Supermarkets in Oz, is it lack of competition?

[Guest Mallam]

I keep hearing people going on about how expensive supermarkets are in Oz.....could a lot of this is down to the supermarkets; there does not really seem to be much competition amongst supermarkets in Oz, with Woolworths and Coles pretty much sewing up the “supermarket market”. If you shop in small local shops, such as bakers and greengrocers, you often get better quality food – I guess that’s a given – but they’re often cheaper than the supermarkets, and you get a bigger range too.

Does Oz need more supermarkets to start a PRICE WAR?

[Guest guest36187]

There is pretty much Woolworths and Coles. Aldi are sneaking in more now and there is Spar in the background. It is serious lack of competition

[PositivePixie]

Does Oz need more supermarkets to start a PRICE WAR?

 

God no for the reasons you state here:

If you shop in small local shops, such as bakers and greengrocers, you often get better quality food – I guess that’s a given – but they’re often cheaper than the supermarkets, and you get a bigger range too.

 

Lets not wish on Australia the pants situation with food and small businesses that has happened in GB due, in large part, to peoples' bone idleness - whats wrong with going to more than one shop to do your shopping? Is it seriously that much more of a hassle? And when it benefits the community so much more to have those small businesses servicing the community, why on earth would you want more power for the Supermarkets in Australia? I could understand it in a way if the smaller shops were really expensive, but they aren't!

 

I personally find it really really sad that £1 out of every £7 spent here goes into the pockets of Tesco - surely a load of 'little people' sharing the wealth is massively more favourable than any large corporations having monopolies? What happens when they decide to do x,y,z and all the little people have gone? The common person is screwed. (Just call me a commy...large scale blanket commercialism just doesn't sit right with my old fashioned values lol).

[Guest Guest31881]

Supermarkets are lacking in competition and it would be good to see more variation in the supermarkets available. I think a big problem is that Australia is a small country when it comes to population with around 22 million ( UK is around 62 million), The big supermarkets such as Tesco must look at Australia and wonder if there is a big enough population to support another 1 or 2 supermarket brands.

 

I use the smaller shops and yes it is better quality on the whole and can be a lot cheaper, Supermarkets use things like cheap milk to get customers into the shop and then hope they will spend more money on the other items. They are called convenience stores because everything is in the same place and a lot of people will not bother shopping around when they can buy from one location.

[Petals]

Now there are just the two of us I find we use the supermarket as its more convenient and we can use it as a fridge, shopping daily. We used to shop weekly when the kids were at home but not necessary now.

 

I think small shops are good and you can buy cheaper but sometimes the quality is not there, that is if you are buying fruit often needs to be consumed relatively quickly whereas it last longer from the supermarket.

 

We have Coles and Woolworths very close together so I pop in one and pop in the other also we have Ritchies which is Goodfellows but we stick with the old names, like Safeway here in Vic. Ritchies has lovely meat and small packages suitable for us and also my Mum finds they cater for singles.

 

Aldi have been but will not drive to get to one. We are having one built here some time, the land is bought its just the local haggles that are going on at present.

 

So in Somerville we are down by the head in Supermarkets, butchers, green grocers etc plus we have farmers markets around and also local country stall type sellers.

 

Any room for more, well there is Costco of course in the city but then again I would not drive to the city using petrol to get a cut price on grocery and also have to pay a premium each year to do so.

 

I think I did read that Tesco had looked at the market but thought no. Its interesting though that the head of Coles Supermarkets now is a Brit and I think he was with ADSA and I can see the influence creeping in and its a good thing. We now have small trolleys and large trolleys etc. Now to get the check out operators to sit down, that would be a plus.

 

Hard to crack the Woolworths/Coles domination for any chain, think Aldi has done well.

 

When Oxygen store opens at Mornington soon I will be interested to see how it compares with Bunnings as well.

[Parley]

Actually there seems to be a lot of competition between Coles and Woolworth at the moment.

No chance of another big player coming in.

