The cost of living crisis is hurting the very voters Labour promised to be transformative for.
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 argued we would see double digit food inflation last year and that asking kiwis to endure more isn’t a political solution.
We hit 11.3% food inflation in December and the damage to crops is going to see food prices spike.
Voters need to hope that their basic costs will come down.
Voters 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 better worker conditions.
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 Chippy.
To date Labour have had nothing to show beyond crisis responses. We still have 190000 kids in poverty, 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.
Cyclone Gabrielle changes everything, you must 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 Supermarket Duopoly is still operating and still price gouging, we don’t have effective market competition, the Commerce Commission has the power and has previously recommended the State seize 30% of the existing Duopoly and force entry level competition as a 3rd player.
It requires spine.
Food prices are only going to go up, you need a solution to what will be a food prices crisis in 3 months time.
People will lose their shit if they can’t afford to eat.
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“a new Supermarket backed by the Government”
Please no, don’t we have enough random shortages, price spikes, incompetent workers, etc etc?
Maybe the government could run a retail petrol chain as well. No!, wait – EV chargers….
This is just fantasy stuff. Supermarkets are highly complex businesses to run with supply chain challenges unlike most other retail focused operations due to a large volume of ‘daily fresh’ consumables.
Our benevolent public servants don’t understand the word competition let alone how to compete. The existing operations do – why have they been able to defend their duopoly so well?
Food prices will go up. That’s supply and demand in action. Look at eggs ( another government win…)
The best thing Labour could do is call Aldi and beg them to come here to NZ. They’ve driven prices down in Australia yet only hold roughly a 15% share of trade over there. They also forced Coles and Woolies to accept lower margin overall so instead of the 4% to 5% profit that Foodstuffs et al make here, the Australian grocers are seeing around 3% (it’s still many millions).
In the UK where there are 6 large grocery chains, it’s even more competitive and prices accordingly are lower as compared to NZ.
The modern state isn’t capable of actual delivery any more. It was when Toxic Men were in charge and things like diversity and inclusion hadn’t even been thought of. I don’t want to return to the 50’s though so a different approach is needed.
A good idea. It could be both a wholesaler and retailer, fully state-owned, with a closed-shop union agreement.
But there is no excuse for what happened in the grocery market.
The chains owned by Coles, Franklins, I.G.A and Albert Gubay were all allowed to be gobbled up by the Woolworths’ Group. Ridiculous decision by the Anti-Trust regulators (or corrupt?)
Andrew Lane over at TFH would be a potential competitor, but the monopoly is so bad he can’t get wholesale contracts to start a full-line grocery store, and is stuck with some of the Metro Convenience stores that Woolworths’ didn’t want.
It will take a long time for the Costco stores to be rolled out. Woolworths’ Holdings South Africa packed up and left — even though they had the only non-discount national department store chain remaining — because apparently the economy is too weak (and wages too pathetic) to support something as basic as a David Jones department store!
The Foodstuffs Co-Op should be broken up also — they have three chains that could easily be separate competitors.
I’m so hungry I could eat a person. Survival of the fittest, right?
How about ‘we’ organise a day when we all go ‘shopping’ at a countdown or packandsave together and accidently forget to pay for the shopping upon leaving, enmasse?
A couple of hundred people in one shop doing the same thing!
Thatll fuck’em!
Until then, be sure to take your self-checkout fee and scan those expensive bags of fresh fruit and veg as carrots, or whatever else is relatively cheap
That could have been done under J.A and well what did Chippie do at the time? Fuck all. Clap like a seal and say nothing. He ain’t gonna do more then that this time.
“When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.”
P. J. O’Rourke
It’s quite probable that Aldi have already looked at coming to NZ and decided against it – let alone wait for the government to call them. And as for the other fantasy of clearing 30% of supermarket sites to encourage a competitor, they still may not come – economies of scale and all….
thomas we are at the end of aldis supply chain through aussie..trans tasman shipping stuff is what the duopoly do(read your labels see how much is oz sourced) so no problem for aldi, confiscate land banks the duopoly bought specifically to avoid competition…oh dear my heart bleeds for them….and offer aldi whatever bribe they need, we do it when we’re crawling up hollywoods stinkhole or trying to placate an aluminium smelter with cheap lekky.
we have the aspiration to at sometime in the future give the duopoly a stiff talking to..
This Labour Government have demonstrated their inability to manage anything so running a business is way beyond their capability.
Chippie managed to reduce education to its lowest level during his reign.
They’re woeful.
Why the fuck can’t we get local grade meat and produce at local prices? Why must all farms produce export grade and make us pay export prices? It’s fucked up
It’s not the everyday banquet that it was. Now Countdown (Woolworths Australia) is up for sale in Gisborne. When the rats leave you know the ship is sinking.
https://www.bayleys.co.nz/news/commercial/countdown-on-for-sale-of-gisborne-property
While we’re known as Countdown, we’re part of Woolworths New Zealand, a subsidiary of the publicly-listed Australian company, Woolworths Group Limited. Woolworths New Zealand is also the franchise coordinator for Fresh Choice and SuperValue.
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