Comment on Albanese invites Arab 'hypermarket' to compete with Coles and Woolworths
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 days agoI 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.
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.
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.
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.
princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 days ago
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Taleya@aussie.zone 2 days ago
coles literally posted a revenue increase last year. wat.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Revenue is just cash in, it goes hand-in-hand with inflation. Shit is getting more expensive, no one is arguing that.
The cause of price increases are coming from higher up the chain; the big multinational corporations that supply into the supermarkets dictate prices. Those increased costs are passed onto the consumer.
But Net Profit % is the metric you need to look at in order to determine whether a company is price gouging or not. After covering supplier costs, logistics and storage costs, staffing costs, utilities and other overheads, as well as paying taxes, if a company is only pocketing 5-6 cents for every dollar in, that’s not them being greedy and pocketing ever increasing wads and wads of cash.
Honestly, I think a supermajority of shoppers wouldn’t even notice a ~5% reduction in the individual prices on a shelf label - not because they’re rich enough to notice care, but because it’s so insignificant when compared to the bigger costs they currently face (rent/mortgage, utilities, motor expenses etc.).
That is why I’m saying that adding another supermarket into the mix here in Australia is not going to have a noticeable impact on customer wallets. It’s just a distraction from the issue of land hoarding and rent-seeking causing the coming generations to be noticeably worse off than the ones that came before.
The sooner we stop following whatever distraction corporate media throws our way, and demand change that actually matters - the sooner we’ll be able to wrestle our futures out of the hands of the 1% of the 1%.