So, summing up, we currently have a government that was largely paid for by two groups: one mostly made up of sunset industries looking to protect themselves from stranded assets regardless of their impact on our long-term wellbeing; the other mostly made up of oligopolists looking to protect their ability to manipulate price. No wonder we have austerity. Well done us.
We have a duopoly here in NZ because we're a very small market by international standards. I'm thinking we're lucky to have two major players rather than one, so have a slightly different perspective to those who have commented thus far. But the government should sort out the wholesale supply issues. The two big retailers supplying people on a wholesale basis to compete with them just doesn't make sense. Why would they? I'm not sure why a Gilmours, Davis Trading or Bidvest (or even Costco) couldn't play a bigger part in that segment of the market if they were encouraged to do so, importing product directly from overseas. p.s. size does matter when it comes to purchasing power with suppliers...
This is what happens when all the parties have become intellectually bankrupt: they no longer have a driving force from which to derive their own ideas, they become risk averse, and finally they become captured by private interests.
Looking at how four banks aren't enough I'm sceptical three supermarkets will be (and why does it always have to be a foreign company?) Here's my own radical solution: Severely limit the maximum floor area of retail buildings.
Many more grocery stores will be built, much closer to where people live, thus leveraging the new small mobility vehicles (small electric cars, electric bikes, etc) and helping to reduce traffic congestion. With many more stores, often specialist (e.g. butchers, green grocers, etc), it will be easier to break them up if the get too consolidated. There will also be a far lower barrier to entry. The internet also makes it easy for small retailers to group together to bulk import stuff in an ad-hoc way.
Instead of this relentless drive to ever bigger stores with enormous carparks and widened roads, more, smaller stores, that less often require driving, that are more specialised and therefore have staff that know their products (and therefore enjoy their jobs more). If there was a Ministry of Construction offering standardised small store plans they could even be cheaper to build and maintain than the big ones.
If is often said that money is the root of all evil. But money is a great thing. Instead insulation from consequence is the root of evil. And bigger, consolidated companies, where those making the decisions are ever further removed from those who suffer from them are not helping. (And, yes, this applies to the Kmarts and Warehouses as well.)
This isn't about winding back the clock, technology is always in motion. Combustion engines favoured a certain size of vehicle, that favoured large stores, it was the right choice for the time. But lithium batteries now favour smaller vehicles, the internet easier collaboration. This about thinking really hard about what the real problem is: capping the size of retail buildings is a deep level solution that intersects several problems, high food costs being one of them.
Of course such a change should not happen suddenly, it would take decades to phase in. Rogernomics came on too fast and caused many unnecessary problems after all.
👍🏾Excellent article to help pull together the threads surrounding this report on the duopoly. I was reading through and asking myself, "Hmmmm .... WHAT could explain this lack of action over the years that most of this has been known, at least in "official" circles" (and if you are a Consumer subscriber!)
🙋🏽♀️Not surprising that I had already guessed "vested interests & lobbyist leading to lack of political will".
As has been said many times, governments of Aotearoa don't mind "interfering" if/when it suits their political situation i.e. philosophy, timing, having leaders with backbone etc., or just that their "vested interests & lobbyists" want it? 🤷🏾♀️
A timely expose. I just can't imagine this government will pay anything more than lip-service to this duopoly. But I'm forever optomistic
So, summing up, we currently have a government that was largely paid for by two groups: one mostly made up of sunset industries looking to protect themselves from stranded assets regardless of their impact on our long-term wellbeing; the other mostly made up of oligopolists looking to protect their ability to manipulate price. No wonder we have austerity. Well done us.
The headline is spot on.
To no one's big surprise...
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/focusonpolitics/527289/act-pledges-pushback-on-supermarket-crackdown
The 'C' in ACT really stands for 'cartel' instead of 'consumer' as the party officially claims.
Time to clean out the Commerce Commission, start at the top , then a good prune downwards.
Increase the funds and get some scalps.
Big business would lean on me if they could.
It's a jungle out there.
And not just supermarkets. Building materials, energy, media, and most importantly, housing need to be next on the list.
We have a duopoly here in NZ because we're a very small market by international standards. I'm thinking we're lucky to have two major players rather than one, so have a slightly different perspective to those who have commented thus far. But the government should sort out the wholesale supply issues. The two big retailers supplying people on a wholesale basis to compete with them just doesn't make sense. Why would they? I'm not sure why a Gilmours, Davis Trading or Bidvest (or even Costco) couldn't play a bigger part in that segment of the market if they were encouraged to do so, importing product directly from overseas. p.s. size does matter when it comes to purchasing power with suppliers...
So kind of like local loop unbundling, only for the grocery sector?
This is what happens when all the parties have become intellectually bankrupt: they no longer have a driving force from which to derive their own ideas, they become risk averse, and finally they become captured by private interests.
Looking at how four banks aren't enough I'm sceptical three supermarkets will be (and why does it always have to be a foreign company?) Here's my own radical solution: Severely limit the maximum floor area of retail buildings.
Many more grocery stores will be built, much closer to where people live, thus leveraging the new small mobility vehicles (small electric cars, electric bikes, etc) and helping to reduce traffic congestion. With many more stores, often specialist (e.g. butchers, green grocers, etc), it will be easier to break them up if the get too consolidated. There will also be a far lower barrier to entry. The internet also makes it easy for small retailers to group together to bulk import stuff in an ad-hoc way.
Instead of this relentless drive to ever bigger stores with enormous carparks and widened roads, more, smaller stores, that less often require driving, that are more specialised and therefore have staff that know their products (and therefore enjoy their jobs more). If there was a Ministry of Construction offering standardised small store plans they could even be cheaper to build and maintain than the big ones.
If is often said that money is the root of all evil. But money is a great thing. Instead insulation from consequence is the root of evil. And bigger, consolidated companies, where those making the decisions are ever further removed from those who suffer from them are not helping. (And, yes, this applies to the Kmarts and Warehouses as well.)
This isn't about winding back the clock, technology is always in motion. Combustion engines favoured a certain size of vehicle, that favoured large stores, it was the right choice for the time. But lithium batteries now favour smaller vehicles, the internet easier collaboration. This about thinking really hard about what the real problem is: capping the size of retail buildings is a deep level solution that intersects several problems, high food costs being one of them.
Of course such a change should not happen suddenly, it would take decades to phase in. Rogernomics came on too fast and caused many unnecessary problems after all.
Yep, money in itself isn't the root of all evil, but the love and greed for it very much is.
👍🏾Excellent article to help pull together the threads surrounding this report on the duopoly. I was reading through and asking myself, "Hmmmm .... WHAT could explain this lack of action over the years that most of this has been known, at least in "official" circles" (and if you are a Consumer subscriber!)
🙋🏽♀️Not surprising that I had already guessed "vested interests & lobbyist leading to lack of political will".
As has been said many times, governments of Aotearoa don't mind "interfering" if/when it suits their political situation i.e. philosophy, timing, having leaders with backbone etc., or just that their "vested interests & lobbyists" want it? 🤷🏾♀️