Tim Dower: We've known more competition is the answer for years

Supermarkets are under fire again.  

The Commerce Commission now says it will look into what might be dodgy pricing practices. 

If past performance is anything to go by, expect them to find pretty much nothing when they report back. 

And again, going on past performance, expect to see that report sometime around the early 2030s. 

Consumer NZ has been asking for an investigation since August, I guess Comm Comm since then has been investigating whether it's got time to do an investigation. 

After all, it's busy with...err...well...it's busy. Just busy. 

Any road up, there probably is a case to answer. 

But I wonder if the horse hasn't kind of bolted with the new labelling that’s already on its way, and recognition on the part of the supermarkets that shelf tickets can and should be more standardised. 

That way people can compare like with like and decide if they're getting a good deal or not. 

It's actually information that's been there, on a lot of products for long enough if you have the time to look for it. 

Now, some stuff you buy goes on so-called 'special' on a regular cycle and those deals are actually often driven by the manufacturers and suppliers. 

So, if you have the time and the inclination and the desire to plan, you can take advantage of those deals by bulk buying when things are cheap, and not buying when they're not. 

Have a bit of sport trying to beat the supermarkets at their own game, knowing all along that you'll never win. 

End of the day, the thing is we all have to eat and for most of us, the main source of our food is the supermarket. 

The duopoly knows this and rubs their hands with glee every time we go in. They're smart enough and tough enough businesspeople to know how to maximise their profits from our needs. 

So, what's needed is not an expensive and long-winded report from the Commerce Commission, what's needed is more competition.   

We’ve seen how tough it is to break into the market just from a couple that have tried, we've known that more competition is the answer for years now. 

So, the question is: how do we get more competition into the market? 

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