Brand Power killing our choices

[roland]

Today Tonight just loves bagging Coles and Woolworths for how they are controlling our food dollars - talk to any Aussie farmer about how they cannot get their products on the shelves.

We watch on the news as Aussie farmers are digging their oranges into the ground, cutting down fruit trees because somehow we prefer the cheaper and tasteless overseas stuff.

I can't buy a mobile phone without a stupid camera or MP3 player becuase my buying choices are controlled by a few.

GPS units are now so tied into Sensis that there is almost no choice anyway - not so good for me on my motorcycle on a dirt track in the bush - and then getting a voice prompt to the next resturant ...

The local hardware store that used to have everything is now replaced by Hardware House which has everything that they want you to have.

My garage doesn't sell parts for my car anymore - but you can get just about all your groceries there though - maybe a plastic card entitling you to a download of an audiophile's nightmare to your iPod.

Dick Smith's electronic enthusiasts stores have turned into an outlet for junky pre-packaged chinese mass produced garbage.

...and don't get me started on Car Parts retail Super Stores - where are the car parts????

As we progress, we regress.

 

[niknah]

Your segment of society are either a minority or are not big spenders so they don't target you.

Half of most shopping centers nowadays are filled with clothing shops, cause that's what the big spenders buy.

There are plenty of dirt cheap mobiles out there, they're at the back corner of the shop somewhere or only available online cause the big spenders don't buy them.

You can still get the basic electronics stuff in Dick Smiths but I almost never see anyone near that back corner where they hide the stuff.

 

[Trembling Hand]

What a load of rubbish. There is now more than ever a greater supply of retail products. Stores with a little of everything (Coles, Kmart) to obscure and very specialist products (weird hobbies, shops that sell every type of battery, specialist food stores etc)

The array of products available is staggering both retail and online. If you are to silly or to lazy to look for them, well that is you obvious loss.
Your title for the thread is even a contradiction. Supermarkets are stocking more lines of products than ever before if a farmer cannot get their products on the shelves its because they won't sell.

 

[numbercruncher]

I was going to say I havnt heard of Aussie farmers dumping stock for years and years, Soft commodities boom happening, Growing demand for all food stuffs, farmers should rake it in over next few years With possible exception to those holding too much debt

 

[Trembling Hand]

I was going to say I havnt heard of Aussie farmers dumping stock for years and years, Soft commodities boom happening, Growing demand for all food stuffs, farmers should rake it in over next few years With possible exception to those holding too much debt

There are some that are doing it. Grape vines are being ripped out because of over supply. And a lot of traditional farms are finding they have to look to 'other' products to get good return but its hardly the supermarkets fault, if they can sell it they will.

 

[dalek]

I recently bought a mobile phone that's only features are making & receiving calls. All major providers have basic units easily located in their outlets although admittedly a much wider range of complex multi function products is available.

The most extensively stocked traditional style hardware store would have carried 12,000 lines maximum.
The former Hardware House now Bunnings stores carry 36,000 lines minimum with ranges running through bargain, good, better, best and premium for most products.

Anyone with a car less than 7-8 years old would need a degree in rocket science and specialised computer equipment to work on their car today so most car "parts" stores tend to stock peripherals such as cleaning gear & accessories instead. I think most State laws don't allow modification of any consequence anyhow.

Don't know much about farming other than there are a lot of very marginal
3rd generation farms trying to produce traditional family produce on what is now marginal practice. e.g. cotton & rice without sustainable water.

Current affairs programs have notoriously used bank bashing or more recently supermarket bashing as fillers (in the absence of footage of some family living in a drain)

I don't know anything at all about GPS still using a Melway, probably too awkward for motor bike bush vandals.

 

[Smurf1976]

It think it reflects more on society in general than anything else.

We've become so ridiculously over regulated that you're not allowed to sell anything even remotely dangerous anyway. And even if you were, most wouldn't have a clue what to do with it.

We're being dumbed down. Any fool who can't change a light switch or a tap washer but who is still stupid enough to try is a fool we'd all be better off without IMO. Sell them the stuff and let them take responsibility for their OWN actions for a change.

