Australia, as many people have known it, is rapidly changing - not necessarily for the better. Small family owned businesses, which we referred to as the backbone of the country, are rapidly losing this tag and its ‘backbone’ and are closing their collective doors for ever, for reasons mentioned below. If these family businesses ever needed support and patronage, it is right now. Think about what will happen when they are all gone.
Click on these links for further reading and elucidation to see what we are up against in this country. Coles, Woolies 'deliberately killing competition.
Supermarket monsters. Coles, Woolworths and the price we pay for their domination. By Malcolm Knox.
While I was in the Stockland Shopping Centre in Cairns, I decided to purchase some good bread from the “Bakers Delight’ bakery, but found it closed. Thinking that it had been moved to a different location in the store, I made some inquiries. To my dismay, I was told that they have closed down and left the centre. When I asked why? I was told, “They were killed by Woolworths; nobody can compete with 85 cents for a loaf of bread”. There is no privately owned baker now in Stockland, Cairns. Surely Woolworths wouldn’t make any profit on an 85 cent loaf. It is just an opposition eliminating process, and similar to what they have done to the dairy farmers with the milk. Shameful would be an understatement.
I listened to a Townsville baker on radio, who had been in his family run business for many years, and he is worried that he will not survive in this unfair competitive environment. “It costs me $1.40 to produce a loaf of bread”, he said.
What we experience in Cairns, will be experienced Australia wide. The tentacles of these corporations are far reaching and merciless. I wouldn’t buy the 85 cent loaf, and wouldn’t even take them if given to me for free. What they are doing here isn’t illegal, but morally corrupt. I wouldn’t be surprised if the wheat used for the flour was genetically modified and is imported cheaply from a foreign country – possibly China.
Coles are not any better; they get their cheap bread pre-baked from Ireland and bake it fully in store, then sell it cheaply as freshly baked bread and gullible customers fall for this trickery. In the big shopping centre of Smithfield, north of Cairns, Baker’s Delight, opposite to Woolworths has gone, but Brumby's Bakery next to Coles is still there, and one has to wonder how long they can last.
These are the predatory practices by Australia’s supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths; deliberately killing off their smaller competitors. These two can easily be labelled as the piranhas of Australia’s business world.
The first in line for their predatory conquest in eliminating their opposition were the privately owned petrol stations. These petrol stations are now as rare as the proverbial hen’s teeth in Australia. Alan Jones gave a good example on radio on how they go about this. A Woolworths petrol station in Sydney, which was a block away from a privately owned petrol station, sold their petrol 10 cents a litre cheaper than the privately owned one. This shameless practise brought the desired result for Woolworths – their opposition had to close and, as expected, their petrol price went up.
It is manifestly obvious that they are determined to finish off all the family owned bakery businesses, plus others all across Australia. Next in their sights of eliminating their opposition would have to be the green grocers, the butchers, the newsagents, and the chemists. After they have all gone, we are at the mercy of those two Australian Supermarkets and they can charge whatever they want - they already control about 80% of our needs.
The tack Woolworths is employing in regards to eliminating the privately owned green grocers, is already under way. I got an e-mail from Woolworths (and so would thousands) “If you spend $30.00 in our fresh food (fruit and veggies) department we will give you x amounts of points.” This is opposition elimination in a surreptitious way and, again, not illegal, but morally wrong and corrupt. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that if I or anyone else spends $30.00 in their “fresh food” department, one wouldn’t need to buy anything from the privately owned green grocer in the shopping centre. Do you get the gist?
So why is our Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) sitting on its hands and just watching all this happening? Wake up Australian consumers; support our small family businesses, even if they are a bit dearer. They are the backbone of Australia - once they are gone you’ll come to regret it.
***
My thought for today:
Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent. Marilyn vos Savant.
***
Click on these links for further reading and elucidation to see what we are up against in this country. Coles, Woolies 'deliberately killing competition.
Supermarket monsters. Coles, Woolworths and the price we pay for their domination. By Malcolm Knox.
While I was in the Stockland Shopping Centre in Cairns, I decided to purchase some good bread from the “Bakers Delight’ bakery, but found it closed. Thinking that it had been moved to a different location in the store, I made some inquiries. To my dismay, I was told that they have closed down and left the centre. When I asked why? I was told, “They were killed by Woolworths; nobody can compete with 85 cents for a loaf of bread”. There is no privately owned baker now in Stockland, Cairns. Surely Woolworths wouldn’t make any profit on an 85 cent loaf. It is just an opposition eliminating process, and similar to what they have done to the dairy farmers with the milk. Shameful would be an understatement.
I listened to a Townsville baker on radio, who had been in his family run business for many years, and he is worried that he will not survive in this unfair competitive environment. “It costs me $1.40 to produce a loaf of bread”, he said.
What we experience in Cairns, will be experienced Australia wide. The tentacles of these corporations are far reaching and merciless. I wouldn’t buy the 85 cent loaf, and wouldn’t even take them if given to me for free. What they are doing here isn’t illegal, but morally corrupt. I wouldn’t be surprised if the wheat used for the flour was genetically modified and is imported cheaply from a foreign country – possibly China.
Coles are not any better; they get their cheap bread pre-baked from Ireland and bake it fully in store, then sell it cheaply as freshly baked bread and gullible customers fall for this trickery. In the big shopping centre of Smithfield, north of Cairns, Baker’s Delight, opposite to Woolworths has gone, but Brumby's Bakery next to Coles is still there, and one has to wonder how long they can last.
These are the predatory practices by Australia’s supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths; deliberately killing off their smaller competitors. These two can easily be labelled as the piranhas of Australia’s business world.
The first in line for their predatory conquest in eliminating their opposition were the privately owned petrol stations. These petrol stations are now as rare as the proverbial hen’s teeth in Australia. Alan Jones gave a good example on radio on how they go about this. A Woolworths petrol station in Sydney, which was a block away from a privately owned petrol station, sold their petrol 10 cents a litre cheaper than the privately owned one. This shameless practise brought the desired result for Woolworths – their opposition had to close and, as expected, their petrol price went up.
It is manifestly obvious that they are determined to finish off all the family owned bakery businesses, plus others all across Australia. Next in their sights of eliminating their opposition would have to be the green grocers, the butchers, the newsagents, and the chemists. After they have all gone, we are at the mercy of those two Australian Supermarkets and they can charge whatever they want - they already control about 80% of our needs.
The tack Woolworths is employing in regards to eliminating the privately owned green grocers, is already under way. I got an e-mail from Woolworths (and so would thousands) “If you spend $30.00 in our fresh food (fruit and veggies) department we will give you x amounts of points.” This is opposition elimination in a surreptitious way and, again, not illegal, but morally wrong and corrupt. It doesn’t take an Einstein to figure out that if I or anyone else spends $30.00 in their “fresh food” department, one wouldn’t need to buy anything from the privately owned green grocer in the shopping centre. Do you get the gist?
So why is our Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) sitting on its hands and just watching all this happening? Wake up Australian consumers; support our small family businesses, even if they are a bit dearer. They are the backbone of Australia - once they are gone you’ll come to regret it.
***
My thought for today:
Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent. Marilyn vos Savant.
***
