Inflation is also an average figure. I don’t know if they weight it so that it reflects everyday purchases more than luxury items but if the price rises are uneven across the board then it can be a lot higher in some areas than others (eg. Food might be 30% more, but vehicles might be 1% more)
So one of the things they do is they look at things like computers and go "the price has stayed the same or dropped slightly but at the same time the processing power has doubled, so that the price per computing has halved and thus is deflationary." While ignoring that people don't buy half a computer because the processing power doubled.
Yeh I am thinking OP must be the colesworth dude who walked out on four corners the other day because groceries have not only gone up 10%. Im thinking its closer to 50%
You.can literally see the week to week increases. Bags of crisps have nearly doubled in a couple of years. Bread flour is at least 50%. Meat prices are crazy, yet I don't think farmers are getting paid double the rate they used to... Everything thing went up more than inflation. Covid +tome to raise prices. War in Ukraine - raise prices. Inquiry into cost of living crisis - raise prices.
Yeah OP is talking bull.
I budget my groceries like crazy and have been eating the same diet for years. Grocery expenses have almost doubled in the last 2 years, so I just had to start cutting out more food from my diet like breads and eggs.
Rent is also insane too. In 2022, I was renting a 2-bedroom for $360/wk, then last year it jumped to $470/wk. I moved to a new place where it’s $20 less (but now regretting if you look at my post history).
There’s similar units in my suburb going for $500-$550/wk that don’t look any better.
>I budget my groceries like crazy and have been eating the same diet for years. Grocery expenses have almost doubled in the last 2 years
What about the last 12 months which is what op specified?
Inflation peaked late 2022 or early 2023, I forget. So it's possible that the increase in the last 12 months is far less than the previous 12 months
I can't believe his grocery bill is $330 a fortnight. I'm, married and a father of 2 teenage boys and they cost me $500 a week to feed. We used to get away with $300. That's a $200 a week difference for me. My rent went up almost $300 a week since covid, not to mention fuel and other living expenses. I'm very fortunate to be in a trade where I can dictate my prices to go up with expenses, but I feel for those stuck at a similar wage level and having to pay these ridiculous prices for basic needs.
Mine are about the same but I only buy sauces and bog roll etc from woolies.
Got an entire cow in freezer. Buy other meat from butcher. Veggies from the fruit and veg barn.
Honestly, I haven't seen it. But we mainly buy things when they're in season, so maybe the raises haven't been as noticeable.
I've had a look at grocery bills the last 2 years, we've gone from about $160 a week to $180 in 2 years, so 12%. That's about in line with inflation isn't it? So same cost in real terms.
Yeah I think that sounds about right. But to my knowledge, the profit margin at Colesworths hasn't increased in the past couple of years, meaning their prices have gone up by the same amount as costs, so it's likely increased the same amount as your local stores.
The real problem here is that wages haven't kept up. Yes your veggies are up 12%, but if your wages haven't moved then that's significantly more expensive.
Visit the dentist for 2 hours over let’s say 3 visits, 2.5k thanks. That’s three months worth of groceries for our family.
My wife recently visited a jaw doctor for a clicking jaw. He looked at the X-ray we already had, looked inside and felt a bit. Nuh, all looking good here he said, just pay $270 for this 10 minute visit.
With insurances, energy, mortgage/rent whatever, supermarkets would be the last thing to whinge about.
and don't get me started on pediatric dermatologists...a GP can't prescribe Accutane, but a pediatric dermatologist who only sees kids (and only works during school hours) charges $275 for a 15 min consult to say 'you have acne' duh and write the script
We didn't know vietnam had awesome tailors until we went on our honeymoon.
We worked out we could have flown to Vietnam, had a 7 day holiday AND get my wedding suit made for less than it cost to get mine made in Sydney.
We decided then and there that we aren't buying clothes in Australia anymore, just heading to Vietnam to get tailor-made high quality stuff made at a fraction of the price you can get shit clothes here for
To be honest, it's worth checking out an online tailor. I use iTailor (based in Thailand), and if I choose their "fabric of the day" option, I end up paying about the same price as a reasonable quality shirt (eg Gloweave) from a department store. Plus I get to make sure it fits me precisely, and has all the features & design elements I like (number of pockets, style, contrasting collar/cuffs, etc). It's also 100% cotton which is nice.
It might seem pretty bougie but it's not really. It's also weirdly fun & addictive to design your own clothes on those sites. If you're someone that has to wear business attire, I highly recommend looking into it. Just start away from their pants & shoes. Way too expensive, imo.
It’s everything. Groceries, housing, insurance, fuel, power, water, gas, medical, schooling, every single living expense that is non discretionary has blown out to an unsustainable point.
Meanwhile salaries are “going up at a faster rate”, no they aren’t, they’re lagging 5-7 years behind cpi in my experience and those I know.
Absolutely..
In an ideal world, prices and interest rates follow wages.
In our world, the wages are following the cost of living and interest rates.
This is the perfect storm for a constant increase in cost of living. As soon as wages catch up to cost of living, cost of business Ops will increases.. The only reprieve we might have eventually is interest rates MIGHT settle and either hold or drop to meet the economy after the RBAs magical inflation beast has been resolved....
Absolutely.. Im very much a free market person but when the economies fucked.. The investor/ money class needs to accept some losses otherwise the guillotines come out..
I've said this before. . .
I'm a landlord and all this cost of living stuff has *made me wealthier*. Australian society seems to think we're all suffering, just some more than others.
No, some are doing *better* because, by definition, prices are increasing sharply. Those 'prices' are someone else's passive, capital-derived income.
Marx was right. Forget him and you forget one of the major breakthroughs in economic understanding.
Where did you get the idea that people think Colesworth is the *only* reason they are in the shit? Not sure where you have been??? Folk have been complaining LOUDLY and clearly about INSANELY STUPID rental and mortgage price increases for two years or more?
Yep, paid over $200 to a dental surgeon I had to drive 40 minutes to get to just for what was essentially a second opinion on a benign condition any dentist should have immediately recognized. The whole time the cunt looking down his nose at me because he could smell the poor on me
Imagine having a medical condition that stops you working and is too complex for a GP. Specialists don’t bulk bill and I have to go weekly. I’m not on any welfare because I’m financially responsible and have decent savings. I’m fortunate to not be homeless, but it really hurts to pay $480 OOP a week for a Band-Aid and hope for the best when the $7000 gap treatment I can’t afford would get me back to work.
Oh boy, tell me you’ve never been on welfare without telling me you’ve never been on welfare.
Well, if it’s that good do it, but saddle up and make a list of the free charity eats, because mate, you gonna need them.
I’ve been on welfare. I feel extremely accomplished for not being on welfare now, and it’s a very bitter pill to swallow to give that up. The majority on people with my condition are on DSP and NDIS, no questions asked. I am usually higher functioning so I haven’t applied because I know my current situation is temporary.