That plus the blatant rip offs. Stores that sell every possible plumbing product except, say, hot water anodes are a classic. Sell them everything except those things that will save them money. Lots of equivalents in other industries too.

 

[BeterValue]

I find it very funny that these show will show you how bank A does not care for you and in the ad break you will see an ad for .... bank A.

The other night they had a show on how glasses have up to 11k% profit and 10 minutes later they advertised one of these same companies.

 

[2BAD4U]

......its hardly the supermarkets fault, if they can sell it they will.

CRAP!!! Supermarkets have screwed over suppliers (indirectly the farmers/producers also) in the US and European markets and the same is happening here. It started with the big 2 putting in place their QA accreditation systems and if you weren't on the list you didn't supply. From this list if you weren't on the top of the list you had to move up or be delisted, how to do that - cut your price creating a downward spiralling price environment. Next introduce private labels (You'll love Coles, Woolworths Select) so the consumer doesn't know who manufactured their product (removes the brand loyalty). This opens up the competition even further because now anyone can pack the product so cheapest wins. Suppliers then screw the farmers and producers so they can get back in to the big two. Suppliers stop suppling because it becomes uneconomical to produce, supermarkets stop selling because it's not profitable and the consumer misses out or has to pay a premium price elsewhere.

 

[Trembling Hand]

CRAP!!! Supermarkets have screwed over suppliers (indirectly the farmers/producers also) in the US and European markets and the same is happening here. It started with the big 2 putting in place their QA accreditation systems and if you weren't on the list you didn't supply. From this list if you weren't on the top of the list you had to move up or be delisted, how to do that - cut your price creating a downward spiralling price environment. Next introduce private labels (You'll love Coles, Woolworths Select) so the consumer doesn't know who manufactured their product (removes the brand loyalty). This opens up the competition even further because now anyone can pack the product so cheapest wins. Suppliers then screw the farmers and producers so they can get back in to the big two. Suppliers stop suppling because it becomes uneconomical to produce, supermarkets stop selling because it's not profitable and the consumer misses out or has to pay a premium price elsewhere.

Nothing wrong with insisting on a Quality Control program. They have to cover there own backsides for two reasons they get sued if they don't & the BLOODY customer demands it.

I have had a few different food biz producing and selling to the BIG guys. I have walked through more purchasing departments doors than I care to think about. Most non-commodity products base prices are set by the supplier. If you are selling something that is commodity like (Fruit,Veg, Tin Tomato etc) its the lowest supplier that sets the price. After all that is competition and we are in a capitalist system. And we benefit from competition every thing is customer driven, if they want cheap the market will look for and find it, if they want premium the market will find it. If a supplier produces something that is a commodity then they are subject to supply and demand. there is more good to that than bad. Ask a wheat farmer about free floating prices.

 

[Aviator33]

All I know is the "supermarket" brand seems to take up about 25% of every aisle I walk down at the expense of some of my faves which seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate.

Some of the generics are total crap, not worth even looking at. Sure it's super cheap but some things just aren't worth skimping on (eg paper bark toilet paper). Some of it I would buy where IMHO quality doesn't really make a huge difference (milk, chocky bickies, 2 minute noodles) but I still refuse to buy it.

Over the last 2 years I have seen some of my fave brands removed from the shelf of coles/woolies and been replaced by their crap products. They are very quickly removing the choice that consumers have. And you can't seriously say it isn't hurting primary producers. How they hell can they compete with a supermarket giant??

I for one, despite it hurting my own bottom line, refuse to buy any generic supermarket brand product.

 

[Aviator33]

And we benefit from competition every thing is customer driven

Hmmm, kind of like how they said we would benefit from coles and woolies coming into the petrol market?

 

[Prospector]

All I know is the "supermarket" brand seems to take up about 25% of every aisle I walk down at the expense of some of my faves which seem to be disappearing at an alarming rate.

Some of the generics are total crap, not worth even looking at.

I have given up going to the big 2 because as you say, the generics have taken the well known brands over. If I like a certain brand, then that is what I want to buy.

