Local supermarkets & suppliers
 

Hi all,

I thought I would start a bit of a discussion relating to the current situation between major supermarkets and local suppliers. Hopefully it can create some awareness and share some perspectives.

Woollies and Coles are dominating their shelves with shitty self-branded stock at prices that local suppliers cannot feasibly match. If consumers continue to just grab the cheapest thing off the shelf, the local suppliers will be forced out of the market.
This would then allow Woollies and Coles to further dominate the market and jack up the prices due to a lack of competition. Some products are even being sold at a loss, or without profit, in order to deny the competition.

Everyone should make an effort to buy local and not support the supermarket chain brands. A couple of dollars more in your weekly shop can be used to save local suppliers and Australian business.

A prime example of this would be the local supermarket milk prices. The supermarkets are putting the squeeze onto local suppliers by selling milk at $1/L, and consumers are taking the bait. Once the WA suppliers such as Harvey Fresh and Pura are forced out of the market, you will see the prices of milk jacked up to generate profit again; except all profit will go to the supermarket chain rather than supplier.

Support Australian farmers....

[url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-17/supermarkets-hit-back-at-supplier-squeeze-claims/4136646]Supermarkets hit back at 'supplier squeeze' claims - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)[/url]

Consumers have a hard time seeing past the short term savings to see what might happen once the smaller supermarkets disappear. They are happy to get their milk and bread at the cheaper price but will be the first ones to bitch and moan when their local IGA disappears and they have to pay more when Coles or Woolworths is the only choice. They think who cares about the farmers, I can buy milk for a $1.

good to see this kind of message, i avoid coles / woolies like the plague although IGA are getting in on the crack also.... will end up like american supermarkets than the pure independant supermarkets (like wholefoods in the USA) will come through and thrive for people who want quality produce

Not only do they release shitty inferior products they package and label them to look like the good quality locally supplied stuff. It's an absolute joke that they're allowed to get away with it.

Anyone who's forgotten what real food tastes like and just buys Coles/Woolies brand stuff should do themselves a favour and buy some Baker's Delight bread, or local Butcher's steak and you definitely won't go back.

I usually shop at the local IGA which has an awesome gourmet deli. Since I'm a Coeliac and can't eat gluten I don't tend to buy the shitty Coles and Woolies branded stuff except maybe cat food if I'm tight on money.

I fully support this type of thought. I tend to frequent farmer's market and only buy at Woolworth's items that I know are cheaper than what is already availed at my local IGA. I also ONLY buy petrol at BP and have not frequented a Caltex or Shell in over 5 years.

As an example, the milk that I buy is direct from the farmer, unhomogenised and unpasteurised (bath milk) as I use the milk to make my own cheese and yoghurt. If not that than Harvey Milk over Pura.

I too am disgusted at the power that Woolworths and Coles have and will not support a oligolpoly at the detriment of Australian producers.

Please view the below image an an example of the monopolies in the food industries and companies to avoid. I place Nestle next to Monsanto as the epitome of evil in the global food industry.

[IMG]http://weknowawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/awesome-brands-companies.jpg[/IMG]

Here also is a link of ALL the water brands that Nestle own: [URL="http://www.nestle-waters.com/brands/all-brands"]Nestle Water[/URL]

Here is also a link to what the CEO of Nestle thinks about water. He effectively states it an underpriced resource and if you can't afford its true price so be it.

[YT]TPY64EJcsG4[/YT]

[URL="http://www.trueactivist.com/nestle-ceo-water-is-not-a-human-right-should-be-privatized/"]Water is not a right and should be privatised : Nestle CEO[/URL]

As true as all this is, it's the way the world works. The only thing that can genuinely stop this is if the government sets market share limitations and other regulations. Which they are already working on to some degree, see [url=http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill_em/rsdb2013309/memo_0.html]REDUCING SUPERMARKET DOMINANCE BILL 2013 Explanatory Memorandum[/url]

It is a consumers right to buy what they want, and they will always buy the best value to quality option. I don't blame them either.

The problem is that it's not "best value to quality". Value and quality are hidden by the mask of choice.

Take software. As Apple said "Australians are prepared to pay more". In a global economy then why does this occur?

To add to the conversation..
When it comes to milk, the best thing you can do, is NOT buy the $1.99 milk, whichever brand it is, wherever it is.. The little guys, IGA's, farmers markets etc ALL buy milk from the same 3 manufacturers in WA, the Little guys feel they need to sell $1.99 milk to be competitive and still get customers through the door, thus the circle contnues and we still see $1.99 milk and no-one, I mean NO ONE makes any real money out of it...

I will state now, that I am a Sales Manager for Lion, owner of Brands such as; Pura, Dare Iced Coffee, Masters, farmers Union Iced Coffee, Yoplait, King island, Berri Juice, Daily Juice etc.

I would like to dispell a couple of myths for everyone.
At Pura, we get 95% of our milk fresh from our South west from the 37 milk farms we have supply contracts with. During the peak of Summer, (like Brownes & Harvey's) we do source milk from ours farms in South Australia, as the consumption of milk in WA out-strips what our farms in the south west can supply. During summer, less grass to feed, so need to artifically feed the cows and still cannot supply enough.

As a manufacturer, Harvey Fresh is no more local than us or Brownes. Brownes is owned by an investment company and Harveys owned by another international company. We all source milk supplies from farms in the South West of WA.

GTB's notion above is a fair one, however, another perspective is to bear in mind, they are still a "supplier" at the mercy of the Coles and WW of the world. The shift from supplier holding the power, moved to the retailer many many years ago.. When you walk down the Aisle of a supermarket, pay attention to how many items are on special, half price, etc etc.. Do you think the brand owners above are happy about their brand being de-valued through promotion specials every single day by the retailer.. Yet, they have to otherwise, the majors will dump them in favour of another supplier who can produce a similar product and prepared to offer at a cheaper price...

You can say the same thing down evey single aisle in a supermarket, every category is being de-valued, 1 at a time.. juice, eggs, milk, bread, confectionary.. etc

Hopefully gives some perspective.

I havent put the above out there to discuss further or argue, just to share some insight..

Further to the post above:

The amount of power the so called 'trading partner's' have is absolute.

I work for a supplier that supplies Brownes and Lion (howdy there Baylee) and feel the enormous price pressure that the duopoly are putting on to the suppliers as it rolls up the supply chain to us.

I have heard comments like 'in 10 years there will only be our own brand available in our shops' when I have been in offices over east.....

This is very bad for manufacturing that is involved with food.

When we hit that point suppliers of goods will be being told where to buy the components and how much they can sell it for....

They are moving towards this by devaluing all other brands by selling theirs at a terribly low price, sometimes losing on each item!

So they encourage the consumer to stop buying the branded product as they dont discount that item, they do discount their own brand. As they are in control of the price it seems to me that there is not going to be many branded price products on their shelves for long if people stop purchasing them....

So for the workers and their families involved in supplying retail sakes, dont by the own branded products! Stop the shift of power.

When suppliers are sent to the wall (go broke) as a result of these practices, the trading partners are right in there to purchase the hardware at the fire sale and start a trading partner owned supplier to their retail arm....

I'm sure if consumers (they dont even have the decency to call us customers anymore) knew about all that goes on they would think hard before purchasing own brand products.