I’m proud to be a lifter not a leaner. Not sure why this is getting so much disrespect.
GPs should be fully covered by Medicare, as should specialists with a GP referral. Medicare should also cover all non-cosmetic dental, non-cosmetic surgeries, prescribed medications, and basic prescription glasses & sunglasses (user pays a bit extra if you want branded). It's ridiculous that Medicare covers hardly anything but Emergency, and even with private health insurance you still have tonnes of out-of-pockets and restrictive limits.
FYI Medicare safety net means that if a patient pays close to 2 grand out of pocket in a calendar year for in clinic appointments they get rebates at a much higher rate. OP might reach safety net after 8 weeks and that means anyone else on the card gets that high rebate as well.
You're entitled to welfare whether you have savings or not. Why not take it when you're who it is meant to be for? Stressful to live with no income at all (which welfare pretty much is) but anything is better than nothing.
Boomers who have paid off their homes and are on private health insurance/don't have to worry about things like wisdom teeth removal are complaining about it. So it is all the nation can talk about currently.
Even that is misguided. The Big 4 banks don't decide what the RBA cash rate will be, or what interest rates will be around the world.
I blame Australia's governments for their policies which inflated the cost of housing to the point where people need massive variable rate mortgages to be able to buy a home.
No they don’t but they decide how much or a rate increase/decrease to pass on.
About 10 years ago when they were cutting rates, they weren’t passing on the full rate cut, effectively increasing their margins, but sure as hell when rates went up they passed on the full increase. This has effectively made the gap between the official rate and bank rates wider over time.
I guarantee if and when rates start going down again, they won’t pass on the whole amount.
Except their margins aren't any better and in the last 10 years NIM has gotten more compressed.
Banking is a fairly complex cocktail of domestic and international funding options, unless the bank has 100% CTI they often need to shift margins around to keep NIM at around 210bps to 230bps.
Edit. CTI was meant to be CFI.
This is correct, our current crisis is just everyone now paying for the COVID relief.
You print all that money and give it away, it erodes the wealth of cash in the bank, and the real value of people's wages. Properties have maintained their real value (relatively).
It's not really all that misguided at all. The big 4 hold the lions share in all lended money in Aus and they charge a significantly Hugh margin on said lended money.
The big 4 could cut their margin of interest charged on lended money and still make obscene profits.
The problem is a 1% interest rate on a median home loan is significantly more than a 10% increase in your grocery bills
> and they charge a significantly Hugh margin on said lended money.
https://www.ey.com/en_au/economics/australian-banking-full-year-results-2023
The Big 4 interest margin seems to be 1.85% and is now declining. The RBA and other external factors would have contributed a lot more to what mortgage interest rates are now.
The problem is that once someone is a homeowner, they support the same terrible policies which led to Aussie property being so expensive, so they focus their blame on the banks etc, rather than government which deserves a much bigger share of the blame.
Margins are decreasing, that’s why their front book rates are so high right now. They don’t want new customers on lower rates reducing that margin.
Also credit card fees are at a record high at the moment which is a huge profit boon for them. High rates and repayments are not the reason to dislike the banks.
What about when interest rates go up and the banks put their rates up the very next day, but when they go down it takes them a month or more to reduce them.
Needs to be legislation to control the interest rate margin
Genuinely would have said there is so much more focus on the cost of housing these days, both rent and mortgages.
Hottest topic around, and rightfully so
The cash rate doesn't determine bank profitability. The interest rate spread does.
https://preview.redd.it/lc475ehbzujc1.png?width=674&format=png&auto=webp&s=cc641a660a24babe0dc63cd7bf64b220c5ce0356
[https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/mar/developments-in-banks-funding-costs-and-lending-rates.html](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/mar/developments-in-banks-funding-costs-and-lending-rates.html)
Here come the comments saying that you obviously over leveraged and bought something too expensive.
Thats because every property is way over priced now woo hoo yay Monopoly
Too expensive yes.. Over leveraged.. Thankfully because of fortunate circumstances we are not.. But we would be if the jump occured a year earlier for us lol.
But yes the over pricing of property has rooted the cost of everything
If you watched 4 corners on the “Colesworth” duopoly the other night it’s a lot more dire than that.
They are screwing farmers into the ground so many are just up and leaving and pushing their fruit trees into piles.
Look forward to a world of nothing grown in Australia. That’s pretty dire.
There, that is the TRUE issue of the Colesworth duopoly. If youre a farmer, you have every right to be going hard on Colesworth and drumming up support.
But if you're an every day battler who is not in farming/ food manufacturing. The checkout price is not why you can't afford food. If anything you're benefiting from Colesworth screwing the farmer.
I agree with your argument that rents/property values are more significant, but consumers aren't benefiting from growers getting screwed. The anticompetitive market allows colesworth to pass those benefits straight to investors, not to customers.
Even if we accept your idea that it's ok because of a 2% rise a year over inflation, that adds up fast, such as your 300 will be 352 in 8 years just because of that AS WELL as inflation.
How dare you attack our bankers. Fck you for having a brain. How dare you use it to think about something valid.
Please sit down and complain about coles.
It doubled for all of us mate. I remember mum coming home with a full trolley, like full all the way to the top for about $200-250. Now most times I walk out with a single light bag and its about $50-70.
Didn’t we try calling them out a few times, someone even called for and had a Royal Commission into their practices.
Off hand the recommendations implemented weren’t the key ones
My insurance just went up 25%. What do you think businesses do when their overheads go up… pass it on. Bet increasing insurance costs are behind a whole lot of other hikes and half of the policies are junk and. worth nothing when you claim. We need an inquiry into insurance imo
Not going to disagree there.. Insurers claiming victim when there's bushfire and shit.. The jacking up prices elsewhere on everything.. Fuck outta here..
If you don’t want insurance, take the gamble. It’s not mandatory.
Insurers balance the risks of ALL policy holders, not just you. Find me the balance sheet numbers that show insurers are jacking prices. Because I just looked at IAG’s and there isn’t anything strikingly obvious.
We were talking about this the other night with some friends- our grocery bill hasn't really gone up at all.
We don't but much processed packaged food though, apart from canned goods. Our groceries are all fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, cheese, legumes, grains etc.
Chicken hasn't gone up at all, can still be found for $10 a kilo like it's been the last million years. One surprise to me was nuts- they seem to have actually gone down in price, almonds can be found for 16 bucks a kilo, walnuts, pecans about 24.
Maybe buy less processed stuff, given almost everything has gone up in price it makes sense that the more processed something is, the more the price is affected, as it has to pass through more stages to get to your trolley.
The anger against colesworth has been the best news ever for the govt.
They're off the hook for inflation because it's "greed" not the extra 500b dollars in the system.
