John MacDonald: Has the Grocery Commissioner checked out?

Where's the grocery commissioner? Wasn’t he going to get cheaper groceries for all of us?

That was the idea. But he hasn’t.

So is Nicola Willis going to do it? My prediction, is she won’t.

Because, no matter how much we would all like to pay less at the supermarket, the two ideas she announced yesterday are duds.

And I’m picking that, if you did a grocery shop yesterday afternoon, the Government’s announcement-of-an-announcement yesterday morning did nothing to soften the blow when you went through the checkout.

So the Government wants to see a foreign operator coming here. Which is never going to happen. For the simple reason that foreign operators have bigger fish to fry elsewhere.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Mornings podcast with John McDonald
from news Talks AB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Where's the where's the grocery Commissioner? Are you there? Mate?
Missing person's alert? You've seen the grocery commissioner? Let me know?
Because what wasn't he going to be the guy who
was going to get cheaper groceries for all of us?
That was the idea, But no he hasn't. So is

(00:35):
Nicola Wellis going to do it? Here's my prediction. No,
she won't because no matter how much we would all
like to pay less at the supermarket, the two ideas
she announced yesterday they are duds. And I'm picking that
if you did a grocery shop yesterday afternoon, like I did,

(00:55):
I'm picking that. The government's announcement of an announcement yesterday morning,
I'm picking it did nothing to soften the blow when
you went through the check out. So Nikola Willis wants
to see a foreign operator coming here, which is never
going to happen for the simple reason that foreign operators
have bigger fish to fry elsewhere. German supermarket company Aldi

(01:20):
is often touted as a potential foreign outfit that could
come here and create more competition. But it's kind of
here already because it's been registered with the New Zealand
Company's Office since two thousand, but it hasn't bothered doing
anything more than that, focusing on Australia instead. But guess what,
despite Aldi operating across the Tasman, Australians are still paying

(01:44):
through the nose for the groceries. Just over a week ago,
the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission put out a report
saying that Cole's, Woolworts and Aldi were among the most
profitable supermarket chains in the world prices over the Prison
Sharpenney over the past five years, with the supermarket's increase

(02:06):
in profit margins during that time as well. Does it
sound familiar? And just like here, politicians in Australia aren't
all promising to do something about it. But like here,
like we saw yesterday, and as we have seen with
previous governments, it will be all talk and won't amount

(02:28):
to anything. And in five years time, the Aussies and
US we will still be paying through the nose and
politicians will still be floating go nowhere ideas. But if
you forced me, if you said I had to pick
one of Nikola Willis's ideas that she floated yesterday. If
I had to choose the one I thought was most achievable,

(02:50):
it would be the threat she made yesterday to force
the two big companies to sell some of their supermarket
brands to create more competition and reduce their dominance. If
you forced me to choose one, I've choosed that one.
But it's a terrible idea. So Foodstuffs which four Square
New World Pack and Save, liquor Land and the Gildmore's

(03:10):
wholesale food outlet or outfit, they would be forced by
the government to sell some of those brands. And Wilworths,
which owns the War with supermarkets which used to be
counting down here as well as Super Value and Fresh Choice,
they'd have to sell one or two of those as well.
And even though I would love to pay less at
the supermarket, I don't like that idea at all. David

(03:30):
Seymour doesn't like it either. The ACT Leader says that
if the government poked its nose in this way and
to food staffs and Woolworths operations, that would put businesses
off investing in New Zealand, which I agree with. I
think it could, And it's a weird thing, isn't it
for the government to be proposing just two weeks after
it had all the money people over here from around

(03:50):
the world trying to get them to invest in New Zealand.
Now I've been looking at the rules that the Commerce
Commission uses to decide whether to allow mergers to go ahead,
and the outcomes the rules are designed to prevent. It
sounds very similar to the supermarket scenario here in New Zealand.
You know, not enough competition, all that stuff. But that's

(04:12):
fine when you're deciding whether or not to allow a merger.
But for the government to try and do that retrospectively,
that would be a terrible thing. It would be a
terrible thing for the supermarkets. Not that I'm terribly sympathetic
to the supermarkets, but it would be a terrible thing
for the supermarket companies. It would also be a terrible
thing for the government, or it would be a terrible

(04:33):
thing for the government's sale pitch. I should say to
the world that New Zealand is open for business, that
we want businesses to come here, and that we're getting
rid of some of the red tape to make it
easier for you to come here. We're doing all of that,
but at the same time we're floating this idea of
telling private businesses what to do with their businesses if
we think people are getting ripped off, or more to

(04:54):
the point, if we think it might get us votes.
Because what nicol would has announced yesterday, it actually won't
be a vote winner because these ideas won't go anywhere,
And the sooner all politicians stop thinking they can make
things cheaper for us at the supermarket, the sooner they
realized that, the better.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
For more from Category Mornings with John McDonald, listen live
to news talks at be Christchurch from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio