Dear NZ – please tell me you aren’t so stupid to believe the sudden generosity of NZ Supermarkets

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Oh aren’t the Supermarkets soooooooo generous to us all right now?

Foodstuffs announces 10% cut in prices of core grocery items

Supermarket giant Foodstuffs is cutting prices by an average of 10 percent on more than 110 everyday items, to 2021 levels.

Please tell me my fellow Kiwis that you are not so fucking stupid to believe the supermarket duopoly that has collectively molested us for their monopoly profits for decades?

Please tell me you understand their sudden ‘generosity’ is because they are terrified of losing the market advantage of their duopoly.

Please tell me you know they are trying to manipulate us as they price gauge us!

Please tell me right when we are facing change that you aren;’t so easily tricked?

Let me be as clear as I can Tiny Kiwi

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Fuck, and I say FUCK THE NZ SUPERMARKETS!

The cost of living crisis is hurting the very voters Labour promised to be transformative for.

The list of tax wonkery Jacinda descends into when listing the tinkering around the edges Labour has done that seems to believe everyone struggling is a certified tax accountant who are doing their taxes weekly is a farce.

The Left have done sweet fuck all for the material hardships of poverty, housing, inequality and climate change.

As I have pointed out tirelessly, while Labour saved us from Covid, they haven’t saved us from the ruthlessness of the under regulated free market.

I have argued over and over that we will see double digit inflation this year and that asking kiwis to endure more isn’t a political solution.

They need to hope that their basic costs will come down.

They need to believe a new Supermarket backed by the Government could do that.

Covid taught us food security matters and a Supermarket chain that embeds a cheaper food security while supporting local supplies is a necessity to correct a broken market!

Government should enter into a deal with Iwi to stock a new chain of Government/Iwi Supermarkets that champion local produce at better prices for the consumer and

We need a kiwi subsidy on all local produce to recognize that producers have already used water and created local climate changing gases to create their product and as such consumers have already paid a price just to get the product to their table.

We should feed the 5million here first before boasting about feeding 40million world wide!

Calls to ‘feed the 5 million first’ before exporting NZ food

People are going hungry even though New Zealand produces enough food to feed 40 million – and it’s spurring calls for the country to “feed the five million first”.

Almost 40 percent of New Zealand households experience food insecurity, while 19 percent of children live in households that experience food insecurity.

Poverty researcher Dr Rebekah Graham said while working on her thesis on food insecurity, she interviewed a woman who walked for 90 minutes each day to get a free community meal.

A state owned 3rd supermarket chain would do more for providing a cheaper means of living to all kiwis who have food security issues. It would do more for welfare than any single PM since Savage.

History is calling Labour. To date you have had nothing to show beyond crisis responses. We still have 190000 kids in poverty, over 22000 on emergency housing lists, growing inequality and a climate crisis with no real solutions.

A state owned supermarket chain that radically forced competition on base level cost of living for a vast swathe of New Zealanders would be a legacy worthy of Labour.

We need to be kinder to individuals and crueler to corporations.

As your poll numbers topple Labour, will you finally accept that some big vision projects are necessary and not just more tinkering?

The people are hurting economically, is the Left so bereft of ideas beyond middle class identity politics virtue signals that we have nothing to offer them?

As I have said time and time again, if you don’t want the poor to have their economic misery manipulated by the Right, then do something about their economic misery!

The NZ Supermarkets have gouged us for decades, screw their face generosity, and take 30% of their stake and form a real competition.

The truth is that our economic pain has only just begun.

Why is is that the Left have to continually protect capitalism from itself?

 

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86 COMMENTS

  1. Just you wait until Supermarkets in NZ release details of another year of very healthy profits, if not record profits.

    There will be some angry people for sure.

    • no they won’t industry representatives will appear in sweetheart media interviews and slowly explain to the public why the duopoly are the injured party and how it’s so unfair of us to blame them

      …and kiwis will lap it up

  2. Great expectations when government after government is unable to provide housing for the hungry, or affordability of warmth for the housed, and waffles that it won’t do it until it can do it “right.” Right. These are the persons too mean or stupid to even plant state houses out with fruit trees. Why not ?