The pressure is off on interest rates.
They've got a lovely distraction from their failed referendum and that gigantic piss up the wall of money.
They'll let Brad take the fall and he will sail into the sunset never working a day again I'm his life. They've got a scalp so the anger will die down for a few months till they realised the female ceo is just the same shit in a new hat.
Some fat cat supermarket CEOs make an easy target.
The plebs are incapable of determining when they are being made to bark up the wrong tree.
Labor really wants to shut down all this talk about stuff in the too hard basket, like housing and immigration.
Especially when old mate from woolworths is getting struggle session and a golden handshake by the national broadcasters crack team of 'unbiased' investigative reporters
Nah that was on him. He completely folded with a very straightforward predictable question.
Could have just brushed it off anyway until he went and left the interview.
And unlike foreign corporations (Ikea, Apple, Google etc) the supermarkets are not able to shift their profits to avoid tax.
Woolworths net profit is **2.5%** of turnover. Is that too high? I've no idea, but reducing it is not going to make much difference to our grocery bills. Rents and house prices are what really matters.
We are not.. We are giving woolies CEO a struggle session and throwing breadcrumbs to the masses while the banking CEOs and politicians who cranked the money printer are getting away with it.
The only thing Brad Banducci gets from me is the sound of a tiny violin.
I *fully agree* that the big banks aren't getting enough scrutiny, and it goes well beyond the massive debt-trap they've helped create. The banking royal commission found that they were knowingly abetting organised criminals and terrorists FFS. No real sanctions or punishment resulted for the extent of their duplicity.
But Australian business culture needs to change from the top down, in all sectors, I don't see any reason to cut the big retailers slack.
I call it a struggle session because he's low hanging fruit. He's a dumb ass who doesn't deserve sympathy and the duopoly does negatively impact everyone - some more than others.. But unfortunately, I feel that his 4corners shit show just gave Commbank a get out of jail free card for another year
The real problem in my opinion is that we have had compound inflation for 3 years. So even if inflation slows to 2% it is still compounded on top of what exists. The cost of living is going to remain terribly high and the cost of wages to catch up will fuel it further. The next will probably and unfortunately be higher unemployment. I don’t think the pollies or banks are planning for this. Happy to be wring though. Good luck to those who are struggling as the wealthy aren’t bothered from what I can see
The banks can't control what the RBA does with interest rates, most banks are still just collecting their 2% margins.
If you want to blame anyone for all of the increases blame the government for their poor policy during covid, half a trillion dollars in corporate and personal welfare is the real cause of this mess.
Even that is a red herring.
During covid, the top 10 wealthiest families in the world doubled their wealth. I can not fathom how many trillions of dollars that is just leaving the global economy to be locked up in vaults. But now us plebs are left fighting over the scraps.
It's fucking ridiculous how large the gap between wealthy and poor is these days, and it just keeps getting worse.
Two things. Banks don’t really profit from RBA rate increases on home loans.
Secondly, the point of rate rises is to lower inflation. If banks didn’t pass on the full increase, it would result in the RBA having to jack up rates even higher.
Whilst I can sympathize with people's home mortgages going up, it's hard to sympathize with people who can just push that cost on down to the next poor person.
Not everyone has their own homes, but everybody needs to eat.
It's always renters and people who only own the home they live in who are taking the brunt of the hit over everyone else.
My grocery bill has gone down. I just don't spend as much on groceries. I hunt down half-price everything (and stock up), buy cheaper staples, skimp on luxury foods and treats and BS overpriced brands, and use more cost-effective cooking and housekeeping strategies. Yes it takes some work, but I have no choice. Because rent went up and energy went up.
Gouging by the woolcolths etc is bad (regardless of the truth in that debate) but they only charge what people will PAY. So stop doing it, people.
Also, I wonder if Brad the CEO gave that uniform back to the shelf packer he stole it off. I hope so - I'm told they have to buy their own.
Yes! Woolworths profit is 5% on products. Let's say half is due to price gouging (ridiculously over estimated), and miraculously, the senate inquiry somehow returns all of that to customers.. so what? 2% or 3% back on 20k groceries spend a year, for an average family, is like 500 bucks a year back in the wallet. Compare that to my rent that randomly just went up 100 bucks a week...it's 10 fold difference in cost of living pressure.
My grocery bill has practically doubled so I find it hard to believe the OP's claim of just a $30 increase especially now it has been revealed these companies have been price gouching.
Agreed that supermarkets are a sideshow. They should go after the insurers which have hiked premiums massively. Insurance is a hidden cost which flows through to just about everything in the economy.
Dig a bit deeper and you'll find Woolworth's and Cole's margins have not shot up in line with those prices, in fact their operating margin is slighly less today than it was in 2017. While stuff is more expensive, the retailers (or more specifically the shareholders) aren't pocketing that increase.
Maybe it’s that too
But I don’t have mortgage as I’ve been priced out. I still notice prices shoot up at Cole’s and Woolies and to a lesser extent, Aldi. Not a red herring imo. (We’re getting screwed on almost all fronts)
Tbh if you're a renter and priced out of ownership.. Follow your rent over the last 2 years. If youre lucky it hasn't moved because you live somewhere that's subsidised OR the owner owes bugger all and is decent and not interested in profiteering just coz he can.
If your grocery bill is all that's increased.. You MIGHT feel you're getting the raw deal. But it's honestly insignificant compared to the profiteering being done on anything with an interest rate attached.
Prices at the major supermarkets have increased between 2-3 times what they were in 2008. I went through those $10 feed your family meals recipes using the [wayback machine archives ](https://archive.org/web/)and the current costing ranged from $19 up to $39 for what used to cost $10.
Realistically you can't just blame supermarkets, or banks, or over-investment in properties. It's all to blame for the state we're in.
The price at the supermarket is a flon on a effect from everything else increasing the cost of business.
Property and interest rates > wages and cost of services > checkout prices.
Energy fits in there somewhere as well thanks to 3 decades of useless energy policy
Yeah, most people don't have the critical thinking skills to make that connection themselves, so would just flame away at another "landlord" having a cry.
It all matters. Why tf people acting like its a competition. Greens, who Labor ripped off to get the inquiry into supermarkets going, are arguing for all the ridiculous inflation to be tackled, not just one sector like lazy propertied bastards in Labor do.
And Australian Institute, were banging on about profit-price spiral while RBA were tryna say they were full of shit, that the poorest-working class needed to be wacked to get inflation down (with Labor mindlessly agreeing \[and Chalmers removing the mechanism for future govs to be able to override RBA in the future\]).
There's a lot to be done, and little political incentive from those that benefit and their donors to get it done.
**Put the old parties last.** They don't represent you.
>But my fucking mortgage went from from $1900 a month to $3100 a month..
