For the first time in lockdown I lost my temper.
I normally work from home and do everything over the phone or zoom so I’m comfortable with the solitude of being locked down in a way that I can see many others aren’t so throughout all this pandemic I haven’t really been pushed into depression or anger the way I see others struggling with.
That changed this week.
This week I almost went into a rage.
And I didn’t see it coming.
It was at the supermarket.
I was just doing my shopping, all masked up and hand sanitized to death, rushing around so I could get out quickly.
I did one of those shops you know like the back of your hand and I suppose I finished it with an expectation of how much it was going to cost.
That expectation imploded.
The cost was at least $70 more than I had been expecting and when the poor shopping teller told me this, a white light exploded in the back of my brain.
I thought, ‘what the fuck! You greedy fucking super market duopolies! You were fucking is before lockdown and now you are price gouging us while you have a total monopoly’!!!
I wanted to grab the back of the tellers head and smash it repeatedly into the cash register while screaming “Is that enough fucking money you greedy fucks”, over and over and over again!
It wasn’t even that I didn’t have the money, but it was just the taking advantage of us all at a time of a national emergency that so enraged me.
What did I actually do?
I grumbled about the price and didn’t say thank you when the teller handed me the receipt.
I know, hardly a criminal offense and I’m sure the teller barely even noticed me or my flash of homicidal rage.
But if there is one thing that must come out of lockdown, it’s urgent reform of the supermarkets!
They have been allowed their outrageous duopoly powers because they are supposed to guarantee food security, well they are failing at that!
This matters, you aren’t seeing panic because shoppers believe the shop will be restocked the next day, if that doesn’t happen people freak out.
This lack of food security is another argument to have the State step in!
The lie of neoliberalism is that unregulated markets lead to competitive utopia.
They don’t.
They lead to an elite corporate oligarchy who ensure their dominance via duopoly or monopoly. A plutocratic cartel who amputate monopoly rentals from the economy and call it business.
The brutal strength of the State is required to step in and break up such cartels when they bubble to the top and that’s exactly what the Commerce Commission must demand in its reports on the Supermarket duopoly in NZ.
The Commerce Commission’s draft report into competition in the supermarket sector has found that competition is not working well for consumers and the main problem is the structure of the New Zealand grocery market, in which new players find it hard to compete.
It found “persistently high profits” and high grocery prices compared to other countries.
The report suggests lowering some of the hurdles for new competitors, or, if that failed, creating another major grocery retailer.
“If competition was more effective, retailers would face stronger pressures to deliver the right prices, quality and range to satisfy a diverse range of consumer preferences,” said commission chair Anna Rawlings.
This greedy duopoly between them take half a billion in profits every year!
Fuck them!
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Indeed. I have noticed some bottle shop owners are price gouging too (more than usual), such as one of my locals. While not a necessity, self-medicating in smallish doses during a pandemic is necessary at times. Pour yourself a glass Martyn 🙂
Fuck them is what I say every time I go to the supermarket.
I was doing it long before lockdown, too.
You are right.
Spent $480.00 today at Countdown and my Onecard (no shit) saved me $1.40.
We need at least one other major player but is it worth the investment compared with spending the same money in Australia .
The huge amount of compliance you need takes the gloss off and a offer to wave some of costs to a new set up could help . The one think we do not want is the government getting involved and stores being run by a minister and another lackluster government agency. They are hardly doing a good job of health education roading prisons to name a few of the worst performing.
Given Auckland is the source of all things COVID, I think the rest of NZ should seriously consider building a wall around the city to keep them away from us. Also some sort of Hunger Games and/or The Purge after it’s all been walled off could work wonders for the rest of the country’s morale.
Yep, lets have state run Markets,
Oh how I miss the the long waits in East Germany to enter the markets full of empty shelves.
Sorry, Comrade our allocation of bread didnt arrive today.
The definition of inflation; is the increase in the money supply.