[Petals]

I think whether its one two three or four its domination and no room for the small players anymore. Sad but today its get in and out quick and I talk about getting the bargains at the small shops but then it gets too hot, it rains and where do I head, Shopping Centre.

[Parley]

I agree, even if there was a 3rd big player its no guarantee of significantly lower prices.

Look at the banks where there are 4 very large players. There pricing is all very similar.

[Guest chris955]

There definitely needs to be more competition to try and get prices down. Not just another player that follows the big 2 at the moment.

[The Yuills]

To be honest..I have found there are some very good deals in the supermarkets lately, and have actually found my shopping bill a little lighter. I shop between Woollies and Coles and specials where I can. IGA seems to be mostly more expensive so I tend to only use IGA as a stop gap until I can get to either Coles or Woollies.

[Guest guest36187]

I have to say I go between both too. Depending on where the best deals of the week are. All the leaflets that you get twice a week....worth a look!

[The Yuills]

I do get 5% off at Woollies too which helps...so have to work that into where the best price is..takes a bit of working out but certainly makes you consider what you are buying, rather than just throw it in the trolly I might use it attitude.

[newjez]

The thing that really used to drive my wife insane was that there were no brakes on the trolleys at any of the supermarkets. To make matters worse, they put the parents with children bays at the top of a hill. We had a 1 year old and a 2 year old at the time. It was hard to decide which child went in the car, and which child went on the 'roller coaster ride from hell'. We got smart and started to carry a half brick in the boot to wedge under the trolley wheel.

 

Tescos has caused the death of the high street in the UK, but it is a different scenario in Oz. Most new suburbs don't have a high street. But it seems that even without Tesco, the major runners are getting smart - with loss leaders and petrol coupons. I'm sure they look to Europe and the US for ways that they can outperform each other.

 

How good is Aldi in Oz? I thought they had the advantage in GB because they source from Europe markets which are often cheaper. I wonder how this would work in Oz?

[Guest Guest16631]

........super markets will always have the monopoly if people continue to only shop there............................shopping just takes longer if you use more than one shop........................often in most suberbs there is a small shopping complex with a butcher fruit and veg and other small shops.............super markets have there place but by useiing the smaller shops you can save.............and if you bulk buy you can get a discount at the smaller shops...............aldi is another good source for some products .............i tend to take an afternoon to food shop and instead of rushing...................make it an enjoyable experience.........with out the support of the community the small shops will dissappear....................

[Guest Mallam]

I agree, even if there was a 3rd big player its no guarantee of significantly lower prices.

Look at the banks where there are 4 very large players. There pricing is all very similar.

 

But with the choice of supermarkets in the UK there is fierce competition and as they are usually all close to each other you can plan your weekly shop by just buying the offers or the two for one's or the "bogoffs", as i am trying to save money to get to Oz I actually look online for the offers and plan my shop from there, you can save really big if you shop around and JUST buy the offers, I am only hoping some more big supermarkets move into the market in Oz before I get there:cute:

[Guest guest36762]

I keep hearing people going on about how expensive supermarkets are in Oz.....could a lot of this is down to the supermarkets; there does not really seem to be much competition amongst supermarkets in Oz, with Woolworths and Coles pretty much sewing up the “supermarket market”. If you shop in small local shops, such as bakers and greengrocers, you often get better quality food – I guess that’s a given – but they’re often cheaper than the supermarkets, and you get a bigger range too.

Does Oz need more supermarkets to start a PRICE WAR?

 

 

this is actually happening at the moment, only Aussie style, ie the 2 supermarkets are matching each other for price on most things, with a very small number of things (1, milk) drastically reduced. The fact that you can get meat from a butcher of better quality and for the same price or less, and the fact that you can get fruit and veg often for a quarter of the price at a fruit and veg shop (granted, the quality of the fruit can be atrocious) means that the big 2 seem to live in their own world, oblivious and complacent.

Oh for Tescos to come in and clean them up....