Farmers in SA have been screwed big time by the large supermarkets. Last week I was listening to one saying that the price for a side of lamb has not changed from around $20 wholesale in many years. Yet the supermarkets price to the public has increased 500% in around 2 years and the drought has been to blame. If that was the case why doesnt the farmer get some of the money. We wouldn't need to have those 'buy at ABC this friday for the producer' kind of days if they were paid reasonable rates to start with.

How many of you guys regularly do the shopping (and I mean, a real shop not just a dash in and out) anyway?

 

[Trembling Hand]

How many of you guys regularly do the shopping (and I mean, a real shop not just a dash in and out) anyway?

Come on.

 

[nioka]

Brand power is the only thing keeping some AUSTRALIAN companies in business. The home brands for supermarkets allow them to shop around for price and not consider where the product is made, the quality control (including health and pestercide use), or the viability of the suppliers business. It makes it hard to "buy Australian made" if there are only in store brands. Woolies have sent many Australian companies to the wall or at the very least they have helped.
LACK of BRAND POWER will KILL our choices.

 

[Buddy]

Well, I refuse, and so does my wife, to purchase crap food from Coles & Woolworths and anyone else who sells the same crap. Thank goodness for the pressure on these companies to label where the food comes from. I am not sure if it is law (in W.A.) but consumer pressure at least has forced them to do it.

For example, you can stick Thai prawns right where they belong. Even when (uninformed) friends serve up this crap I refuse to eat it. Politely decline. Nile Perch, euuuuuch! Another, can anyone tell the difference between imported and local produced capsicums? Try smelling the imported ones. There is some foul smelling chemical sprayed on them (for whatever reason), and it's dead easy to tell the difference. And another, bleached garlic from China. Huh? and snow peas from China. Fed on human excretment and polluted rive water, and pakaged in materials containing some of the most deadly chemicals known. Man, give me a break! All I know is, that the supermarket buyers certainly think the world is full of idiots who will buy this s%^t. (And they must be right, eh?). Quality Control? Arh, poop! Thats a term used by supermarkets to control price! Quality has absolutely nothing to do with it, although Control does have a lot to do with it.

And the list goes on and on, the crap that they sell, that is.......

 

[Prospector]

And another, bleached garlic from China. Huh? and snow peas from China. Fed on human excretment and polluted river water

I agree with your sentiments, but have you seen the River Murray lately. Cows, huge carp, other fish - where exactly do you think their poop ends up! And what fertilisers are made from. Let alone the salinity.

 

[Trembling Hand]

Buddy, so on one hand you don't want the low quality stuff from China and on the other hand you don't want any Quality control programs. Err what do you want then. There isn't a middle ground. You want safe consistent food or you want crap.

 

[disarray]

the problem trembling hand is that, as seems to be inevitable with advanced capitalist systems, the balance is tipping out of whack towards the people with the money. sure early capitalist is great as new companies spring up to take advantage of conditions and we have innovation, growth etc., but as it matures power and wealth become concentrated more and more into massive companies who take on a life of their own and whose sole overriding imperative becomes the creation of more profit (often by any means necessary).

as a result of this the consumer ends up with less choice and higher prices as the companies continue to push their dominance, squeezing the producers, burying or buying smaller competitors while giving the consumer less choice for more cost (everything from shopping to computing to gaming to iron ore).

so now coles and woolies are offering less choice with a small discount, but you can bet once they have pulped their competitors (leveraging their money and position) they will jack the prices up and there will be little choice apart from driving several suburbs to the IGA. some of my standard products have been bumped aside for branded stuff which i don't want to buy but have little choice.

 

[Trembling Hand]

the problem Trembling Hand is that, as seems to be inevitable with advanced capitalist systems, the balance is tipping out of whack towards the people with the money. sure early capitalist is great as new companies spring up to take advantage of conditions and we have innovation, growth etc., but as it matures power and wealth become concentrated more and more into massive companies who take on a life of their own and whose sole overriding imperative becomes the creation of more profit (often by any means necessary).

Yes granted that happens and yes you will see a stack more of it from the big two as they have now said that they want 30% of sales to be home brands. But you cannot deny that you still have way more choice than 10, 15 years ago. The retail sector is very diverse if you want it it is out there. Things come and go but especially in the food sector more things are coming and better quality and faster than ever before.