Thursday, August 14, 2008
Shop 'n' Save with Samuel
If you are dealing with the heavyweights in any industry, who are continually flexing their anti-competitive muscles, it would be a great idea having someone to deal with them who had some of the characteristics of a bull, strong, determined, single minded and with the ability to gore recalcitrant operators.
Graeme Samuel of the ACCC is none of the above and is about as useful as tits on a bull.
After his exhaustive enquiry into petrol pricing practices, we still have the weekly price cycle, whereby petrol fluctuates by around 10c a litre regardless of the barrel price of oil and even worse, as soon as the world oil price goes up, so does the pump price -- for gas that was bought at a lower price.
Then when the oil price comes down, the pump price always lags behind at the higher level, sometimes by as much as two weeks.
So now that Samuel has somehow singlehandedly managed to retain the status quo there, despite an overwhelming public interest to the contrary, he has since turned his hazy gaze towards grocery prices.
You all need to read kitchen hand's report into the bizarre goings on there.
Graeme Samuel of the ACCC is none of the above and is about as useful as tits on a bull.
After his exhaustive enquiry into petrol pricing practices, we still have the weekly price cycle, whereby petrol fluctuates by around 10c a litre regardless of the barrel price of oil and even worse, as soon as the world oil price goes up, so does the pump price -- for gas that was bought at a lower price.
Then when the oil price comes down, the pump price always lags behind at the higher level, sometimes by as much as two weeks.
So now that Samuel has somehow singlehandedly managed to retain the status quo there, despite an overwhelming public interest to the contrary, he has since turned his hazy gaze towards grocery prices.
You all need to read kitchen hand's report into the bizarre goings on there.
3 Comments:
I think what upsets me about supermarket prices is the profit margins and the wasteage involved. The ACCC does not address this, nor does this new fangled superfluous 'watch dog' website.
I know farmers who are getting screwed on price along with manufacturers, by Coles & Woolworths. Some have been told that they produce will be purchased but when push comes to shove, the price paid can be less than the cost to produce. And these low prices are not passed on to the public.
Jobs go offshore in order to service the big food barns at the prices they're willing to pay and farmers go bust at the hands of skilled corporate negotiators.
On the subject of gross wastage at the Supermarkets, an interesting dialogue is going on over at the SOLE Mama Forum, with some startling revelations.
yes neil, samuel and the ACCC is about as useful as tits on a bull.
The scope of this inquiry was limited and even in limiting it to that degree the questions on the "issues paper" drove the inquiry into something useless.
More thoughts here.
Hi sticky, your SOLE Mama Forum is a real eye opener. There must be nothing more disheartening to a farmer than to be paid at below the cost of production.
Hi grocer, I believe Graeme is a big end-of-town boy, it sure seems to show when push comes to shove. I bet he sits in an ivory tower saying we plebs just don't understand it, thing is, we do.
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