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ABC Four Corners Program Highlights the Supermarket Monopoly

Recently the ABC Four Corners program ran a report called "The Price we Pay", an in depth report on the duopoly of Coles and Woolworths in the Australian food market. The report revealed that Coles and Woolworths sell 70 per cent of the dry groceries and half the fresh food that Australians consume – among the highest concentrations of market power in the developed world.

While Coles and Woolworths appear to supply cheap groceries for the consumer, this often comes at a cost for the suppliers, who have to sell their products at a very low  price, and  pay all sorts of rebates to get their products onto the supermarket shelves. A bizarre consequence of this, is, in many cases, other manufacturers and retailers end up having to pay a lot more to  buy their product from the wholesalers than the price the same products can be bought in the big supermarkets. How long before most of these food manufacturers and suppliers go out of business? possibly putting Australia's food supply in peril?

And  our own  Mullumbimby,  the town facing the onslaught of a large Woolworths supermarket coming to town, was also featured on the program.

watch the 4corners video here

read more here.

see also moviechannel/boxfuneral.html