all be doing less and getting paid more.

Back on topic. Most people have a 'spending cricis' rather than a 'money shortage.

If you spend wisely you can live well on a lot less.

Remember, life is full of choices.

Yabby, this is my final post in this thread..
You suggest I shop around? Where? As you say, this is little more than a large town, though at any given moment there are many thousands of tourists here as well.
The only alternatives to the chains now are the odd tiny suburban deli-type store, who mostly rely on the chains for supplies anyway, and are hence dearer, just to survive.
This situation is no accident, it is repeated across Australia, and is widely publicized.
My point about the port was that we already have one, and another on the way, yet the opportunity is being ignored in favour of the more profitable status-quo. The Oil companies tell Gov’ where they’d like a port or facility, then it’s up to them to make it happen, or not, as the case may be. No Gov’ would dare spend that level of money if there was no agreement with the oil industry to use it.
As for transport, where have you been, haven’t you seen the protests, the coroner’s reports, the reviews? The chains dictate the price for shipment, because they can, and the drivers are at the bottom of the food chain, killing themselves, and us, to meet deadlines set by the chains!
You seem to accept the beneficence of the near-monopolies as a given, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
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.
I offer to agree to disagree, you are eloquent, whatever I may think of your position.

Oops, sorry CJM, no, there's nowhere possible, I live right in the centre of the main street of the CBD.