How is it that you think this is a good thing?
Comment on Albanese invites Arab 'hypermarket' to compete with Coles and Woolworths
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 days agoThis isn’t some big gotcha… it’s literally the standard weekly catalogue promo cycle; Woolies/Big W might have them on sale this week, and Coles will have them on sale the next. Rinse and repeat every few weeks.
They don’t expect (m)any people to buy them when they’re not on promotion; they use the inflated RRP to make the promotional price (that they actually expect people to buy at) all the more attractive and get people into the store.
It’s not some grand conspiracy, it’s basic Marketing.
princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
I am in no way, shape or form saying it is? Just stating a fact - this is a practise called price anchoring.
The comment I was replying to was trying to use it as an example of supermarket greed & price gouging - when it’s really just a way to make the price they actually expect to sell it at (with the regular 40-50% discount) seem like a great deal in comparison.
princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
Yeah, you’re right, these huge duopoly corporations aren’t greedy at all, my mistake.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
Coles and Woolworths have pretty consistently posted Net Profits of ~5-6% for over the past decade (probably longer, I CBF checking).
Meanwhile Coca Cola most recently posted a Net Profit of ~22.6%; PepsiCo, Mondelez & Kraft-Heinz all post Net Profits of ~10-12%, while all avoiding paying Australian taxes - but nah, the Supermarkets are the ones being greedy.
I return to my original point; the reason why people are feeling the pinch at the checkout lane is predominantly because their discretionary spending funds have been annihilated directly (and indirectly) by skyrocketing property prices.
Everything else, including this baseless discussion on how just adding one more supermarket chain to the Australian market will somehow miraculously solve the current affordability crisis, is just theatre to distract from the actual underlying issue.
Taleya@aussie.zone 2 days ago
except BigW doesnt’ price anchor like that. Still woolworths group.
Woolworths group are literally pushing the prices to see how far they can go. They set at one chain where it’s less expected that groceries would be bought, and then ram the shit out of the prices at grocery stores because they know it’s more likely to get picked up. Business practise? yes. Also greed.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Except, that they do? Go back to the Big W link you posted earlier - they’re back up to the MSRP:
It’s something that every company does, because if a product is permanently ’on sale’, then they run the risk of being fined (maybe by the ACCC? I’m not quite sure which body is in charge) for false advertising. There are strict guidelines that dictate what a product must be at the “was price” for a certain length of time, within a certain timeframe.
It’s not just Coles and Woolworths that do this; every other retailer is equally culpable: JB HiFi, Bunnings, Myer, Kmart, Chemist Warehouse etc.
Taleya@aussie.zone 3 days ago
These are different companies with different owners. What you are describing here is collusion.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
It’s not collusion; that is a specific legal term - but even more broadly, there isn’t any active discussion between the two retailers. If there were, given the tens of thousands those two companies have employed, wouldn’t you think there’d have been whistleblowers, ACCC fines and the like?
I’m not trying to defend supermarkets here, just dispel miss-information.
Prices are rising because costs are, I worked in agriculture when the Russian invasion of Ukraine occurred - causing fertiliser costs to literally triple, and labour costs for farm hands sky rocket due to the lack of backpackers during COVID lockdowns. Both of those costs got passed on to the supermarkets and ultimately to consumers.
Publicly traded companies have open financials; anyone can open up their most recent P&Ls and see what their actual Net Profit %s are, and they’ve remained flat for a very long time.
You would be able to see that there isn’t heaps of fat that another player in the space could do to noticeably impact basket spend.
We already have Metcash/IGA, Aldi, Amazon, Chemist Warehouse and Bunnings all providing a tonne of competition in key grocery categories.
What makes you think adding another would make any difference?