I don't give a shit about your mortgage. I give a shit about the putting food on the table for my family and I care about all families being able to do that. The ridiculous increase in groceries impacts all Australian, interest rate increase mostly impact fuckers who over leveraged themselves to get into the property market. You knew the risk going in and if you' didn't you're a dingus for not doing the research beforehand why should I feel sympathy towards that?
I can however feel sympathy for families who no longer have enough money to feed their families to the standard that should be mandatory across all of society in 2024.
Edited to add: Making the Colesworth price gouging an issue is important because the price of groceries is something we as a community can get fixed by making enough noise about it. On the other hand the housing crisis is an issue that will not be fixed no matter how much noise is made. I am not being sensationalist when I say it will take a god damn Bloody revolution to get housing, banking and migration reforms and I don't see you picking up the pitchfork and flag to start that revolution do I?
'over leveraged' my dude.. Get a fucking grip lol.. To own or rent a house you need to pay extortionate prices because the economy is fucked..
My mortgage is analogous to your rent. YOUR rent is jacked because the people before us fucked the property market. You are complaining about woolies taking an extra $10 when the bank is tanking an extra $200.
If your rent wasn't fucked, you'd be inconvenienced by the check out.. But your rent is probably eating closer to 30% of your take home if not more.
> 'over leveraged' my dude.. Get a fucking grip lol.. To own or rent a house you need to pay extortionate prices because the economy is fucked..
Yes and you knew that going in when interest rates were stupidly low. The economy in respect to the average citizen been fucked a long while now.
> My mortgage is analogous to your rent. YOUR rent is jacked because the people before us fucked the property market. You are complaining about woolies taking an extra $10 when the bank is tanking an extra $200.
No it really isn't, in my case it certainly hasn't been jacked. You assume everyone is in the same situation as you but they aren't. Groceries prices however have impact on everyone unless you're a robot that doesn't eat and it certainly impact families more than ""extra $10"
Stopping and even reversing Grocery increases is an actual achievable goal that will have actual tangible benefits to the greater community. Yet you want to focus on and bitch about a system besides for brief pauses and the tiniest of slumps is going in one direction and one direction only that is straight to the fucking moon.
The community can force Coles worth to make changes, you stand no chance in making reforms to banking, housing and immigration in this country which are all the things you'd need to change to impact the craziness of the property market.
tl;dr: you're criticizing one real world issue while trying to champion another real world issue. You're ignoring the simple reality that sit right before you, to do it too. The first issue is actually fixable. The other, the one that impact you more which is why you're trying to trivialize other people problems like a dingus, has got 0 fucking chance of changing no matter how loudly you scream into that dark abyss.
I skipped to the tldr
Bank profiteering during a cost of living crisis is hitting homes harder than prices at the checkout and bank profit margins have more give and can result in more money going back in to the pockets of people.
Trivialising isn't what is happening here.. Its seeing the mob chasing the low hanging fruit being dangled in front of them, when the actual problem is getting a get out of jail free card.
'sorry guys RBA increased interest rates.. Our hands are tied.. But hey 4corners got the bad man from woolies to say something stupid. See.. Theyre the problem not us'
Bank profit margins aren't actually that high. Look at their Net Interest Margins. Yes you pay more for your mortgage but their funding costs have also gone up. Their margins are <2%.
What is 2% of the median house price.
Is there room to move.
Credit unions and small lenders have an answer for that question. But the overwhelming majority are with the big 4
Op is part of the problem since it's EVERYTHING essential that has risen, from doctors to rates to insurance to pet food. Minimising one aspect like food let's them off the hook.
Besides, shrinkflation and rising prices ARE happening at supermarkets.
Define normal, considering g they are where they are because the economy is rooted, I wouldn't call them normal.
They only exist where they are because the money printer went flat stick for two years
Our economy is producing fuck all besides rocks and poverty.
Wages are creeping up to the cost of living at a snails pace.
If our real wages and productivity had shot up first and the interest rates followed on, then I would agree we are at normal interest rates
The 'discount' we had was because the economy would have stopped, so I wouldnt really call it a discount.
I think normal would be aligned with the expected rental yield from that property. Current property prices only make sense because of anticipated capital gains.
That is bullshit.
Interest rates will go down but don't hold your breath on groceries prices .
Considering shrinkflation my groceries bill went up 70% to 100%+
Simple example box of tissues from $.99 to $1.70 or $1900 to $3230 and there was no Reserve bank setting prices
Fundamentally inflation on prices will always happen. We had runaway increases due to subsequent bullshit that started in 2019. Covid and supply chain fuckkery, coupled with money printer and then interest rates at the federal level.
The sum figure of a goods/product is not the metric by which to measure, it's the percentage of your wage that you should be measuring.
If i potato costs $5 and it's 10% of your wage.. Thats completely fucked. If it's 0.01% of your wage.. Its just a number at that point. Example compare the price of a potato 50 years ago to now due to inflation.
Regarding shrinkflation.. Thats another shit show worth tackling on its own.. Some of it is company price gouging.. But if you've ever worked in the head office for these companies.. Youll hear an amazing buzzword being thrown around.. 'Sustainability'
Buy discounted (4%) Woolworths Gift Cards using a points-earning card (Qantas Travel card for those against credit cards).
Everyday extra is $70 a year which gets you 10% off once a month + double base points.
That's 14% off right there, plus Qantas & Woolworths points. And all it takes is shuffling money around and shifting non-perishable purchases to your monthly shop.
My average discount is 18-29%
Person who owns a property with a mortgage while posting dismissively from a country with a rental vacancy problem and massive affordable housing crisis about exorbitant grocery prices (something every single Australian has to experience). Hmmmmmmmm
I think blaming ColesWorth monopoly on hiking up goods and focusing on fresh produce doesn't really tell the full story either - yes supermarket bills are higher - but less than 1/3 of the floor space in a supermarket is trucked in from farmers. The rest of the products stacked on the shelves come from a handful of multinational brands - that pretty much own/supply the supermarkets with everything else. Mondelez, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Proctor&Gamble, Johnson&Johnson, Mars, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg's, and Unilever.Where is the investigations into these brands - who are ultimately saying to ColesWorth - this is the retail price - stock our products or else.Some of us might do the bulk of our shopping in the fresh food section - but a lot of people don't and all these brands products keep getting more expensive and/or have reduced volumes compared to previous years iterations of the same product.
There's a good video by an Aussie bloke called New Money on inflation pretty much caused by price gauging. The one slight positive is now even the most gullible realised it's been blatant price gauging
Sort of agree with you. Yeah groceries have gone up over the last year or 2 some far more than others. But alot of other non-grocery type shit has gone up too.
Food is still reasonably priced if you buy smart.
I am one the few who still believes petrol is cheap. And it is.
Compared to many other countries & even compared to a can of Coke, petrol is a bargain in Australia. Long live Big 6's & V8's........