    • Years ago I wrote to govt (Paula Bennett while she was Minster for Social Development)? suggesting that all urban grass verges be planted out with fruit trees (planting work for those on the dole etc and in a few years free fruit for anyone who needs it) but predictably the reply was some version of thanks but no thanks . .

      • James Brown. Good on you. In my suburban street there’s an apple tree, and there were fig trees in Elizabeth St, Mt Victoria, and hopefully there still are. Don’t tell Paula, or she might want to get them chopped down, Paula was a ladder-pulling-up sort of girl, though not noticeably food depleted herself before she got her tummy chop. A few years back the Wellington City Council was growing glossy silverbeet along Lambton Quay where town councils usually plant symmetrical little rows of matching flowers. Don’t tell Paula. The moth-eaten apples near my house get gathered up fairly quickly.

        Thing about fruit trees is many of them can do well with little maintenance, they did in my childhood home where we had three different plums, a cherry, and a great peach tree on the cold damp south side of the house.

        Apple trees lend themselves to great things such as the downfall of man, due to that naughty minx Eve, theories of relativity, and handy arrow practice leading to nice music such as the William Tell Overture. An apple a day also keeps the doctor away.

        Sure, a kid can fall out of a tree, but they’re just as likely to break an arm jumping from a shed roof with an umbrella trying to fly, or climbing over a fence doing normal kid stuff. Way back during and post WW2, free apples were govt supplied to school kids, and some places do now have similar local initiatives, but it ain’t the government, and the why’s and wherefores of government decision making are bleak territory. Shame on them.

        Your suggestion of productive community work for the dole can also help to provide the sort of positivity that helps people to feel good about themselves, but I daresay that the logistics were beyond the ability of the minions who’d have to sort it – or the advisor who wrote that person’s letters.

          • My pleasure, James. I think it’s great when people go to the trouble to put good ideas to the government. Outliers like you ( ha ha) bring them much needed fresh thinking – and are usually interesting – don’t stop.

        • The trick here is to write to the Minister and add the PM and associate minister via the DPMC office.

          They then all get it and respond, usually private secretaries with a half-decent response and assistance. Then you can OIA that same correspondence later as well.

      • They will not talk to you, doesn’t matter which side of the house they sit on. Labour “had” political capital to burn, they have been ridiculously timid?

        • Cate McC “ They will not talk to you, doesn’t matter which side of the house they sit on”. Yes, that’s right. This was well exemplified when Labour, supported by the National Party and the Purples, refused to dialogue with the protesters at Parliament. They fob off letter writers and question askers too, it could be a control thing. They turn hoses on people.

  3. Agree with you Martyn…what is the way forward?
    1. Government sponsored Supermarkets in areas of high poverty?
    2. Third player in the Supermarket game?
    3. Remove GST from Food?

    • Nathan. Yep GST from all food pronto. Every single time that this particular issue is raised, people start quibbling about different sorts of foodstuffs making it too difficult to do. Let’s make it easy. Remove GST from all food. It’s a particularly grubby tax which penalises those who can least afford it – the poor – people struggling to keep kids healthy – and indefensible as such.

  4. No way a state owned supermarket will fly.
    Can ‘t you hear the screams of Communist!

    ‘Just provide incentives for Aldi or another chain to enter the marketplace.

    • got it in 1 blazer but it’ll never happen, yeah the duopoly will make a few gestures because they know the role of govt in NZ is to preserve their rapacious practices once the current economic ‘unpleasentness’ is over it’ll be back to normal rape and pillage of kiwis.

      last week ‘we can’t cut prices cuz thin margins and overheads’ yet they must still be making a profit with these reductions, so when were they lying then or now?

    • Government run supermarkets couldn’t be run cheaper than a 3rd supermarket chain. Government run corporations are shockingly inefficient and usually badly run

        • Government funded? There’s your problem. There’s no incentive to innovate or work hard when you know the government purse strings will always be at your fingertips.
          Get a third supermarket chain in.

