Having been in retail for 41 + years, I have witnessed a lot of changes and I must say that most of them are now coming back to bite us in the butt.

In those 40+ years we have seen retail go from the butcher, baker and corner grocery store, to multi notional conglomerates controlling our every day lives, training us to slash our own jobs, dominating the fuel, grocery, liquor and hardware sectors and decimating just about every family owns business in the process.

We have seen our local engineering workshops being replaced by Chinese imports, or our once thriving small manufacture's, like TJM for example, send most of their work to the likes of China, all in the name of progress.

Well, given our population is increasing rapidly, and our jobs being created are heading south, will we have to bite the bullet and take a step back in time to move forward just to survive. Me thinks we will have no choice.

Should we be worried?

rehctub,
Well, having over-stepped the mark it'd be extremely wise to take a step back. How could that be explained to the Left's entitlement proponents & the Right's economic rationalists ?
The ultra left & right outfits have the added dilemma of not understanding anything at all to do with functioning society.

No, we should keep stepping forward. Keep getting more efficient and achieve things that past generations (including many of the older posters on this board) regarded as impossible.

It is small business that employs people, not the big ones - that are shedding workers hand over first: the same bastards whom Turnbull wanted to give tax cuts to trouser, with no benefit to workers or the country. Well, they didn't get the tax cuts, thanks to the senate, and at midday today, we should have a PM - something we haven't had since Turnbull stabbed the last one in the back. Once I would have said that the one bad thing was that we are now lined up for a Labor government; but now,thanks to the rotter Turnbull, there is not a cigarette paper between the two creeds. And, many of us here will never see another LNP government again. It's hard to see that that we will ever have a viable opposition to socialism again. That, of course, was always Turnbull's aim - to trash the Liberal party.

Morrison is the new PM - so, not much change to policies!

I doubt we can step back world trade is now so much part of how we live any turn around may see us in big trouble, the corner shop including the butcher shop can not compete with the chain stores just as we long ago learned to live without full driveway service we have to buy within our budget not wishes

ttbn,
What is it you you mean by "socialism"?

rehctub,

I'm not sure that we can step back in time with all things.
However, we do our meat shopping at our local butchers -
not that we eat all that much meat nowadays - preferring
to stick to chicken and fish. But I've got to confess that
we love the home-made sausages that taste so much better
than the ones at Coles or Woolies. We also go to our local
green grocer for our fruit and vegs. Much more variety and
better fresher quality. We also have our local bakers -
for our cakes, pastries, and strudels. I also have a
European deli that's great for just about everything from
breads, cold cuts, cheeses, and so on.

Supermarkets are for products like paper towels, toilet paper,
et cetera.

I find that if you look for what you want - you will find a
shop that sells it. Everyone knows me at my butchers,
green-grocers, cake shop, deli, and even at my pharmacy.
I keep going back to the same people.

I couldn't agree more, but have to plead guilty of doing it myself.

It is so easy to park in one spot, walk through one shop, & go home with all my food for a week.

I have all the excuses, I can't walk far without a shopping trolley to lean on, & parking at each shop is too difficult. I can't stand for long waiting to be served, the butcher gave me some really tough meat, yes all the excuses, but I could organise it if I really wanted. It is not so bad in a supermarket complex, but I find the independents in them offer least.

We get what we deserve, & once the little guy is gone, we will be captive of the big one.

Their success is starting to cause their downfall. To make a few lousy cents out of us, the push to own brand & generic products is accelerating. I will not buy many things in an “own brand” pack. There are a dozen mundane food products that I won’t touch, at Coles/Woollies, which means shopping at the only independent supermarket in one of the 6 nearby towns I can chose. Their meat is awful, & prices are higher, but I can get the tomato sauce I want.

25 years ago we had 2 super markets within 23 kilometres of us, now we have 15, although the population has increased by less than 30%. Can they all really be making a profit? Is that profit only by importing cheaper lower quality products.

Note to self, try harder to avoid these octopi

Butch you may remember I told you as a kid from the bush my first city job was heaving the bone or fat baskets from all over Sydney on to the back of Eddy Scarfs trucks, gee we had it made side of mutton to take home on the Coma mail for mum dad and kids, well those days are gone, tried the be loyal to the butcher as he is to you, they can not afford to compete, big two? can not buy dog bones under six bucks a kg, chicken necks four bucks, BUT drum sticks for three bucks? one stop, still walk past three butcher shops one of them is chicken only, all servicing the very top end, have to eat bloke so big two or starve

China isn't taking our manufacturing, it's being deliberately outsourced to them by Australian business owners, in the same way that Call Centres have been moved to Mumbai and the Phillipines.
There's no conspiracy at work here - it's just business.

