My ears pricked up recently when I heard various producers whingeing that they weren`t getting paid enough for their particular produce, so they were seeking to sell overseas to China "to get a more realistic price!"

A case in question was the guy who stated that he was producing the best Tomatoes in Australia, thus he was entitled to get paid much more for his product!

I live in a Queensland Regional area (Childers) which has a Woolworths Store. The produce is usually of very poor quality: the greens turn to slush in a few days. Onions and Potatoes sprout after a week. Rhubarb looks like wilted shallots.

I am a daily user of Continental 4 Serves Mushroom Packet Soup, and generally purchase a full box (10 Packets) each second or third shopping trip. Last Christmas was the last time it was stocked on Woolies shelves, so in May I asked one of the Supervisors why there was none of the soup on the shelves, she told me to "go online to the website, and request they purchase the soup,....if enough customers request it they will then stock it!"

The following trip, I asked the Manager why there was none of the soup on the shelves, her response was:" We are having trouble getting it!"....I then suggested that Woolies had a problem, as other Woolies stores eg; Bundaberg, Gympie and Ipswich
had no problem getting it, so why the problem with Childers? She then started to display the typical Wide Bay Burnett response at getting caught out, by becoming arrogant and stated that there was nothing that she could do about it, and walked away!

I have since then procured my regular supply of soup at the Childers IGA Store, who seem to have no trouble obtaining the product, and who display a much more positive attitude when dealing with their customer base.

I believe the residents of this regional area are being treated as dumping-ground customers by Woolworths, who are interested only in the magical dollar and treat their customers with arrogance!

Shop locally? ....you have to be joking

Crackcup you were hitting the poor Woolworths lady where it probably hurts. I have spoken to the management of both major chains in my local town, both known to me. They have the same complaint.

Their head office decides what they will stock, they have absolutely no say in the matter. The whole stocking is controlled by computer analysis of their sales, & does not respond to any requests from customers or local management. I'm sure that computer knows what the sales would be of items not stocked, computers are infallible, don't you know.

Both agreed the companies are getting it wrong in many instances. One knew that after spending over $175,000 thousand in his store over 23 years, I no longer shopped there due to their not stocking grain fed beef. I can get it at their store in the next town, but the computer won't let them have it. He feels insulted that all though called manager, he actually has virtually no management role.

He was complaining that head office recently closed one entry point to the store. The new entry is as far as it was possible to put it from the disabled car park bays. He knows he is losing customers, but when he tries to get it fixed, head office treat him like a fool.

Obviously becoming so bureaucratic is the beginning of the end for these chains, as more of us desert them, & it will be interesting to watch.

With your vegetables it is also bureaucracy at fault. Your produce even locally grown has to be marketed through the Brisbane markets. Your producers can not legally sell direct to local stores.

Thus your well travelled greens are getting a bit tired, by the time they come home from Brisbane. Cleaver system isn't it?

Hasbeen:
The issue of "the best Tomatoes in Australia!"... I don`t know where this joker sells his produce, but it is certainly NOT around this neck of the woods.

The local Bundaberg Tomatoes are a disgrace to the Tomato industry. I would suggest that was the reason for the demise of South Pacific Exports at Childers, because they were exporting a poor quality fruit and the buyer resistance proved the point!

These Bundaberg Tomatoes have very little smell, are tasteless and invariably picked too green. They develop rot spots from the inside- out within a few days and turn to slush. I have found the only ones worth buying are the Vine-ripened "Gourmet" from Guyra, but usally priced at around $6.99 a kilo,and not available all the time, but they taste like Tomatoes!

I rang the Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers on two occasions,to ask questions, was advised that "the manager was away, but he would ring me back on his return!".....I asm still waiting!

The next issue is the poor quality meat dominating the local market.
I consider myself a connoisseur of quality meat, having over the years, eaten top of the range Rump and Eye Fillet overseas, but finding it nearly impossible to find "decent" meat locally. I have on occasion paid $34.95 per kilo and fed it to the dog. I have tried every Butcher shop in the Wide Bay and Burnett area and have been grossly disappointed with the quality available. I am now starting to wonder, ...is the good quality meat being exported, or is the meat being destroyed on the beast by the constant application of chemicals during growth?

All I am sure of is that I find it impossible to buy decent meat, and it is certainly NOT available on Woolworth`s shelves.

I'll just throw in a little one here, I won't mention names as the quality of the sausages may have improved at the local outlet of a big supermarket chain (never bought any again); we purchased a dozen sausages, cooked a couple each and couldn't eat them, the taste was vile but they were not 'off', just off the menu.

Gave them to the dog, he sniffed them, turned and gave a look that said it all; tried him with a raw one, same result he walked off offended.

Then gave them to the chooks, who will eat anything, but they didn't show their usual voraciousness and took a few days to eat them.

We found out later that other people had stopped buying their sausages there for the same reason.

