“We also allege that in many cases both Woolworths and Coles had already planned to later place the products on a “prices dropped” or “down down” promotion before the price spike, and implemented the temporary price spike for the purpose of establishing a higher “was” price.
The smaller guys need to do a better job at providing a good service though, too. Small local grocery stores have had scan & go options for half a decade overseas, something that Woolies only started rolling out last year, and no other store in Australia has, to my knowledge. The big guys also have options like regular self-checkout, checking prices & stock online/in-app, and direct-to-boot ordering. These are all things that smaller guys could reasonably fix, to varying degrees
Much harder for the small guys to fix is the fact that Colesworth are more likely to be a one-stop-shop place. They’re huge, and with that comes a huge range of stock. Supporting your local grocer is fine, but might then mean you have to make a separate trip to a baker and butcher. Given these less-easily-surmountable drawback, it just becomes extra important that they don’t fall behind in things they can control. But they do.
Disagree.
It might seem like some of these technical implementations are easy, but in many cases it’s not practically possible. The IGA down the road had self checkout but no one ever used them because they would call the operator after almost every item. Recently they just got rid of them and replaced them with old fashioned checkouts.
I’m struggling to remember a time when I’ve wanted to look at a price for a grocery item online. I’ve never done direct to boot.
I don’t really think these technical services are the right way for smaller vendors to compete with Colesworth. It’s just too expensive to create a comparable ux. They’re better off focusing on local products or speciality lines.
The IGA down the road had self checkout but no one ever used them because they would call the operator after almost every item. Recently they just got rid of them and replaced them with old fashioned checkouts.
Actually something similar happened at one of my local Drakes Mini stores. I was wondering why they put these machines in and then removed them within a year, maybe it was staffing related like in your case?
I’m struggling to remember a time when I’ve wanted to look at a price for a grocery item online. I’ve never done direct to boot.
Ok, that’s fantastic for you. I love direct to boot, and I specifically avoid my local IGA because even though they do have self checkout (only installed around the last year or so), it always seems to be roped off when I go. Not sure if that’s just because I only tend to go late at night when they have the fewest people rostered on. I don’t actually care about checking the prices online because I’m financially secure enough that I’m lucky enough not to actually care but if I did care a lot about the price, I would definitely be wanting to be able to check where I’m going to get the best deal. But I do like being able to check which products they’ve got so I can plan my shop. This is especially important for smaller stores where I might need to plan to go to a bunch of different stores to get all the stuff I need.
Maybe I’m wrong and this wouldn’t actually help them. But it’s clear that people aren’t convinced by them doing what they currently do, and that they need to try something new. Maybe getting speciality lines could work, like Aldi does with their centre aisle, which clearly works very well for them. But “focusing on local products” has been the primary selling point of smaller supermarkets and independent grocers for decades, and clearly does not work.
As for it being “too expensive”, if companies in countries that have a smaller population than ours and lack the strong duopoly of Colesworths can develop or purchase scan & go tech 3 or 4 years before Woolworths started doing it here, I refuse to believe that’s actually the real problem. I suspect smaller business owners in Australia are just more likely to be technophobic and to believe that it’s sound business to ignore technology than small companies in Europe.
So, I wanted to find a good source for this, but i can’t after a short search and its late, so i’m just going to reply.
but if I did care a lot about the price, I would definitely be wanting to be able to check where I’m going to get the best deal. But I do like being able to check which products they’ve got so I can plan my shop
Prices and range of stock are likely controlled by IGA store owners themselves, this is not Metcash.
Metcash own the brand and do the majority of wholesaling for IGA. I think theres extras, like locally sourced produce, that independent IGA brand operators sell themselves without violating terms of the IGA brand agreement.
Due to the owner/operators of IGA stores having more price and stock control this makes it harder for things like online pricing and stocking, as each store is doing its own thing supplying their local area the way they think.
Like Mcdonalds franchisees the catalogues you get with those prices require the ongoing agreement of the IGA stores themselves.
A central data collection point is more complicated for Metcash/IGA than a single entity like ColesWortAldi. Each owner/operator needs to agree/supply a price and stock level, supply their information back likely working off multiple types of in-house operational systems across the IGA stores (also stock numbers, etc), then receive reflect and display the equivalent information as everyone else.
Its actually not dissimilar to Lemmy and its many servers.
All this said, your point about technophobia is probably very true, sometimes its straight up head in the sand, but also a key issue is these owner/operators run on tiny margins. Significant upfront costs, like built/hard tech often has, with obscure pay offs are a hard sell in these people’s positions, and the stores owners themselves need to put their hands in their own pockets more often than not.
Add to this that the borrowing capacity of an organisation like Metcash/IGA is a lot lower than the ‘single entity operators’ and you get a less competitive and slower moving beast.
Bonus though, the money you spend at an IGA is going to take a lot longer, if ever, to become leakage to some overseas investor, so a good argument for IGA’s is they increase the velocity of money swirling around in the Australian economy whereas others, Costco/Aldi particularly, cause AUD leakage quicker.
Good lord.
The junk at Aldi isn’t “speciality products” LOL.
You’re dealing in generalisations, and assumptions based on your own preferences.
Maybe start by assuming that the people that own small grocers know more about the industry and how to compete than you do.
