[LINK] Grocery Choice website

[Jan Whitaker]

At 10:01 AM 7/08/2008, Stilgherrian wrote:
>The $13M figure may also be a furphy. The news articles I've seen
>quote one of the supermarkets as saying that implementing unit pricing
>in their shops would cost $12 to $13M. Maybe someone skimming the
>article conflated the two numbers.

Most likely. I sent a letter to the Age, but it didn't get published 
I don't think, saying that unit pricing is going to be a real good 
thing. IF the majors DO pass along the cost of implementation, that 
will increase the margin between their prices and Aldi's even more 
because Aldi already does unit pricing, hence their prices wouldn't 
have to go up.

There are some other restraint of trade issues that the ACCC is 
pursuing with regard to contracts requiring suppliers to ONLY sell to 
certain retailers. That point was made by Graeme Samuel about Metcash 
that I think took over the IGAs. This investigation isn't over. 
Sounds similar to local loop control in telecomms, eh?

Then there are the planning laws and preferential treatment that has 
been given to the majors in the shopping malls. It is very handy to 
have Aldi within walking distance of a Safeway. I buy only a few 
items at Safeway and the bulk in Aldi. I've cut my weekly shopping 
bill in half as a result, and also by buying nearly no pre-packaged 
food any more.

On the grocery website itself, I was surprised they didn't give a 
comparison for Aldi and the others on meat, and fruit/veg. They are 
often less on fruit/veg, not so much on meat, though.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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"No Longer Anonymous, of Berwick"

Writing Lesson #54:
Learn to love revision. Think of it as polishing the silver for 
guests. - JW, May, 2007
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