Obviously they are growing varieties suitable for freighting and not for table use, Tomatoes should not be grown on the same soils for at least three years as disease occurs. I suggest you grow your own for table use.

Yes growing industrial quantity of tomatoes does tend to produce industrial quality too.

I have always believed that the rot developing from the inside out was a product of spending too long in controlled atmosphere storage, but I was wrong once before, so I suppose it could happen again.

I had a mate growing organic produce. He gave up when more than half of the time he got less than the cost of freight, boxes & agents fees for his stuff.

A tomato grower near Bundaberg told me he got less than costs for about 8 months of the year, broke even another 2 months, than made heaps the other 2 months.

His problem was that he only made a profit, when there was a shortage, usually from some area's weather problem, & he could not know when that would happen. He thus had to have large quantities available for shipment at all times.

To reduce costs, he often buried masses of tomatoes, rather than ship them, when prices were too low.

The complaints here do not just apply to food.
I recently went to David Jones to buy a pair of shoes.
I asked for for size 6EE. Sorry said the sales lady we no longer stock shoes under size 7 !
She said she had told management about it and that it is an area with a lot of Chinese
wanting size 5 & 6, but they were not interested.
Once upon a time there was a business called Fletcher Jones and they had pants in a
large number of waist and leg length combinations. If they did not have your particular
size they would be most embarrassed and get the stock in a day or two, or would have
them altered that day at no extra charge.
There is still a Fletcher Jones but it is nowhere the same business.

Shirt manufacturers are very unable to have a good selection of collar & arm length sizes.
"Oh it is too difficult to do that" they would say.
My retort was that shoe manufacturers have many different sizes, so why can't you ?
"Hurrumph" would be the answer.

Is all this a sign of the collapse of a complex society ?

You know, we Aussies are a funny lot ? We are being constantly reminded to purchase Australian grown produce, for obvious reasons ? Yet on the other hand, due to the current economic climate, particularly that of rising energy costs, many households have to seek out the cheapest cuts, and the cheapest deals on fruit and veggies wherever possible ? Generally speaking it's the major supermarket chains that give us those better deals ? Therefore, I for one know where I'd shop for our consumables.

Saw on face book I think, about how an elderly lady was portrayed as being unamerican because she wanted to buy her medication at the cheapest price, which wasn't from American suppliers.

Yet these same suppliers were engaging in tax avoidance, had their offices in countries such as the Bahama's and manufactured their medications in places like China.

Just heard on the news that COLES is under investigation for "unconscionable conduct" in dealing with it`s supplier base!

This seems to back up my opinion of the slow and gradual degeneration of the quality of the foodstuffs being presented for consumption in the Regional areas.

Coles and Woolworths principle occupation is to make money. Providing quality product is much lower on the scale of priority when setting contracts with their suppliers.

Because of their buying power, both of them are able to weild a very heavy hand when negotiating these contracts.

The producer is forced to accept a set of conditions that may be very costly to him in the way of production costs, in comparison to the price paid for the end product, thus he will have no other option than to resort to a rapid growth product, or lower quality seedling.(GMO seeds/seedlings thank you Mr Monsanto) to gain a minimal return against his income stream crop investment.

This unfortunately is the way of the world today. We the consumers have no other alternative than to shop elsewhere when presented with an expensive but poor quality product. Complaint to the company is futile, and no Government body is really interested in jumping on these businesses, apart from the token "investigation" which may be seen to be a Dr Feelgood to pacify the masses.

Government is the only organization who can force these Supermarket chains to clean up their act, but what chance is there of that really happening when Government itself is being robbed blind by businesses who still cannot, or will not produce a legal receipt for the sale of their products, without the receipt print fading away to nothing in a matter of a few weeks, thus Government is probably losing millions in the way of Income Tax the "disappearence" of Accountable Taxation Receipts.

There's a Service station in Gympie that sells locally produced tomatoes...pineapples and other fruit and vegetables, that taste pretty good. if people seek out places that stock local growers' produce and buy there, they'll be doing everyone a favour except the rip-off supermarkets that have destroyed so many small local businesses such as grocers, bakeries, butchers, hardware and electrical, sweet shops, green grocers...and the pleasure families had at owning their own business and being of service to the community.

I agree Mise,
The taste and quality of supermarket sausages in recent times has been appalling. I don't usually ever touch them anymore, but my mum brought some from Coles over a few weeks ago and they were actually edible, unlike previously which was quite surprising.
People must've complained I think, but they are still not like the good sausages we used to have. I still prefer to get them from the butchers. At least they don't take their customers so much for granted.

There might be hope for us all.
The big shopping malls in the US are going down the gurgler.
Read about a visit to a really big mall in Washington DC in the US.
It was empty except for one Chinese restaurant.
It was just empty, all shops empty and only one other couple walking
around it, even though the escalators were running.
The acres of car park around it were empty.
Maybe everyone is going to local shops again.
The article said there were 1400 closed down malls in the US.
Sometime back I came across a web site for closed shopping malls.
Makes you wonder just what is going on.