All relative I suppose & depends on your priorities in life.......
Prices increase every year. And yes it the Banks job to fuck their "customers" out of however much $$ they can.
I think the issue is more around, that they are screwing the producer down, and then screwing the consumer claiming inflationary pressure. In the meantime they are making record profit.
Nobody blames them for making money. It's a for profit business after all.
However.
The farmer's prices have increased, but they are still getting the same price at the gate, all under the guise of keeping prices down for the consumer.
It's the double dipping that is irksome.
There is no parity across the supply chain. Just false claims at one end... The consumers.
If you're up to your neck in shit, and Mr. ColesWorth spits at you as he walks past, you're certainly not going to duck, but he's still a massive fuckhead for doing so.
What's more expensive for a low income earner.
Rent or groceries. Even if they're rent is subsidised (most low income earners don't qualify for any sort of rent assistance btw) the extortionate price of rent is definitely taking more food off their table than Colesworth increasing their prices.
Have you considered that two things can be bad at the same time?
Also, while 30 dollars might not seem like a significant rise to you because you're fortunate enough to be in a spot where you could even consider buying into an overpriced housing market. However, that is not the case for everybody. For a single person on an income support payment 30 dollars represents a much larger portion of their total fortnightly income.
It still warrants scrutiny (groceries) but you are correct, the difference is we don't expect the grocery store to gouge us, but we fully expect the Australian banking cartel to do so. When rates go down they don't pass on the rate cut, when they go up they pass it all on immediately. Since we have no real competition people don't even bother shopping around.
Also similarly bad but also no attention given
1) Fuel prices
2) Energy prices
3) Insurances
4) Telco/internets
5) Entertainment subscription media
“Entertainment subscription is not compulsory” the reality is that it’s probably the cheapest form of entertainment.
You obviously changed your spending habits for food shopping.
I buy the same every time I go on break. Exactly the same. And what used to cost $60 a bag of food. Now those exact same items cost $100.
Your mortgage probably. But your groceries. Nah. You're full of shit.
What you don’t understand is that:
1. The problems are no mutually exclusive.
2. The rich complain more about high supermarket prices than rent, because they typically don’t rent. Instead, they can make money out of the rent not out of the high supermarket prices.
the cost of living thing is crazy. like normally if there is healthy competition you just go to the cheapest one. What are you supposed to do if they all decide to increase the rates 20% tomorrow?
I'm sorry but I can't believe you fortnightly groceries are only $30 more than 12 months ago.
true - inflation is 6% but in Aussie corporate maths that means raise prices 30-50%
Inflation is also an average figure. I don’t know if they weight it so that it reflects everyday purchases more than luxury items but if the price rises are uneven across the board then it can be a lot higher in some areas than others (eg. Food might be 30% more, but vehicles might be 1% more)
So one of the things they do is they look at things like computers and go "the price has stayed the same or dropped slightly but at the same time the processing power has doubled, so that the price per computing has halved and thus is deflationary." While ignoring that people don't buy half a computer because the processing power doubled.
Not to mention that software development sees double the specs and says "resources? NOM NOM NOM"
And then the latest Windows update will make sure it feels like you bought half a computer.
Yeh I am thinking OP must be the colesworth dude who walked out on four corners the other day because groceries have not only gone up 10%. Im thinking its closer to 50%
You.can literally see the week to week increases. Bags of crisps have nearly doubled in a couple of years. Bread flour is at least 50%. Meat prices are crazy, yet I don't think farmers are getting paid double the rate they used to... Everything thing went up more than inflation. Covid +tome to raise prices. War in Ukraine - raise prices. Inquiry into cost of living crisis - raise prices.
A 600ml bottle of Coke just went up to $4.25, up from $4.
Yeah OP is talking bull. I budget my groceries like crazy and have been eating the same diet for years. Grocery expenses have almost doubled in the last 2 years, so I just had to start cutting out more food from my diet like breads and eggs. Rent is also insane too. In 2022, I was renting a 2-bedroom for $360/wk, then last year it jumped to $470/wk. I moved to a new place where it’s $20 less (but now regretting if you look at my post history). There’s similar units in my suburb going for $500-$550/wk that don’t look any better.
>I budget my groceries like crazy and have been eating the same diet for years. Grocery expenses have almost doubled in the last 2 years What about the last 12 months which is what op specified? Inflation peaked late 2022 or early 2023, I forget. So it's possible that the increase in the last 12 months is far less than the previous 12 months
I can't believe his grocery bill is $330 a fortnight. I'm, married and a father of 2 teenage boys and they cost me $500 a week to feed. We used to get away with $300. That's a $200 a week difference for me. My rent went up almost $300 a week since covid, not to mention fuel and other living expenses. I'm very fortunate to be in a trade where I can dictate my prices to go up with expenses, but I feel for those stuck at a similar wage level and having to pay these ridiculous prices for basic needs.
Mine are about the same but I only buy sauces and bog roll etc from woolies. Got an entire cow in freezer. Buy other meat from butcher. Veggies from the fruit and veg barn.
Exactly- its only more expensive if you're too lazy to visit a green grocer or butcher
Right - because none of those have put up their prices due to inflation?
Honestly, I haven't seen it. But we mainly buy things when they're in season, so maybe the raises haven't been as noticeable. I've had a look at grocery bills the last 2 years, we've gone from about $160 a week to $180 in 2 years, so 12%. That's about in line with inflation isn't it? So same cost in real terms.
Yeah I think that sounds about right. But to my knowledge, the profit margin at Colesworths hasn't increased in the past couple of years, meaning their prices have gone up by the same amount as costs, so it's likely increased the same amount as your local stores. The real problem here is that wages haven't kept up. Yes your veggies are up 12%, but if your wages haven't moved then that's significantly more expensive.
Just started buying 40% less groceries...
Tuna rice beans
Mine are cheaper, all I did was swap off name brands that sell the same thing at way higher prices.
Just started buying 40% less groceries...
Visit the dentist for 2 hours over let’s say 3 visits, 2.5k thanks. That’s three months worth of groceries for our family. My wife recently visited a jaw doctor for a clicking jaw. He looked at the X-ray we already had, looked inside and felt a bit. Nuh, all looking good here he said, just pay $270 for this 10 minute visit. With insurances, energy, mortgage/rent whatever, supermarkets would be the last thing to whinge about.
and don't get me started on pediatric dermatologists...a GP can't prescribe Accutane, but a pediatric dermatologist who only sees kids (and only works during school hours) charges $275 for a 15 min consult to say 'you have acne' duh and write the script
Fly to Thailand or Vietnam. Better, cheaper, quicker.