          • PRIVATISED services are worse quality and ultimately more expensive, with INCREASED bureaucracy cite an example in NZ where privatisation has made a service better and cheaper?

            seriously, I’ve racked my brain trying to think of an example.

            telecoms with changes in tech are not comparable….but go on any other social spending that has been improved by privatisation

  5. The left did not save us from COVID, the left saved a few boomers from COVID and threw the poor and non home owning under the bus to do it.

    • Greb. What’s that got to do with the price of fish ? And what does it mean ? Covid control wasn’t a political strategy.

      • Please read the article, it states “As I have pointed out tirelessly, while Labour saved us from Covid, they haven’t saved us from the ruthlessness of the under regulated free market.” I suppose you could be correct in a way because Martyn said Labour and I converted this to the Left. It is plain for all to see that this iteration of Labour can no longer be described as remotely left, I apologise.

    • more ageist shite, tell us what you really really think about racial minorities and women greb or do you reserve your bigotry for a particular group? fuckin muppet on a stick

  6. One thing to recognise is that they can adjust their prices! If they can reduce prices by 10% then they can do GST 15%!

    So IRD just needs to cut & paste Australias no GST on Food(s) and the supermarket cartel can adjust their prices! How simple is that!

    Own goal! Wankas!

  7. There is always something. For a few years, it was cold houses. Now it’s the price of petrol and grocery items.

    What’s wrong with this picture? Well, back when we had the cold homes debacle, you could still buy hot water bottles, electric blankets, ordinary blankets, and extra clothing. Now, with petrol and grocery items, you can still get fuel discount vouchers, a bicycle, a 50cc scooter, a food parcel, you can barter food items, etc.

    I understand the pain felt by many due to the higher prices. My petrol cost has almost doubled in the past five months. However I use fuel vouchers or Flybuys, I considered purchasing a bicycle, I walk to some places, and I retained the ownership of my 50cc scooter.

    As for groceries, I once put some of the unnecessary items back when the bill came to $30 over my budget one week, and I have a mate who did the same. We have only a small backyard but have managed to grow parsley, tomatoes, carrots, pumpkin, and silverbeet. I cooked chicken liver casserole a while back and also I like to cook lamb’s fry with bacon, the offal ingredients are cheaper than traditional meat.

    • ‘heart rending’ testimony there dan but irrelevant to anything

      saving tips are 10 a penny, save nothing and just make the tipper feel smug.

      • Gagarin. Any savings can be helpful for carers trying to budget and provide for families.
        Once upon a time one of the women’s mags used to pay for helpful tips.

    • Daniel Lang. It’s different for folk trying to feed a family. Yep, liver is probably the most nutritious meat available. My NWS only gets it in on Tues and Sat, if at all, Countdown, never. I cook it with onions, cheaper than bacon, and casserole it too where extra bits and pieces of vegetables can be tossed in. Families with both parents working often don’t have time for this sort of cooking, or don’t know how to do it. Chicken livers, by the way, cut bite-sized and coated in dried thyme, are quite gourmet finger food. School cooking classes, which included nutrition, were abolished in favour of gender neutral thingies like making pen holders out of cans or belting up a bit of copper to make a bird, and some people can’t really cook from scratch.

      Gardening is great, but families mightn’t have the time, and growing patterns have changed and they can be unpredictable, unfortunately. Be careful here. I stayed in an apartment in Sth Korea, in a building owned by the apartment’s occupier. The whole of the large intricately panelled foyer was laid out with large flat beds of seedlings to be transported and replanted elsewhere. It was a damn nuisance forgetting they were there and walking over them at night, but it might be the sort of enterprise a tyrannical government could try and force upon folk.

    • Agree Daniel, Pak n Save Hamilton selling $25 pork roasts for $13. Enough for 3 meals for family of four, cook on Sunday then enough food for two other days of the week. Those within 6km of work, try cycling like I do( very cheap and healthy), when it’s wet take the half price bus( thank you Labour). Think smarter, find 10 minutes a week for plantings, it’s very easy if your determined.

