It was about 6-7 years ago that Woollies announced that they had just freed up millions of dollars in capital to buy bigger,
discount more, do works and buy more into the supermarkets competition battle.
The big plan was to stretch producers from 3 month payment cycle to a 6 month payment cycle, hundreds of producers went under
and lost everything, I doubt Woollies coughed up with their payment for goods.
The worst hit were growers, a mate of mine grew lettuce for them - a seasonal product.
The next breathe was to say that product was in short supply and they HAD TO buy from overseas to provide to our market.
A BIG boardroom con job !
I spend as little with Coles and Woollies as possible, less with K-Mart and Target, nothing with BigW, petrol only from CostCo.
Almost all my food $ go thru Aldi or a Specialty like local fruit and veg or butcher. (Aldi is ok for basics)
The change to "ATM scan your own goods" has me mystified, it is another "con job" on savings to keep those big boys alive,
we always go to a checkout person in those stores, if we have no alternative choice but to use the store (bloody
gift cards).
Funny how the big boys keep saying they can do better cheaper and more efficient.
Mark my words, soon they will open "only" robotic stores that pick to order mechanically and delivers thru a hole in the wall
and bills direct debit from you with pickup or home delivery.
The food supply version of Amazon.
Local Target changed overnight, the single staff member had 9 irate customers in line within minutes of us, she could not get any
supporting staff as there are none there anymore - the scanning machines were working but it was too much for her to deal with
and I bet because of her age she was not about to throw the job.
Where id all the staff go after no longer having a job ?
What bonus's did the Management get for this move ?
If Aldi has come into our market and now captured 40% ? of the trade, another German player coming in and I think a US player too,
maybe Coles and Woollies are not getting it right, maybe they just need to develop new business models and ethics to rejoin the game.
This milk thing is only the tip of the iceberg, the very tiny tip.
I apologise for my rant.
