Blog 18th Anniversary: The Duopoly of Australian Supermarkets

 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 at 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

When They Pushed Too Far

 

I reckon it is instinctive in each of us to be cautious about booster vaccination shots.  Each of us has our own unique circumstances and attitudes about protection waning, our own level of body T cells, authorities mucking up on over or under supplies, what we face in the intensity or complexity of political agendas we face and the varying level of  Delta cases occurring where we normally interact.

It can be complex, but I also take more comfort in our own immunity building ability and use of our own intelligence and common sense - can any human body keep up with being injected so often as we have been asked to?

I believe more in good ventilation outdoors, coughing or sneezing into our elbows and having good physical exercise plus nutrition, instead of getting addicted to vaccines and vaccine cross information from governments and media. 

Becoming A Customer

 Human pyschology in approaching purchases - a deal, a package, a commitment, an arrangement or a perceived need - can be fascinating, bewildering or just being held captive.

Try assessing whether you would enter into the following product arrangement.

1.    You pay upfront in money for a promise of services.

2.     The annual charges increase every financial or calender year - and will definitely be charged more if we had breached some detailed promise on our part.

3.     You are asked to disclose personal details of yourself, your lifestyle and your movements before the product is sold to you.
There is no guarantee your privacy is protected in practice in the data base of such providers.

4.    Legislation makes it compulsory for you, your entity or business to have  or require the product.

5.  The people, software robot or website interface you deal with, after buying the product, have a different personality or customer interactive approach after you buy from them.

6.    The contract for such products is purposefully made complex, utilises legalise and high sounding technical terms and has so many pages that turns off most customers from ever reading it.

7.     There have been rogue players in the product sector that you want to deal with.  Gross breaches of contract, uncivil behaviour and unexplained penalties have been landmarks of such providers.

8.    Authorities and governments have declared such providers as too big to fail.

9.    Such providers often hold us as captives by luring us with peanuts and diversions as earning points, making us buy things we do not need and make us wait for a long time before we can claim our membership rewards.   The common thread in such provider programs are getting us to be involved in churning of transactions that add volume and margin to their business.

10.    Promises of payback, claims and refunds of our upfront financial payments are laced with conditions, percentages ans administrative splitting of hairs.

#yongkevthoughts

Quotes from Others I Like

 If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart. A jug fills up drop by drop. Delight in heedfulness.

If you do not change your own direction, you may end up where you are heading.

You are a seeker. Delight in the mastery of your hands and your feet, of your words and your thoughts.

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that just stays in the mind.

What you are is what you have been.
What you will be is what you do now.

Life is like the harp string, if it is strung too tight it won’t play, if it is too loose it hangs, the tension that produces the beautiful sound lies in the middle.

Everything in moderation, including moderation.

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little.

The root of suffering is attachment.
There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

Nothing is forever except change.

Ardently do today what needs to be done.  If we could see the miracle of a flower clearly, our whole life would change.

(Quotes are obviously not mine).

Patterns of Scamming Deceit

 Typical patterns of behaviour of successful scammers and fraudsters:

They target a vulnerability.

They take advantage of our inherent level of trust.

They seem to offer something which they seem to promise but will not do.

They often do not allow personal or phone contact.

They collect personal data in whatever disguise, pretext or purpose.

The public does not check upfront the credentials, viability and legitimacy of the scammers in whatever form they exist.

Few phone up or speak in person to those hiding behind their online existence.

They gradually try to gain our trust before they exploit us.

They love for us to click on dubious or seemingly innocent links, QR codes and icons.

They use choice of words and language which can reveal their true character.

They disappear after the kill, or move on to other forms of deceit.

They instinctively know that many scam victims do not complain, due to ego and pride, when in shame of being scammed.

They know that many scams go unpunished by authorities.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

#yongkevthoughts