  8. In the next few months and as the cost of living crisis worsens, Labour will…

    Do nothing about the supermarket duopoly bar what the neutered Commerce Commission told them to do, which is virtually nothing. And we’ll keep getting rogered at the checkout.

    They will start adding fuel taxes back on even though the price of fuel is cranking back up. Because they cannot help themselves.

    They’ll pretend half price bus fares is their benevolence personified as Covid cases climb, again, so fewer will use public transport.

    They will start the ball rolling for tolling roads to tax any who has the audacity to use them in a motor vehicle. In complete defiance of Labour’s no new taxes bullshit promise. But Michael Wood will think himself tricky by saying the loathsome Auckland regional fuel tax that has seen judder bar construction go off the scale will be dropped. Big deal Michael. Return with one hand, steal with the other, with interest!

    And they will have locked in their electoral demise in doing so.

    • Public transportation has increased over 20% due to Labours intervention, home ownership has been addressed and is now a buyers market, fuel has been reduced with subsidies.
      They have locked in their reelection without resorting to “dirty politics “

      • Bert,

        I enjoy your input and your wit but disagree with you here.

        I don’t believe Labour have locked in their re-election at all. I won’t be voting next year. Reason is I’m disillusioned with both National and Labour. The National Party agenda does not sit with me. Labour on the other hand have shown they are well out of their depth in key areas. Health and housing being just two. They can no longer blame National for their own failings. That aside, I still want Labour to win in 2023 but not because they deserve a third term as I don’t believe they do. I hope they get in because the alternative is even worse. National’s last 9 years will not be quickly forgotten.

        Home ownership has absolutely NOT been addressed by Labour and despite what some may say, housing in NZ is most definitely not a “buyers market”.

        The Government getting real about house prices and matching deposits of first home buyers would be a huge step in the right direction. A 10k contribution to a deposit in Auckland for example is a small splash in a large ocean. Is about as close as a Government can get to not doing anything meaningful.

        House prices have stabilized but that was always going to happen as they’d already reached terminal velocity. Interest rates and inflation are high. House prices are grossly inflated and unsustainable. Many people who bought a house in the last 18 months are now having to find more funds to service their mortgage. It’s just a matter of time before we see a growing number of mortgagee sales. In 12 months time it may be a buyers market but it certainly isn’t one now. Don’t believe the vested interest hype. Houses going unsold on the open market and passed in auctions are not evidence of a buyers market. Labour have stood by and done very little while the most diabolical inequity of my lifetime unfolded. Tinkering around the edges was never going to get the job done. I commented on a Labour link online congratulating themselves for their “success” with housing. I assumed it was a piss take but they were sincere. Anyone that had the audacity in a democracy to seek adult dialog on the subject was quickly ridiculed as a “National Party Troll” This is how Labour sycophants deal with anyone else who is not a Labour Party Sycophant. I felt genuinely embarrassed for voting Labour in 2020.

        The Russian invasion of Ukraine has many negative implications to others and there is a real danger things will escalate further. Most of us also understand Chinese ambitions and why they are paying very close attention to what’s unfolding and a US President in obvious steep cognitive decline. This at the heart of why China has refused to condemn the Russian invasion.

        If people are struggling with the cost of living etc, they will be even more gunshy about locking in a mortgage and buying a home that will likely result in them quickly being in negative equity. We now have big numbers of disillusioned Kiwis leaving our shores. Many will have given up hope. How this amounts to a buyers market at this time is beyond me.

        Labour blew the chance to rein in the housing market when the PM took the Capital Gains Tax off the table to appease Winston Peters and avoid a constitutional crisis that may have resulted in them losing the top floor. Kiwibuild has been an epic failure. Phil Twyford was well out of his depth. The reset with Megan Woods has been an even bigger fail. She is also well out of her depth. Inviting Judith Collins on board to find answers was more evidence of that fact.

        As for Supermarket rorting Kiwis. Labour will do something meaningful about this. They had the opportunity to start that ball rolling but appallingly handed it back over to the very people rorting Kiwis to find answers. Another fail. Now Labour have to come up with answers from within their own empty chairs. Will they? Absolutely yes but not because it’s the right thing to do but because 2023 is election year and self preservation is a huge motivation to all Governments.

