On 18 Mar 2023 20:06:58 GMT, Gordon <
Gordon@leaf.net.nz> wrote:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/131496022/commerce-minister-says-supermarket-split-difficult-but-promises-competition-reforms-wont-stop
Much reading between the lines can be done in the first few paragraphs.
Labour is looking to go as fast as possible to actually move the supermarket >issue forward. There probably will not be enough time to consult the public. >So no change there.
So having charged ahead, forced through 3 waters which the vast majority did >not want and was no on the table, the idea of "fighting" back against the >supermarkets, which the people thought was a good idea was a huge chain the >Goverment kept dragging.
One wonders how effective it is going to be. Cheaper petrol anyone?
We cannot ever get cheaper petrol with weather bombs causing road
damage, any price reduction is an opportunity to increase excise to
pay for weather-accelerated road maintenance costs.
The major difficulty with supermarket chains being 'forced' to 'sell'
stores to make room for new competition is that Foodstuffs have no
stores to sell. Foodstuffs (both companies) are co-operatively-owned
by the independent store owners. The company owns real-estate and sources/distributes products on behalf of those independent owners.
The only thing the Government can do is to force Foodstuffs to allow
owners who wish to leave the co-operative to be able to do so without
penalty. If Foodstuffs is forced to actually jettison owners (who do
not wish to leave, because there are not sufficient numbers wanting to
leave voluntarily) then we get into a scenario where independent
owners are being forced to do what they do not want to do and this
gets very dicey.
Progressive Enterprises (Countdown) has company-owned stores so this
is not so much an issue.
The whole issue of reforms to the food supply/retailing industry in NZ
cannot be rushed through. Each political party should formulate a
coherent policy published before the upcoming election.
--
Crash McBash
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