Will ColesWorth Smarten Up?

And tone their greed down?

Yeah, nah, right. Of course not. They can pay any fines ten thousand times over and still be insanely profitable.

Notification: I started this article a week ago or so, and have been adding link after link after link as more of the stories come out. This post is scheduled for a bit later this week but I have yet another link to add.
— https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2024/09/26/coles-woolworths-aldi-prices

Interesting in this article is that the actual prices are mentioned, and they demonstrate one reason why I’ve despised Woolworths for three decades now and have been urging people to not buy anything there. Back then there were really only Coles or IGA to go as alternatives, and I recommended that even if they were overpriced, it would still take profits away from the Big Two.

Even back then it was obvious that they colluded and Coles was half a hair better than Woolworths, and Foodworks and all the others were just not available widely enough. When ALDI arrived was only 15-20 years from now – at least the places I lived – and I started to research them and realised that they made every bit as much profit as a company as the Big Two but instead of whacking prices up to satisfy the stakeholders (the family and shareholders) they just did the radical thing and NOT TAKE AS MUCH PROFIT.

That revelation sat me down on my backside – how fantastic of them! And then they began to demonstrate a conscience and decide to eliminate some ecology-damaging chemicals and materials from their product lines. And then I realised that for the price of a kilo of mince at ColesWorth I could buy a kilo of cooking bacon and half a kilo of better mince at ALDI and I was converted.

I now urge you also to shop more at this overseas competitor (even though I reckon both of the Big Two are already so far foreign-owned that it doesn’t matter that ALDI is German ) because that damages the cartel by depriving them of your hard-earned cash.

But I’ll leave you with my take-out from the article: “Swap expensive cuts of meat for cheaper alternatives, consider frozen fruit and veg, and don’t be afraid to try house-brand products,” Choice said. Don’t sue the shit out of the supermarkets, just bend over, lower your sight to where a serf’s sights ought to be, and eat the shit. Good little cash cow… Or just buy the better version at ALDI for 25% less.

Anyway Now Back To The Article Proper

The ACCC say “illusory,” I say “fraudulently.” The fact that they still feel a need to sugar-(i.e. “bullshit”)-coat these gougesto our lives and livelihoods tells us that they do feel vulnerable to a degree. They have weaknesses. Trust me.

They don’t much care if you or I walk in, see one of their price-gouges and grumble about it. They DO get worried if too much light is cast on their bastardry. Colesworth deserve to get so much light that it fries them for good. Why? Because things like this:

“. . . Woolworths and Coles had . . . planned to later place the products on a Prices Dropped or Down Down promotion before the price spike, and implemented the temporary price spike in order to established a higher “was” price . . .” and
“. . . Woolworths was selling the Oreo Family Pack . . . $3.50 . . . for at least 696 days . . . November 28, 2022, the price was increased to $5 for 22 days. On December 20, 2022, the product was placed on a Prices Dropped promotion with the tickets showing a Prices Dropped price of $4.50 and a “was” price of $5 . . . The price of $4.50 was, in fact, 29 per cent higher than the product’s previous regular price of $3.50.”
— https://thenightly.com.au/business/coles-and-woolworths-face-court-action-over-claims-of-misleading-discounting-by-accc-c-16148519

Some people deserve to burn in Hell.

For myself, I kind of hope actual people get actual jail time for this. I also hope that the ACCC force each supermarket branch to go back through all their register records, find each instance of those products sold at the extortionate price, and pay each customer in each case the difference between what they paid and the pre-1921 price. For any unidentified cash sales they can be told to put them into the local food charities. Suitably ironic, no?

There’s hope on the horizon in the form of that ACCC action (of which, more news here) – but of course just by itself it’ll no doubt just amount to a feeble slap with a lettuce leaf. (Marked down to half price, obvs.) the ACCC isn’t really all that savage sometimes, and if they get too enthusiastic handing out fines and rules, ColesWorth might even do some PR judo and end up with people pitying them.

Unless …

We all GET ACTIVATED!and KEEP THE BASTARDS HONEST!
Be like First Dog On The Moon!

We can cast a light on their bastardry. By talking to friends, family, and social graph about the ways the supermarkets are skinning us. By keeping your eyes open – even I’ve spotted a price that went up like those Oreos and then on “Special!” for a price that was more than it had been just a few weeks earlier. I wish I’d taken a picture, but I actually printed look-alike labels (before the days of E-labels) and some blu-tack and –

Honey Ham 100g
$3.80
(was $3.20 before going on “sale!”)
DON’T BUY IT AT THIS PRICE!
KEEP THE BASTARDS HONEST!

Obviously that wasn’t it, exactly, I’m not going to admit to pricetag alteration. ; )

So do it! Email your local MP if you spot such a fraud committed by a supermarket – perhaps take a photo, and if you have a register receipt for the item now and before. Send it to your Consumer Affairs offices. Post it on your social media. Or . . .

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