        Last Sunday was Mothers Day. Labour put up a link wishing happy mothers day. I don’t recall seeing such a message in 2021 but I did notice someone had the audacity to contribute a short relevant message. “Most nurses are also mothers” They were attacked and ridiculed for not towing the party narrative.

        Can Labour afford to be smug and or bullshit Kiwi’s? No. Did many MP’s get into power off the back of the PM’s popularity in 2020? Jacinda Ardern has lost over 30% of her own support in the last year. Some is Covid related but more and more kiwi’s are becoming increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with a leader who is a good communicator but fails to deliver in many areas. If her own popularity falls any further, numerous Labour MP’s may well be looking for a job late next year.

        • Thinking man, of course they haven’t locked in the election, I was being facetious and response to the boring last sentence of Xray.
          The truth is the right wing will find fault where there is none. I just need to add balance to outrageous statements or else they go unchecked, a little like Trump statements. You now the statements.

  9. Labour is barely left, it is obviously a lesser evil than natzos, and a way lesser evil than ACT, so stands guilty as accused by Mr Bomber.

    NZ Labour has a neo Blairist Caucus that is shit scared of the banks, big business and SMEs, and senior fifth columnist Public servants.

    In the short term targeting Greens and Māori Pāti to advance pro working class policies for the 2023 General Election is the way to hopefully get a more useful Labour led Govt. And for 2026, generation rent and precarious employment have to get politically organised–come on all you tattooed wonders–front up and stand up to win what should be yours in this land of plenty. The boomers will no longer be numerically superior.

    The danger is the dirty filthy natzos get in merely because they are not Labour–yet Baldrick and his ACT mates will make things even worse for the working class and alienated of this country.

      • gagarin Of course they’re the banks’ allies. How can they build up their property portfolios and numerous business interests without helping hands from the banks ? Some of them are dabbling in so much that it’s a big ask expecting them to have the time for anything else.

    • “Labour is barely left, it is obviously a lesser evil than natzos….. and “..Labour has a neo Blairist Caucus that is shit scared of the banks, big business and SMEs, and senior fifth columnist Public servants.”
      Ain’t THAT the truth!
      Between some/most in Caucus and those 5th Columnist Public Servants, they seem to be oblivious of the various people/demographics they’ve managed to alienate – many loyal Labour Party voters.

      I love @Bert’s enthusiasm and cheerleading because I, and many of my family over a few generations won’t have to feel guilty about not flicking them a party vote come ’23.

      When you get a party that squanders such a mandate under MMP and Caucus members and 5th Columnists are pissing in each others pockets, and who fail to realise that PR and spin doesn’t cut it when times get tough, and even Joe and Josephine Bloggs start to hurt, they’ll get what they deserve. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as I fear, but we’ll get what we (collectively) deserve.
      Labour do need a bloody big shock to their fundamentals in this space, going forward but some of them are so tribally up themselves, I doubt it’ll register.
      Things probably are going to get worse before they can get better – but you are correct in that next generations are going to have to get active and drive that spike in the heart of the current political wing of the Labour Party. I hope I’m still around to join them on pissing on one or two graves.

      Some of those Munsters in caucus really have surprised me with their wimpery. JA doesn’t surprise me – she’s merely a creature of her era, upbringing and environmental experience. She might even chuck it in before too long.
      They’ve alienated many of
      – The disabled
      – The Homeless and State and Council tenants
      – The bumcrack tradies
      – Most immigrants here on a variety of visa categories – many lied to by way of promises given only to have rules changed midway through the game (more often on advice from those 5th Columnists)
      – various in academia: not just the arts, but also science
      – etc.

      Roll on ’23. They COULD save themselves of course but they probably won’t.
      Supermarket reform over and above the watered down Commerce Commission report implemented IMMEDIATELY would be a start (Bear in mind that Commerce Commission allowed this situation to flourish originally)

      I’ll try and hang around a while. Maybe we can piss on a few political graves together, and I’ll make sure I’ve imbibed a few toxins beforehand to ensure they’re unable to rise from the grave.

