Is it your view that the recent inflation spike was largely due to the post-Covid boom? Would it therefore follow that the market would have adjusted itself in due course without external influence, and therefore the action of the Reserve Bank in raising interest rates was unnecessary?
Or is it not that simple (I'm an amateur economist at best)?
When I worked for Coca Cola Amatil I was amazed to discover that even us, a company that literally owned entire tows in supermarkets didn’t tell Coles and Woolies what to pay but we were told by Coles and Woolies what they would be paying
I was forever saying call their bluff, let one of them find out what it’s like to be that supermarket that only has Pepsi but due to many reasons (mainly volume contracts with Coca Cola US) they would never dare do it
That’s insane, if Coca Cola isn’t big enough to set its own price, who the hell is?
I've always thought that "greed" in these conversations is often a slogan that is meant to be understood as "monopoly power". Am I reading that too charitably?
Britain has I believe a grocery triopoly of Asda, Sainsbury and Tesco. There is nothing similar where i live in Spain, with a choice of Aldi, Mercadona, Lidl, Dia, the Basque Eroski producer coop, a discount cash-and-carry from the French Carrefour chain, and small Carrefour Express minimarkets. The landscape is not favourable to mom-and-pop independent grocers, but it is competitive.
I wish I had any explanation to offer. The current national government is pale pink socialist, the regional one conservative; but political debate is absurdly concentrated on the separatist fantasies of the Catalans and Basques, to he near-exclusion of bread-and-butter issues. The most I can suggest is that over time small under-the-radar differences in planning policy can have a large cumulative effect in preserving or undermining retail competition. This won't help at all once monopoly has set in.
But we also lack of culture of entrepreneurship. I don’t see too many Andrew Forrest types taking on the supermarkets duopoly. He is an exception, not the rule. Let’s face it, BHP and RIo are bigger and scarier than little coles and woolies. Taking such risks australia is too often derided and the rewards too small. Life is too comfortable in australia , and success is about taking the middle road of a well paid government, academic or corporate job.
Is it your view that the recent inflation spike was largely due to the post-Covid boom? Would it therefore follow that the market would have adjusted itself in due course without external influence, and therefore the action of the Reserve Bank in raising interest rates was unnecessary?
Or is it not that simple (I'm an amateur economist at best)?
That's exactly my view.
When I worked for Coca Cola Amatil I was amazed to discover that even us, a company that literally owned entire tows in supermarkets didn’t tell Coles and Woolies what to pay but we were told by Coles and Woolies what they would be paying
I was forever saying call their bluff, let one of them find out what it’s like to be that supermarket that only has Pepsi but due to many reasons (mainly volume contracts with Coca Cola US) they would never dare do it
That’s insane, if Coca Cola isn’t big enough to set its own price, who the hell is?
I've always thought that "greed" in these conversations is often a slogan that is meant to be understood as "monopoly power". Am I reading that too charitably?
Britain has I believe a grocery triopoly of Asda, Sainsbury and Tesco. There is nothing similar where i live in Spain, with a choice of Aldi, Mercadona, Lidl, Dia, the Basque Eroski producer coop, a discount cash-and-carry from the French Carrefour chain, and small Carrefour Express minimarkets. The landscape is not favourable to mom-and-pop independent grocers, but it is competitive.
I wish I had any explanation to offer. The current national government is pale pink socialist, the regional one conservative; but political debate is absurdly concentrated on the separatist fantasies of the Catalans and Basques, to he near-exclusion of bread-and-butter issues. The most I can suggest is that over time small under-the-radar differences in planning policy can have a large cumulative effect in preserving or undermining retail competition. This won't help at all once monopoly has set in.
But we also lack of culture of entrepreneurship. I don’t see too many Andrew Forrest types taking on the supermarkets duopoly. He is an exception, not the rule. Let’s face it, BHP and RIo are bigger and scarier than little coles and woolies. Taking such risks australia is too often derided and the rewards too small. Life is too comfortable in australia , and success is about taking the middle road of a well paid government, academic or corporate job.