Honing In On Supermarkets

Michael from Trentham

During the last two years or so of the pandemic in NZ, the big winners commercially were supermarkets and banks.

Whilst business in general took a big hit and in many cases - a dive - supermarkets and banks thrived.

All this whilst the Government had to find huge loans and spend money earmarked for other projects and promises to help Kiwis get through the crisis.

So while I loathe banks I(mainly Australian) making so much dough and charging customers unnecessarily more than should be the case, I don't begrudge supermarkets in NZ profiting annually by a handsome amount. And yet I do say the line must be drawn on the approx 500 million annually the two supermarket franchises have made whilst some in NZ have been scrimping and failing to gather in enough money to buy groceries weekly and the Government is blamed for the rising cost of living and the rising inflation rate well past the hitherto three percent max per annum.

So the steps the Government are taking are the right ones and hopefully will further pave the way for additional competition from at least another supermarket player.

Supermarkets in NZ were given big wraps by people here on Neighbourly during the pandemic for being so stoic but did they really deserve all the praise? They didn't pay their staff extra for the extra dangers they faced and they made more profit than normal as people staying at home bought more products sold at supermarkets.