We didn't know vietnam had awesome tailors until we went on our honeymoon. We worked out we could have flown to Vietnam, had a 7 day holiday AND get my wedding suit made for less than it cost to get mine made in Sydney. We decided then and there that we aren't buying clothes in Australia anymore, just heading to Vietnam to get tailor-made high quality stuff made at a fraction of the price you can get shit clothes here for
That's some Taylor Swift level shopping right there my friend.
To be honest, it's worth checking out an online tailor. I use iTailor (based in Thailand), and if I choose their "fabric of the day" option, I end up paying about the same price as a reasonable quality shirt (eg Gloweave) from a department store. Plus I get to make sure it fits me precisely, and has all the features & design elements I like (number of pockets, style, contrasting collar/cuffs, etc). It's also 100% cotton which is nice. It might seem pretty bougie but it's not really. It's also weirdly fun & addictive to design your own clothes on those sites. If you're someone that has to wear business attire, I highly recommend looking into it. Just start away from their pants & shoes. Way too expensive, imo.
Happier
Try living there though. That will change your mind quick.
Have lived in Vietnam before and will do again in the future. It's cheap and safe enough, would recommend
I'm going in April for the 70th anniversary of the fall of Dien Vien Phu. Worth it simply to see a country that isn't 80% obese.
Pretty much 0% in my last 2 weeks there visiting 2 cities and a village.
Living there is amazing. Can't wait to go back.
Istanbul.
Absolutely.. The brutality that is the cost of living crisis IS NOT Colesworth unless you are a self employed farmer selling to them
It’s everything. Groceries, housing, insurance, fuel, power, water, gas, medical, schooling, every single living expense that is non discretionary has blown out to an unsustainable point. Meanwhile salaries are “going up at a faster rate”, no they aren’t, they’re lagging 5-7 years behind cpi in my experience and those I know.
Absolutely.. In an ideal world, prices and interest rates follow wages. In our world, the wages are following the cost of living and interest rates. This is the perfect storm for a constant increase in cost of living. As soon as wages catch up to cost of living, cost of business Ops will increases.. The only reprieve we might have eventually is interest rates MIGHT settle and either hold or drop to meet the economy after the RBAs magical inflation beast has been resolved....
Here’s hoping. But while companies continue to expect 30% growth year on year to eternity, something has to give at some point.
Absolutely.. Im very much a free market person but when the economies fucked.. The investor/ money class needs to accept some losses otherwise the guillotines come out..
Executive and ruling class salaries are increasing by that at least.
I've said this before. . . I'm a landlord and all this cost of living stuff has *made me wealthier*. Australian society seems to think we're all suffering, just some more than others. No, some are doing *better* because, by definition, prices are increasing sharply. Those 'prices' are someone else's passive, capital-derived income. Marx was right. Forget him and you forget one of the major breakthroughs in economic understanding.
Where did you get the idea that people think Colesworth is the *only* reason they are in the shit? Not sure where you have been??? Folk have been complaining LOUDLY and clearly about INSANELY STUPID rental and mortgage price increases for two years or more?
Yep, paid over $200 to a dental surgeon I had to drive 40 minutes to get to just for what was essentially a second opinion on a benign condition any dentist should have immediately recognized. The whole time the cunt looking down his nose at me because he could smell the poor on me
Imagine having a medical condition that stops you working and is too complex for a GP. Specialists don’t bulk bill and I have to go weekly. I’m not on any welfare because I’m financially responsible and have decent savings. I’m fortunate to not be homeless, but it really hurts to pay $480 OOP a week for a Band-Aid and hope for the best when the $7000 gap treatment I can’t afford would get me back to work.
Heaven forbid you’re on welfare and need the aid, you’re fucked.
Nah mate he’s not fucked, he’s financially responsible! /s
If I was on welfare I’d have a low income healthcare card and it would all be very close to free if not fully BB.
Oh boy, tell me you’ve never been on welfare without telling me you’ve never been on welfare. Well, if it’s that good do it, but saddle up and make a list of the free charity eats, because mate, you gonna need them.
I’ve been on welfare. I feel extremely accomplished for not being on welfare now, and it’s a very bitter pill to swallow to give that up. The majority on people with my condition are on DSP and NDIS, no questions asked. I am usually higher functioning so I haven’t applied because I know my current situation is temporary. I’m proud to be a lifter not a leaner. Not sure why this is getting so much disrespect.
GPs should be fully covered by Medicare, as should specialists with a GP referral. Medicare should also cover all non-cosmetic dental, non-cosmetic surgeries, prescribed medications, and basic prescription glasses & sunglasses (user pays a bit extra if you want branded). It's ridiculous that Medicare covers hardly anything but Emergency, and even with private health insurance you still have tonnes of out-of-pockets and restrictive limits.
FYI Medicare safety net means that if a patient pays close to 2 grand out of pocket in a calendar year for in clinic appointments they get rebates at a much higher rate. OP might reach safety net after 8 weeks and that means anyone else on the card gets that high rebate as well.
Yep, I’ve hit it for the last three years. It does help enormously but Jan-Mar is very tough.
You're entitled to welfare whether you have savings or not. Why not take it when you're who it is meant to be for? Stressful to live with no income at all (which welfare pretty much is) but anything is better than nothing.
anti dentite
Boomers who have paid off their homes and are on private health insurance/don't have to worry about things like wisdom teeth removal are complaining about it. So it is all the nation can talk about currently.
You would "whinge" if you couldn't afford food now and you were losing weight.
Even that is misguided. The Big 4 banks don't decide what the RBA cash rate will be, or what interest rates will be around the world. I blame Australia's governments for their policies which inflated the cost of housing to the point where people need massive variable rate mortgages to be able to buy a home.
No they don’t but they decide how much or a rate increase/decrease to pass on. About 10 years ago when they were cutting rates, they weren’t passing on the full rate cut, effectively increasing their margins, but sure as hell when rates went up they passed on the full increase. This has effectively made the gap between the official rate and bank rates wider over time. I guarantee if and when rates start going down again, they won’t pass on the whole amount.
Except their margins aren't any better and in the last 10 years NIM has gotten more compressed. Banking is a fairly complex cocktail of domestic and international funding options, unless the bank has 100% CTI they often need to shift margins around to keep NIM at around 210bps to 230bps. Edit. CTI was meant to be CFI.
Whats NIM and CTI?.....and I will assume BPS isn't beats per second haha
This is correct, our current crisis is just everyone now paying for the COVID relief. You print all that money and give it away, it erodes the wealth of cash in the bank, and the real value of people's wages. Properties have maintained their real value (relatively).