Given supply chains, the cost of shipping and an increase in the domestic money supply.. perhaps less products at higher prices. Stagflation.
I think you need to chill and watch the Matrix. Too much politics.
This is what we get when:
> The government closes all opposition to the supermarkets in response to the China Virus
> The reserve bank prints money to flood the country with liquidity
> The government subsequently blows their fund for fighting the virus on hip hop dance routines
I work part time in a Supermarket. OK, so some prices are going up but I challenge any one of you to do better in these difficult circumstances. Costs of supply, distribution, staffing, electricity, seasonal products etc etc are frightening. Give them a break and be grateful they are still offering good specials.
Also whilst 99% of customers are great to deal with, the 1% who aren’t cause unnecessary stress for all of us in the store.
garibaldi – Yeah, pretty sure that the majority of people moaning haven’t read the Com Com report.
Page 8 – In 2019, EBIT for the “international sample” of supermarkets that NZ supermarkets were compared to, was just over 3%. The three NZ “chains” were about 4.3%, 4.6% and 5.4%. Somehow, this is meant to be gouging? Who here would set up a business to have a EBIT of 3-5%?
I am not an economist/accountant – on page 7, they compared ROACE against WACC. ROACE was about four times greater than WACC. The Com Com appears to think this is a crime.
Don’t get me wrong – the cost of food and sundries in NZ, is way too much. But that could immediately be alleviated to a degree, by the removal of GST. Much in same manner as the price of petrol – about half is taxes/excise.
That’s the kicker GST of 15% should be removed off staple food items namely fresh fruit and vegetables. It is a No Brainer.
I get the impression, Bomber, that you have lost your temper just about every time when you are constructing one of your outpourings. I guess it is a diversion from pissing yourself in fear because you haven’t yet received your vaccines that will save everyone…
As the family shopper–the most expendable member I think some times…–I monitor prices during lockdown and non lockdown times. And while winter explains $13.99 per kilo tomatoes, other things stand out–like less specials, and less advantageous specials, and more consistent full pricing during lockdowns for just about everything.
It is totally a duopoly as various studies have shown, and producers and suppliers get stood over on margins and other details if they do not want to be banned.
Only the wealthy/middle classes can consistently afford to eat healthy these days. So yes, grow a tray of herbs, small greens in pots, sprouts in a jar etc. make bread and baked goods once a week. Shop at markets on the weekend–when open of course.
Well at least you didn’t grab a knife off the shelf and start stabbing people, Martyn, which is becoming common nowadays. Good on you! Agree entirely. Aldi transformed UK supermarkets in many ways, and their food is/was the lowest cost around (after Brexit prices are beginning to rise now). But Aldi doesn’t want to come here due to supply chain issues. It would be great if we could do it for ourselves.
As Bobby Whitlock said – where’s there’s a will, there’s a way.
Things haven’t yet gotten bad enough for the will of the masses to kick in.
We all know the the duo market operators are doing their best to pull our collective tits. They’re doubling down – not much else they can do really.
But we (this “team of 5 mill”) gone done it to ourselves so we’ll now get what we’re prepared to allow.
– Supermeerkats who’ve tried dressing themselves up as being “co-operatives” on the basis of the concept of franchises and franchisees (How very Fonterra)
– Petrol Stations and all the shit they’re trying to push at the moment – where their pricing doesn’t ekshully stack up with what’s going on
– Insurance, and all its little preferred supplier and kickback clipet ticker bullshit
– Building supplies (Timber and stuff we ekshully grow here in ‘lil ‘ole Nuzulln that punches above its weight
– Logustuks ‘n’ supploi chain ussyouse
Let it play out @ Liz, although keep up the protest. There’ll be a load of casualties, but those casualties will end up being the force for change. Let’s hope it isn’t too violent although I suspect it could well be as sheeple and the disenfranchised wake from their slumber.
Nek minnut tho’s eh?
Ralph Nader come home !
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