Purchasing Choices

 

The duopoly of supermarkets continues across Australia, as corporate muscles are flexed against suppliers, staff and customers in a relentless obsession of growth in profits, dominance and control.

I support more of stand alone independent grocers and direct producers, they have more variety on their shelves.  As prices in Coles and Woolies have gone up, they cannot compete price wise with some independent grocers, especially ethnic ones like Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, etc.

My strategy now is to be mindful of selected items of grocery to buy - and suppport small business in my locality as far as I can. A more focused approach helps to avoid wasting expenses on addictive food, zoom for more quality in edibles and exercise our minds and hearts in better choices with discretion.

Fresh eggs are not bad at Aldi, they do not shelf them in fridges like Coles and Woolies. Fresh milk at Aldis is a good buy, but at the same time there can be a lot of distracting products at Aldi outlets.

More distracting is the preponderance of products laden with sugar, salt, preservatives and fat at the main supermarkets.  Do walk the aisles and make up your own mind.

If one resides in an Australian regional area, I understand there can be a lack of choice -  and one depends more on the duopoly.

This is echoed in the lack of competition especially in the Australian sectors of domestic air travel, pharmacies and banking.

Fresh produce markets are fascinating to me, but generally since Covid, prices have spiked st such stalls, even if quality is maintained.

I have also dabbled in ordering online offers of groceries and white goods - some provide free  and next day delivery at the very latest.
The physical store model is increasingly under threat - the way some businesses are treating customers is viewed in disdain by more people I know.

Need we visit a supermarket venue to get essential food?  We step in such places and we observe some using them for social chats.  We also note the rise in self managed check outs with narrow spaces.  Cameras are attached to monitor the movement of human beings.
Pyschological games are played with posters put up by the supermarket to induce us to buy, but which underestimate our level of intelligence.

Do reflect on the huge numbers of real estate such supermarkets sit on, they can easily get into the commercial property game once they stop selling food.

There has truly been this relentless drive to know what you and each family have bought in the past to shape millions of purchasing profiles.   The underlying rationale is that once you buy something, you will buy it again.   This model excludes the very possible human trait of not purchasing the same thing ever again - and the right to have a significant change in taste.

The use of membership cards implies the giving of peanut reward points to customers.

The duopoly puts its bets on greater convenience, habitual pattern of spending and lack of competition for the majority of the population to
regularly visit its outlets.  They are also experts in marketing, human behaviour and commercial practices.  

#yongkevthoughts