      • my only fear about the demise of the LINO is that lab will not be replaced by a left party but some kind of populist rightwing volkish party on BOTH sides of the race question (ie white nationalist vs maori nationalist) if that happens it’s goodnight NZ.

    • WW 2.5 faces the politicians. Labour needs to accept the challenge to save the country as National will continue toasting themselves in spa baths with champagne or other rare libation, being all the spirit they know.

      Labour will either have to face up to the banks et al that TM refers to and bring in straight away some necessary efficacious new laws and procedures, which will cause some political injuries – maybe fatalities (and we should recognise the similarity to conscientious objectors like Archibald Baxter, in different guise) or show themselves to be too deeply immersed in the trough swilling away. Will they continue to step up mouthing platitudes (you lie in your teeth, which are false!) and go on sliding down that parliamentary plaything to land in a muddy puddle with a dog turd in it? Which will be the dirty end they deserve. There they go….wheeeeeeeeee! I bet ten chocolate fish. Just thinking why don’t we have some good betting agencies as they do in England – it’s another source of cash that can be squeezed out of us that’s been overlooked. And placing losing bets would provide some satisfaction. We have been proved right even if no-one listened to us. Let’s die happy.
      Biggest UK Bookmakers by Revenue
      Company Revenue Key Sites
      GVC Holdings £3.65bn Coral, Ladbrokes, Gala
      Flutter £2.14bn Betfair, Paddy Power
      William Hill £1.58bn William Hill

  10. Labour, National, ACT, The Greens and The Maori Party. Are the same thing.
    Consequently, we have a rampaging fascist capitalist infected pretend democracy that’s only goal is to get your money so you can imagine my surprise to learn that at the very epicentre of our need to survive at a most basic level we’re channeled into rapacious greed as depicted by tag-team food pimps wearing cheap shoes depicting supermarket logo’s.
    When you go to the super market your most basic need is for fresh vegetables and meat for the carnivores. So go to a farmers market instead. Fuck them! But remember jonky and his merry band of cheap mafioso’s passed legislation to control direct-to-the-public foods straight off the farm? Seeds are now a ‘controlled substance’.
    We’ve been conned for generations. Being conned is now in our DNA. We expect, and indeed think we only deserve, to be conned.
    What have I been trying to point out? We AO/NZ’ers need high level intervention to investigate the complex matrix of crooks fucking us without the kissing.
    Which reminds me, I have to go to the bloody supermarket to buy coffee.

  11. Supermarkets put items up 50% and then drop them 10% so only going up 40% then!

    Block of tasty cheese a few days ago was $21.50 kg. last week it was $19kg, on special $18kg – 2 years ago it was $12kg – gone up nearly $100% in 2 years!

    Are they using Confusing marketing tactics to manipulate customers and make up claims? Yep.

      • Unions apparently have found that cost of travel is now at 1 day of minimum wages.

        Please also include the amount of time it takes to travel when working out the cost of going to work and the amount of people in part time/gig work who then have to travel more than once in a day.

        Then calculate the amount of people who are supposed to use their own vehicles for work so subsidising work travel for their end employer.

    • yup it’s a standard NZ business tactic, illegal in many places but not in our feudal system, in nthe UK (probably different after brexshit) an item had to be at a higher price for 90 days before you could reduce it and call it a sale item.

    • and we’re drowning in a sea of milk…

      same block of orange plastic(I dispute the name cheese) half the price over in oz, the home market is not the world market…if farmers want to farm here reserve a percentage for home sales as payback for getting a free ride from NZ on the legitimate costs of running their businesses.

    • Block of tasty cheese … gone up nearly $100% in 2 years!

      Ain’t there something else going on here? And not much to do with the duopoly.

  12. So they weren’t making a killing at 2021 prices? Sure costs have gone up but give me a break

    The reality is we need more teeth in the commerce commission. The trouble is the government itself picks and choses when the competition law applies. PHARMAC being a classic example.

