Coles cleared of predatory milk pricing
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has found that Coles’ decision to discount house brand milk does not breach competition law.
The ACCC decided that discounted prices for house brand milk benefitted consumers and did not constitute anti-competitive behaviour.
The decision was based on evidence that the purpose of Coles’ price reductions was to increase competition with other supermarkets.
“The major impact of the reduction in milk prices since January seems to have been a reduction in the supermarkets’ profit margins on house brand milk,” said ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel.
“Price cutting, or underselling competitors, does not necessarily constitute predatory pricing. Businesses often legitimately reduce their prices, and this is good for consumers and for competition in markets.”
Graeme Samuel must know that Coles is a predatory company that does nothing for its customers, long term, without an eye on the overall share Coles wants of the total consumer market in Australia.
Have a look at Westfarmers’ cunning Bunnings Juggernaut and what has happened to the Hardware retail industry in Australia. Consumer choice has gone “out the window” and the product lines now stocked are of inferior quality and mostly sourced from overseas.There Coles “puchase power” means they can delay paying for the goods until after they are retailed. Now Woolies are going into competition. Why? Because of the wonderful cash flow boost it will give them.
Now look at the Westfarmers’ system being introduced into Coles Supermarkets and not so slowly either. Try and buy your favorite Brands at Coles now. Oh no, they are suddenly disappearing and are being replaced with either generic plain packaged goods or inferior products, from overseas of course, where once again they can stretch out the payment time to their suppliers.
Coles ONLY does what is a BENEFIT TO WESTFARMERS not what is a benefit to consumers or suppliers in Australia. Everything they undertake to do is done with
Shareholder Value in mind. They have forgotten just one thing. The Shareholders are also their retail customers and WE ARE NOT HAPPY with their values, their methods of doing “business” or the service we are getting from their radically
changing Supermarket operation. Food is not Hardware and it DOES NOT have
a long shelf life. Someone needs to tell Coles CEO that pretty damn quickly or they are going to lose a lot of customers, like me, to Woolworths or Farmers Markets. Gosh, I should NOt have mentioned the Farmer’s Markets should I?