Business owners want to increase their profits and consumers demand ever cheaper goods but some are happy to pay lip service by complaining about the situation they are in part responsible for.

As for the dreaded and typically misused "socialism" word, farmers are Good Time Capitalists but expect to be bailed out by socialist policy taxpayer handouts during bad times, and one of the main reasons for rising electricity prices is that the socialist-publicly-owned-and-built power system was sold off to capitalists to be bled for profit.
Also, I was born in a socialist Public Hospital, educated in a socialist Public School and drive to work on socialist public roads or ride on a socialist railway, always under the protection of a socialist police force and covered by a socialist health system.

Up here in India it is almost impossible to find a supermarket; there are literally millions of small businesses and they appear to be doing well.

The country is alive, even the beggars are to well dressed, the railways are a wonder and in Mumbai they are building an underground metro which will cover the length of the city (Nth to Sth).
Our flat is only a three minute walk from the nearest station (hole in the ground at present) so our son will be able to enjoy close transport, and we are but five minutes from the East-West above ground (actually elevated) metro.
This is a fast, on time and very clean system and much cheaper than tunnelling; maybe the NSW Govt could build one along Parramatta Road!

rache more on the mark than most as usual, I notice.

Can they all really be making a profit?
Hasbeen,
It's probalbly all functioning via the taxpayer-funded insidious negative gearing.

Rechtub seems you still want things that just are not going to happen, to the young who did not see things we grew up with they will never want changes that go backwards remember the super markets are crafted to what they want not us, international trade if it stopped would kill our economy

rehctub didn't infer to literally go backwards, what he said was take a step back, take a moment to reflect, take a breather etc. Stop continueing bargeing head-long into more of the same unworkable mess.
We shouldn't go backwards but some people will never learn so they do. People in charge of the bigger picture need to learn from the past not repeat the same old failed policies.
What they need to say to themselves is"are we of use to anyone or are we just another burden ?"
The rest of us do not owe you a living but we do owe you responsibility for our actions & decisions be it at elections or any other time & we need to curb our demands just as the policy makers need to curb theirs!

individual that may or may not be rechtubs slant on the words he used however who is this person or thing that calls on us to stop? pause and ask questions like do we want a free economy? do we intend to stop market forces showing us the way? who are those currently pushing us in the wrong direction,

who are those currently pushing us in the wrong direction,
Belly,
It's the average consumer who is doing that & the greedy compay executives exploit the unrealistic demands.
Wages too high in return for the performance & the insidious growth mentality. We need to create sustainability not hope for the inevitable end of growth not to eventuate.

indy your direction,,, even you must know, is far from everyones wanted direction, you from years of observation, have views far from average, maybe I do too but it remains true others as is their right, have differing views

others as is their right, have differing views
Belly,
Of course & they also have the right & are even offered the privilege of advise from those who have realistic views moulded from a less selfish mentality.

Don't confuse socalism with government owned.
There are good cases to be made for some government ownership.
Socalism is that system that has ALL business & farming government owned.
Socalism if you look at those times when such governments were established
they were the murderers of multi millions.
National Socialist of Deutchland, Communist party of USSR, Pol Pot,
Mao's China etc etc.
Each of them were only exceeded by the Islamic invasion of India.
Ironically Islam advocates a theological government enforcing their
ideological laws, just like socialists.

Bazz you and I grew up in a country that was while forever capitalist, in part socialist and both parties wanted it that way, health education some public housing and much more, indy to differ from your view does not automatically make me wrong or you right

Differing views aren't automatically opposing. They can be parallel & just need to be viewed to accommodate & compliment each other. Different areas, same principles. I'm advocating for less selfishness & more integrity. if we all strive for the common good mentality then good will become more common.

Bazz,

Take a look at countries like -
Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Norway,
Ireland, Belgium and even New Zealand.

They're quite interesting.

They're quite interesting
Foxy,
Interesting ? They all are inflicted by the same, ever-spreading social cancer.