    Again all those types that scream remove regulation etc, etc, ignore the fact that companies won’t do the “right” thing. You need solid guard rails not whimsical moral murmurings. We don’t need state owned supermarkets, we need regulators with the teeth to ensure anti competitive behaviour gets stomped on. Stop wanking on about “tough on crime”. There are already civil and commercial law breaches which are doing more damage to kiwis than those involving criminal law.

  13. the only argument needed is…a million a day in EXCESS profits, not profits but a million a day over and above what any other grocer in any other developed country gets….and tesco, aldi, lidl etc are not going bankrupt are they?

  14. Saved us from Covid? Lol.
    That disease that globally still has an overall survival rate of 99.975%?
    Yeah that was worth trashing our economy for.

  15. Supermarkets rely on people being too tired or too lazy to shop around so make a killing on prepared food .Examples like muesli is so cheap to make but expensive to buy .Eggs are cheap at about 50c each and there are a dozen ways to serve them . I taught myself to cook so can feed me and my partner with tasty meals for under $10 a day. For awhile I was volenteering to teach young families to cook but the government pulled the funding and the programme was stopped.
    Another reason supermarkets make so much money is that they screw their suppliers and staff . Here they rely on fear of losing their supply contract or losing their jobs . If another player came into the market the authorities would need to ensure their success was not based on an even worse situation for staff and suppliers

    • $10 per day trev! My black arse! So you were one of those Ruth Richardson wankas at WINZ who was contracted to advise people to starve slowly to death on shitty food on a shitty Richardson diet!

      Fuck right off with your shitty dietary advice!

      • Surely the poor could eat and drink each others waste. I saw an episode of Bear Grylls and he drank his piss to break his thirst, perhaps he could have also got a few nutrients from his shite. The poor keep on moaning about paying the high rents but if they would only start thinking adaptively they could actually handle a 25% increase in rent. This must be addressed ASAP, it could put a stop to falling house prices.

        • And that sort of advice we’re all happy you’re an ex NZder. Filtering out fuckwits is good for the NZ DNA.

          Kia Ora!

    • trev son the whole point is the existence of the duopoly severely limits if not totally eradicates other options, that’s the whole fuckin point of it… local dairies are are about the only other option in urban areas..not noted for their cheapness really are they?

  16. Minister Dave Clark, on the radio, declared that he has his official advisors looking into the matter to give him offical advice which can then tweak so he can advise us that he acted on the official advice given. That way he doesn’t have to commit himself or even actually do anything. It just sounds like he’s doing something. Which is nothing. Perfect situation. Vote Labour.

    • And Nicola Willis is giving us $2 a week coward, you sure are on a winner. Sound advice ? Sound like you’ve fracked, cracked , drilled, leaked your brain and it was an empty resource.

      • Everybody here has a crack at each other and it’s mostly good sport. But your manner and tone, and everybody will have noticed, your way of retorting is particularly nasty and snipey and mean and often downright aggressive. Of course, this is all entirely understandable because that’s how dogs behave when they are cornered and feel threatened-they flash their teeth and start growling and biting. Do you feel
        cornered and threatened bertie? Is your Labour dream going poof kaputt? Are you taking down all your Jacinda posters already…may as well. 2023 is soon. See ya. Bye bye…don’t forget to vote. Jacinda will appreciate that one vote.

        • Agree SK most people on this site don’t revert to personal insults.
          However there are some who by nature have a nasty steak they are unable to control.

        • Well most here are sick to death of your irrational attacks and personal vendetta on Ardern and a left wing government .If you think you’re sheltered from the bulshit you espouse, well I’m placed on this earth to correct you. The fact Bob parrots such nonsense only proves my point.
          As to the dog analogy well you are an annoying item flea.
          Your last 3 or 4 sentences actually do read like a rabid wild dog, but not sure your teenage vote will help a pathetic right wing block.
          Now tootle off and get a box of tissues because Mike Judge still needs his question answered.
          Now tootle off and get a hankie

            • Most of Mike Judge does. Pretty sure In Vino and Wheel and gagarin and countryboy, probably Martyn, Nikorima, etc, etc, etc.
              And to use your own words you used on the Greens replaced with your name…

              ‘It’s actually fucking annoying to listen to the Sour Kraut’s unrealistic shit”

              • cabbage you’d have to matter for me to care, as you don’t I don’t….so carry on making the right appear ludicrous, works for me.

