Showing posts with label Duopoly. Show all posts

Tuesday, 20 August 2013

The Greens have a plan for the future of Australian food - and its production, its distribution, and bypassing The Big Two

GREENS FOOD PLAN INCREASES FARMER AND CONSUMER POWER

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne today announced an $85 million plan to help farmers bypass the big two supermarkets and sell direct to consumers.

"People care about where their food comes from and that local farmers get paid a reasonable price for it," Senator Milne said.

"Farmers don't have many options for selling their produce outside the low prices offered by the big supermarket chains.

"The Greens want to help farmers access infrastructure and markets so they can make a decent living off the land and improve our access to reasonably priced, fresh, local food.

"The communications revolution, particularly fast broadband heralds a new era of direct connection between growers and consumers.

"The Greens will provide $85 million over four years to help set up farmers markets, food box sales, farmers' co-operatives, regional marketing and food hubs."

Greens agricultural spokesperson Senator Rachel Siewert said more and more Australians want to "know their farmer" and buy food direct from local growers.

"Many people are already familiar with the taste and cost benefits of farmers' markets and buying boxes of seasonal produce and these should be expanded so more consumers can benefit," Senator Siewert said.

"Regional food hubs are where small-scale farmers can store, package, pickle, juice and bottle their produce. By sharing the equipment with other food producers they bring production costs down and improve their range of goods.

"Farmers co-operatives allow producers to band together to supply bigger contracts or start their own product lines with greater surety of supply than if they were working solo.

"Grant money could also be used to market a region for its products.

"Tasmania has a strong brand for high quality food and wine, as do WA regions like the Margaret River. Other regions and their specialities need similar opportunities, and the Greens' will help them do that."

Friday, 3 May 2013

Coles and Woolworths - the two-faced duopoly that is monopolising our money

Picture from here

I have been on consumer watch since the late 1960s when I joined a large women's organisation in Queensland which had a strong consumer focus. These were the days before Consumer Affairs Departments in government and on the cusp of the mass entry of women into the workforce. In those days, we could manage a monthly ALL DAY meeting averaging attendances of 100 women in a large regional city. This is how and where my consumer awareness was honed under the leadership of Cherith Weis.

My consumer interests have not changed since then. I prefer to buy "Product of Australia" goods made by wholly Australian owned companies. Forty years ago, I could just - with careful research - manage to get to the supermarket checkout with such goods in my trolley. However, that world has long since gone. The supermarket battlefield is now on steroids. Adele Ferguson's article best describes the current situation.

Woolworths poker machine empire in Australia is a phenomenon - particularly since it runs more poker machines than six of the largest casinos in Las Vegas combined. Woolworths is on its way to becoming the world's largest poker machine owner.

Metcash whose IGA grocery outlets are their most visible sign but who also supply smaller enterprises such as Foodworks is now trying to build a hotel and poker machine portfolio to try to get a few notches up the ladder in its constant battle with The Big Two.

The point of rehashing all this is to then move on to the roles of Coles and Woolworths as property developers. The competition between Coles and Woolworths hit, what appears to the humble consumer a new height of stupidity, when Coles, through the use of a tax haven in the British Virgin Islands, purchased the Woolworths store in Neutral Bay on the inner North Shore in Sydney.

This latest hit-the-headlines enterprise is no laughing matter, though. What all this means is that Coles and Woolworths together take most of the retail dollar in this country, one way or another.

I like to point out the 'repeat business' advantage for major corporations. The 'repeat business' theory of getting rich and keeping it is demonstrable in gambling and alcohol and pharmaceuticals. Woolworths and Coles have Australian consumers enchained at the most basic level of consumption: food. Then there's discount petrol; financial services and credit cards. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Enchain the consumer with almost unbreakable links. Our need has become their greed.

I try to distribute my food consumption dollar: markets, IGA, local producers, independents. In spite of all this, I do find myself in a Coles store regularly - mainly because it is my nearest venue for food shopping.

I doubt my individual consumer activism has changed anything very much. However, consumer activism has become much more sophisticated than the days of the old Darling Downs Housewives and Homemakers Association based in Toowoomba. This is why I am so grateful for the existence of the Ethical Consumer Group under the leadership of Nick Ray. They- assisted by the internet - are doing more to bring about change than 100 women in rural and regional Australia were able to do forty or so years ago.

Tuesday, 31 January 2012

The Duopoly Duel: a couple of monopsonists slug it out

As Coles has forged ahead under its new owners Wesfarmers and Woolworths is not quite so dominant anymore, some questions about its brand placement have been raised. It is suggested that "Woolworths - the Fresh Food People" was good branding and still relevant; that Woolworths is on the back foot because it had let this particular branding slide to respond to Coles discounting.

I noticed at the week-end (was it as I was watching the eternal never-ending Djokovic-Nadal tennis match?) a ramp up of Woolworth's advertising on this theme. I thought: Ahah! How will Coles now respond to this? News from the front to-day indicates Coles is shifting its price war to fresh food, to our fruit and vegetables.

Now I'm pretty sure this is not, in the first instance, a response to "the fresh food people". Rather, it is more of the same price placements that Coles has been adopting for some time. Coles claims the company had worked closely with growers to transform their fresh fruit and vegetable prices, investing in new growing techniques, quality control, store displays and now lower prices for customers. I wait for the next exciting episode of the Duopoly Duel