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Okay, what? Nuclear? What are the supermarkets up to now? If that was your first thought, then congratulations, you've proved one of my points. We wouldn't put anything past supermarkets, including - stuff to do with whatever nuclear whatsname I'm referring to.
If you thought maybe there might be more to this than just one of the supermarkets serving berries with a side of Cherenkov radiation, then I'm betting you know more about me and my radical recommendations... 😸
UPDATED: There may be some activity afoot. (https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2024/01/16/grocery-prices-inquiry) I ask in this article whether the probe will have teeth, i.e. will it be able to actually compel the corporations that own the thieving supermarkets to act with humanity, and this update seems to suggest that the probe will get teeth. Unfortunately, legal action in a year is still a little bit too late for people already doing it hard...
What's The Story?
This is. The Reserve Bank keeps raising interest rates because inflation isn't going down, and the supermarkets - by some strange coincidence - are making billions of dollar more per quarter which could possibly raise inflation...
Supermarkets are making record ten to twenty billion-dollar quarterly profits and the Australian government has "had enough of it" and is appointing Craig Emerson to head a "probe," a "Code of Conduct review." I don't think this goes anywhere near far enough.
This "probe," this "review." Does it have teeth? And by that I mean, does it have any power to not merely "make recommendations" but to compel? Somehow, I doubt it'll have those teeth. And yet it should - WAY more teeth. If you know me, you know...
Note how they only release QUARTERLY figures because if we actually saw the annual figures we'd be torching their fucking stores and lynching anyone above the level of floor manager. Here - I'll do it for you:
"Coles posted $10.25 billion in first-quarter sales in 2023, a 3.6 per cent rise compared to the first quarter of the 2022 financial year, while Woolworths’ revenue grew by 5.3 per cent for a total of $17.2 billion."
That was 2023. Their costs have gone down even further since then, and - as we're all to painfully aware - their prices have gone up inexorably. But just extrapolating those figures for the last year:
Coles would have made between $41bn and $45bn depending on how many more opportunities they took to screw their producers and consumers.
Woolworths would have made $69bn - $72bn. In a year.
If I projected a steady 3.6 to 5.3 percent per annum growth they'll make between $43bn to $49bn and $73bn and $79bn, roughly, this year.
That's not only not right, I think that's criminal level fraud and pricing scams. There ought to be jail terms attached to this investigation, AFP-level search and seizure of paperwork and documentation.
Possibly, if some amounts of deliberate malfeasance is established, the installation of government officials as the final arbiters of policy in the corporate offices of those supermarkets.
THAT is my nuclear option. Whattya reckon? (Note the UPDATE at the head of this article - it seems I wasn't the only one thinking the time for the carrot was over...)
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