        • Or to use another one of your posts when referring to the Maori Party “Boohoo poor Kraut”.

          You see, you have the maturity of sperm and why you are so tedious.

  17. Time to get real! The supermarkets profits are driven by the shareholders. It is THOSE greedy profiteers we should be exposing and attacking directly!

  18. Good lord Bert, that was rather rose tinted. Even for you.

    But tell the whole story on public transport…
    “The weekly rise in the second half of that measured fortnight was the same as the first half – with a 9 per cent rise leading up to the half-fare initiative starting, and continuing at the same rate the following week.”

    PT use is increasing because all the movement restrictions have been lifted anyway and workers are expected to be back in the office, increased subsidy or not. But its still only 47% of prepandemic levels so it’s pretty bad. And even then as Omicron 5.0 kicks off, numbers will likely decline thanks to risk mitigation by passengers.

    And home ownership has been addressed??? Oh. My. God, that is ridiculous.12 years to save for a deposit, NZ the 6th most unaffordable country in the world to buy a home and interest rates headed skyward plus lendingrestrictions. We set world records for price growth nearly 5 years into this useless government that was originally elected to do something about the ruinous situation housing was in. They’ve put National to shame and helped the wealthy get wealthier.

    And even though Luxon is unappealing, a gaff prone drop kick and he is supported by a collection of talentless creeps in his caucus who have no idea except to regurgitate tax cut dogma, Labour are still going to lose because that is exactly what the polls tell us is going to happen, consistently, and no one but you should be surprised. They deserve to!

  19. I dont think the government needs to set up its own supermarket chain.

    All it needs to do is turn over the surplus plots of land it has to a third supermarket operator and advise that it would pass legislation to over-ride all consenting processes for aformentioned operator.

  20. indeed millsy compulsory purchase if necessary and give any incoming competitor the same tax breaks we give hollywood…if it’s good enough for movie producers it’s good enough for kiwis at the checkout.

  21. This useless govt couldn’t run a corner diary let alone a supermarket chain. Any of you that think they can, need to go out the back and head butt a brick wall.

    When they were in opposition they continually wined about the duopoly, Shane Jones was the head of the choir. (Obviously he’s quite rightly not there now, useless oxygen thief)
    Labour will do nothing, they’ve had five fucken years.

    The issue is clear just like the days of Vodafone and Telecom. They’re happy with circa 50% each. Very nice margins, very nice market share, don’t rock the boat.
    Bring in a third, a new player, hungry and aggressive with no marketshare, and you have real competition. Hence communication costs today, are a fraction of the duopoly days. I can’t recall which govt forced the telecom spilt and sell? But

    Costco are weeks away, in the countries largest market, and plans are already underway for the next cities.
    I lived in the States years ago, and loved shopping at Costco. They will destroy the current pair.
    By the way, way back then Costco sold Motorola flip phones for $60 and you had a $19 a month contract with a fairly decent number of free minutes. Came back to NZ and the same phone was over $1000 and it was $1 a min to talk. You weren’t talking a 30 or even 50% difference, it was in the hundreds of percentiles.

    I’m pretty confident this is why the charitable “price freeze” or “reduction” has suddenly been rolled out…I suspect the old boy’s and their grocery network will continue to roll out reductions, to try to get in front of Costco’s everyday low prices.

    If we see more of the same drops and charitable acts over the next weeks I think it will prove it’s Costco.
    My next prediction/question is: which labour MP will take the credit for crushing the duopoly and lowering costs, with their chest beating threats and influence?
    .

  22. Weird, capitalism, has been the most successful system ever. We sit here at our computer and rave about socialism, sipping our Nespresso and lamenting the poor bastards who only have access to dial up.
    Society has always been unequal, but the way to improve that is to give everyone the chance to succeed

  23. It used to be that the Union movement would push to educate their members, they would have communal classes to educate and enrich their children. Now it seems that the dumber you are the better you are to serve the left

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