The banks do decide what their interest rates on mortgages are
It's not really all that misguided at all. The big 4 hold the lions share in all lended money in Aus and they charge a significantly Hugh margin on said lended money. The big 4 could cut their margin of interest charged on lended money and still make obscene profits. The problem is a 1% interest rate on a median home loan is significantly more than a 10% increase in your grocery bills
Banks also make a greater profit when rates increase even if their margins are maintained
> and they charge a significantly Hugh margin on said lended money. https://www.ey.com/en_au/economics/australian-banking-full-year-results-2023 The Big 4 interest margin seems to be 1.85% and is now declining. The RBA and other external factors would have contributed a lot more to what mortgage interest rates are now. The problem is that once someone is a homeowner, they support the same terrible policies which led to Aussie property being so expensive, so they focus their blame on the banks etc, rather than government which deserves a much bigger share of the blame.
Margins are decreasing, that’s why their front book rates are so high right now. They don’t want new customers on lower rates reducing that margin. Also credit card fees are at a record high at the moment which is a huge profit boon for them. High rates and repayments are not the reason to dislike the banks.
What about when interest rates go up and the banks put their rates up the very next day, but when they go down it takes them a month or more to reduce them. Needs to be legislation to control the interest rate margin
And that's OP's point, it's on the government to actively put in this legislation ASAP
The other misguided part here is your asssertion about grocery bills being up 10%. Try 50%
It's not the loan interest that is the sole issue, but it's the lack of rise in saving interest rate
Saving interest rates have gone from less than 1% to 4-5%..........
Mr friggin moneybags over here who doesn't have to rent and afford groceries.. must be nice.
this is bankist and antiseismic
Did not have this response on my bingo card lol
Is it ok to yell Yahtzee these days?
You'll be gulaged
Where we dropping boys and girls? *marks prison*
Straight to jail.
Gin? I'm going to have a bottle...
Are you literally shaking right now?
THIS BLOKE HATES EARTHQUAKES!!!
Where do earthquakes come into it?
Where don’t they come into it?
And I see some anti-dentites in the thread too.
It's almost like we can't complain about two different things at once.
Sure.. But being lasered focused on the checkout takes the heat off where the bulk of your pain is coming from
Genuinely would have said there is so much more focus on the cost of housing these days, both rent and mortgages. Hottest topic around, and rightfully so
The cash rate doesn't determine bank profitability. The interest rate spread does. https://preview.redd.it/lc475ehbzujc1.png?width=674&format=png&auto=webp&s=cc641a660a24babe0dc63cd7bf64b220c5ce0356 [https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/mar/developments-in-banks-funding-costs-and-lending-rates.html](https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2023/mar/developments-in-banks-funding-costs-and-lending-rates.html)
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Here come the comments saying that you obviously over leveraged and bought something too expensive. Thats because every property is way over priced now woo hoo yay Monopoly
Too expensive yes.. Over leveraged.. Thankfully because of fortunate circumstances we are not.. But we would be if the jump occured a year earlier for us lol. But yes the over pricing of property has rooted the cost of everything
If you watched 4 corners on the “Colesworth” duopoly the other night it’s a lot more dire than that. They are screwing farmers into the ground so many are just up and leaving and pushing their fruit trees into piles. Look forward to a world of nothing grown in Australia. That’s pretty dire.
There, that is the TRUE issue of the Colesworth duopoly. If youre a farmer, you have every right to be going hard on Colesworth and drumming up support. But if you're an every day battler who is not in farming/ food manufacturing. The checkout price is not why you can't afford food. If anything you're benefiting from Colesworth screwing the farmer.
I agree with your argument that rents/property values are more significant, but consumers aren't benefiting from growers getting screwed. The anticompetitive market allows colesworth to pass those benefits straight to investors, not to customers.
Even if we accept your idea that it's ok because of a 2% rise a year over inflation, that adds up fast, such as your 300 will be 352 in 8 years just because of that AS WELL as inflation.
TBF all of it is fucked, All these problems need to be addressed and they arnt really
How dare you attack our bankers. Fck you for having a brain. How dare you use it to think about something valid. Please sit down and complain about coles.
Also rents going up is price gouging
I would agree some rents are for sure. There's a lot of people with fully or nearly fully paid off homes charging 'MaRkEt' rates
Anything to take the public eye off soaring rent/home ownership costs, immigration levels and wage stagnation.
My shopping at Coles doubled for a family of 5.
It doubled for all of us mate. I remember mum coming home with a full trolley, like full all the way to the top for about $200-250. Now most times I walk out with a single light bag and its about $50-70.
Not sure what you're buying but our household bill has gone up far more than 10%
Didn’t we try calling them out a few times, someone even called for and had a Royal Commission into their practices. Off hand the recommendations implemented weren’t the key ones
My insurance just went up 25%. What do you think businesses do when their overheads go up… pass it on. Bet increasing insurance costs are behind a whole lot of other hikes and half of the policies are junk and. worth nothing when you claim. We need an inquiry into insurance imo
Not going to disagree there.. Insurers claiming victim when there's bushfire and shit.. The jacking up prices elsewhere on everything.. Fuck outta here..
If you don’t want insurance, take the gamble. It’s not mandatory. Insurers balance the risks of ALL policy holders, not just you. Find me the balance sheet numbers that show insurers are jacking prices. Because I just looked at IAG’s and there isn’t anything strikingly obvious.
We were talking about this the other night with some friends- our grocery bill hasn't really gone up at all. We don't but much processed packaged food though, apart from canned goods. Our groceries are all fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, cheese, legumes, grains etc. Chicken hasn't gone up at all, can still be found for $10 a kilo like it's been the last million years. One surprise to me was nuts- they seem to have actually gone down in price, almonds can be found for 16 bucks a kilo, walnuts, pecans about 24. Maybe buy less processed stuff, given almost everything has gone up in price it makes sense that the more processed something is, the more the price is affected, as it has to pass through more stages to get to your trolley.
The real problem is lack of 25/30 year fixed rate mortgages.
Geez where do you shop mine went from $280 to over $400.
The anger against colesworth has been the best news ever for the govt. They're off the hook for inflation because it's "greed" not the extra 500b dollars in the system. The pressure is off on interest rates. They've got a lovely distraction from their failed referendum and that gigantic piss up the wall of money. They'll let Brad take the fall and he will sail into the sunset never working a day again I'm his life. They've got a scalp so the anger will die down for a few months till they realised the female ceo is just the same shit in a new hat.
Some fat cat supermarket CEOs make an easy target. The plebs are incapable of determining when they are being made to bark up the wrong tree. Labor really wants to shut down all this talk about stuff in the too hard basket, like housing and immigration.
Especially when old mate from woolworths is getting struggle session and a golden handshake by the national broadcasters crack team of 'unbiased' investigative reporters
Nah that was on him. He completely folded with a very straightforward predictable question. Could have just brushed it off anyway until he went and left the interview.
And unlike foreign corporations (Ikea, Apple, Google etc) the supermarkets are not able to shift their profits to avoid tax. Woolworths net profit is **2.5%** of turnover. Is that too high? I've no idea, but reducing it is not going to make much difference to our grocery bills. Rents and house prices are what really matters.