[Petals]

My problem with supermarket trolleys they are the dirtiest piece of equipment around and we put food in them. Then we get to the check out and some of us insist that this is not put with that etc. I find it highly amusing as it would really be better if they washed out the trolley first. Babes with snotty noses, larger children with scruffy feet and shoes all get into our food trolleys. I have a theory if you want a cold get a trolley and you are sure to catch it.:laugh: Bet they would have more bugs than the public toilet seat like our steering wheels. :laugh: I think about this stuff now as when my son was doing science at uni they used to take swabs of stuff and he used to tell me about it. The ham in the deli was one of the things he told me and I never buy it now, always buy packaged.

[Parley]

As a society we waste millions of tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables every year which all goes to the tip to rot.

We are all conditioned to go to Woolworths and Coles and choose only the most magnificent specimens of fruit or veg on display. Any fruit that is a funny shape or has the slightest blemish or brown mark we refuse to take and so it all goes to waste.

 

Then we complain that our fruit and vegetable prices are too high.

[Petals]

There is a solution grow your own. With that I will head into the garden and pick some limes, oranges and lemons which we have fruiting at the present time. :spinny:

[RockDr]

........super markets will always have the monopoly if people continue to only shop there............................shopping just takes longer if you use more than one shop........................often in most suberbs there is a small shopping complex with a butcher fruit and veg and other small shops.............super markets have there place but by useiing the smaller shops you can save.............and if you bulk buy you can get a discount at the smaller shops...............aldi is another good source for some products .............i tend to take an afternoon to food shop and instead of rushing...................make it an enjoyable experience.........with out the support of the community the small shops will dissappear....................

 

And some people work full time and just don't have the luxury to spend a whole afternoon of your weekend shopping (if that was even possible, our local shops aren't open on the weekends). I've never seen the butchers open, and the fruit and veg shop that is open until 6pm such that we do occasionally get home before it shuts, costs twice as much as the supermarkets...

 

We tend to use Foodland (SA based) rather than coles/woolies. It's not too bad, but I do still miss the offers in the UK. I think the main reason I don't have too many issues is that I lived in Switzerland in between the UK and Australia, and after paying Swiss prices, anything is cheap.

[Guest chris955]

For us it's not only the lack of choice when it comes to supermarkets but also the lack of variety within the supermarket.

[Guest Rachel Emma]

Hot Dollar sell Domestos bleach for $2.50 :biggrin: which is a huge saving compared to most stores....I also like Aldi and woolies, IGA do some decent priced things I suppose it depends on what your shopping for really....Cakes are cheaper to make, and that's an excuse for the kids to pitch in and create their own yummy designs:0)

[Paul1Perth]

There was a strange case here recently where the two major supermarkets started selling a litre of milk for $1. Lately known in the press as the milk wars. As soon as this was announced farmers started getting worried about their livelihood and a lot of dialogue was going on, on the radio and TV about whether buyers should be purchasing their milk elsewhere and paying more.

Recently eggs, flour and some other staple goods have been reduced in price.

I was amazed what an outcry there was here and how a lot of people saw the bigger picture and how this affected farmers, quality and longer term viability of supply. Good arguments presented.

 

I think in the UK that no-one would give a toss as long as things were as cheap as they could possibly be. I don't know whether that's good or bad but found it strange here that when things were made cheaper the supermarkets had to come out and defend their reasoning.

[newjez]

I have to admit that when I went to the UK - I was amazed, not only at the amount of stuff that was in supermarkets - but also - at the amount of variants of a particular item that you can get.

 

This was then surpassed when I visted the states. This was variety to the point of being ridiculous. I mean - how many different types of pain killers do you need? They had a whole wall devoted to different types of asprin!

 

I don't know so much about other states - but the thing with Perth is that it's a long way from everywhere - so things are seasonal - it costs alot to ship in out of season fruit and veg. You can't buy grapes in winter. Simple. I prefer to eat fruit and veg when it is in season in the UK anyway. Not only because it has travelled less - but because it tastes much better.

[Parley]

If you are prepared to buy the 'Home Brand' items at the supermarkets you can save a lot of money.