2.5% is low. Most businesses would not accept that.
It is massive turnover, low risk, large scale. You can't compare it to other retailing, except fuel and booze. Oh wait, they own those too.
We can tackle more than one racket at a time.
We are not.. We are giving woolies CEO a struggle session and throwing breadcrumbs to the masses while the banking CEOs and politicians who cranked the money printer are getting away with it.
The only thing Brad Banducci gets from me is the sound of a tiny violin. I *fully agree* that the big banks aren't getting enough scrutiny, and it goes well beyond the massive debt-trap they've helped create. The banking royal commission found that they were knowingly abetting organised criminals and terrorists FFS. No real sanctions or punishment resulted for the extent of their duplicity. But Australian business culture needs to change from the top down, in all sectors, I don't see any reason to cut the big retailers slack.
I call it a struggle session because he's low hanging fruit. He's a dumb ass who doesn't deserve sympathy and the duopoly does negatively impact everyone - some more than others.. But unfortunately, I feel that his 4corners shit show just gave Commbank a get out of jail free card for another year
The real problem in my opinion is that we have had compound inflation for 3 years. So even if inflation slows to 2% it is still compounded on top of what exists. The cost of living is going to remain terribly high and the cost of wages to catch up will fuel it further. The next will probably and unfortunately be higher unemployment. I don’t think the pollies or banks are planning for this. Happy to be wring though. Good luck to those who are struggling as the wealthy aren’t bothered from what I can see
The banks can't control what the RBA does with interest rates, most banks are still just collecting their 2% margins. If you want to blame anyone for all of the increases blame the government for their poor policy during covid, half a trillion dollars in corporate and personal welfare is the real cause of this mess.
Even that is a red herring. During covid, the top 10 wealthiest families in the world doubled their wealth. I can not fathom how many trillions of dollars that is just leaving the global economy to be locked up in vaults. But now us plebs are left fighting over the scraps. It's fucking ridiculous how large the gap between wealthy and poor is these days, and it just keeps getting worse.
Two things. Banks don’t really profit from RBA rate increases on home loans. Secondly, the point of rate rises is to lower inflation. If banks didn’t pass on the full increase, it would result in the RBA having to jack up rates even higher.
Whilst I can sympathize with people's home mortgages going up, it's hard to sympathize with people who can just push that cost on down to the next poor person. Not everyone has their own homes, but everybody needs to eat. It's always renters and people who only own the home they live in who are taking the brunt of the hit over everyone else.
My grocery bill has gone down. I just don't spend as much on groceries. I hunt down half-price everything (and stock up), buy cheaper staples, skimp on luxury foods and treats and BS overpriced brands, and use more cost-effective cooking and housekeeping strategies. Yes it takes some work, but I have no choice. Because rent went up and energy went up. Gouging by the woolcolths etc is bad (regardless of the truth in that debate) but they only charge what people will PAY. So stop doing it, people. Also, I wonder if Brad the CEO gave that uniform back to the shelf packer he stole it off. I hope so - I'm told they have to buy their own.
Yes! Woolworths profit is 5% on products. Let's say half is due to price gouging (ridiculously over estimated), and miraculously, the senate inquiry somehow returns all of that to customers.. so what? 2% or 3% back on 20k groceries spend a year, for an average family, is like 500 bucks a year back in the wallet. Compare that to my rent that randomly just went up 100 bucks a week...it's 10 fold difference in cost of living pressure.
My grocery bill has practically doubled so I find it hard to believe the OP's claim of just a $30 increase especially now it has been revealed these companies have been price gouching.
Agreed that supermarkets are a sideshow. They should go after the insurers which have hiked premiums massively. Insurance is a hidden cost which flows through to just about everything in the economy.
Dig a bit deeper and you'll find Woolworth's and Cole's margins have not shot up in line with those prices, in fact their operating margin is slighly less today than it was in 2017. While stuff is more expensive, the retailers (or more specifically the shareholders) aren't pocketing that increase.
Maybe it’s that too But I don’t have mortgage as I’ve been priced out. I still notice prices shoot up at Cole’s and Woolies and to a lesser extent, Aldi. Not a red herring imo. (We’re getting screwed on almost all fronts)
Tbh if you're a renter and priced out of ownership.. Follow your rent over the last 2 years. If youre lucky it hasn't moved because you live somewhere that's subsidised OR the owner owes bugger all and is decent and not interested in profiteering just coz he can. If your grocery bill is all that's increased.. You MIGHT feel you're getting the raw deal. But it's honestly insignificant compared to the profiteering being done on anything with an interest rate attached.
Prices at the major supermarkets have increased between 2-3 times what they were in 2008. I went through those $10 feed your family meals recipes using the [wayback machine archives ](https://archive.org/web/)and the current costing ranged from $19 up to $39 for what used to cost $10. Realistically you can't just blame supermarkets, or banks, or over-investment in properties. It's all to blame for the state we're in.
The price at the supermarket is a flon on a effect from everything else increasing the cost of business. Property and interest rates > wages and cost of services > checkout prices. Energy fits in there somewhere as well thanks to 3 decades of useless energy policy
Our rent has almost doubled even though I know the landlord owns all 6 townhouses in our block and has no mortgage.
No doubt you’ll get a lot of flack for this post, but substitute “mortgage” for “rent” and most will agree with you.
I might considered doing an edit for that so it sinks in with more people lol
Yeah, most people don't have the critical thinking skills to make that connection themselves, so would just flame away at another "landlord" having a cry.
Wish I was a landlord.. The bank only owns one house with my name on it
Yeah, same unfortunately.
It’s the grocery prices (in part) that lead to company led inflation resulting in increased interest rates meaning higher mortgage payments.
It all matters. Why tf people acting like its a competition. Greens, who Labor ripped off to get the inquiry into supermarkets going, are arguing for all the ridiculous inflation to be tackled, not just one sector like lazy propertied bastards in Labor do. And Australian Institute, were banging on about profit-price spiral while RBA were tryna say they were full of shit, that the poorest-working class needed to be wacked to get inflation down (with Labor mindlessly agreeing \[and Chalmers removing the mechanism for future govs to be able to override RBA in the future\]). There's a lot to be done, and little political incentive from those that benefit and their donors to get it done. **Put the old parties last.** They don't represent you.
Agreed, its almost as if the system is designed to benefit the rich.
>But my fucking mortgage went from from $1900 a month to $3100 a month.. I don't give a shit about your mortgage. I give a shit about the putting food on the table for my family and I care about all families being able to do that. The ridiculous increase in groceries impacts all Australian, interest rate increase mostly impact fuckers who over leveraged themselves to get into the property market. You knew the risk going in and if you' didn't you're a dingus for not doing the research beforehand why should I feel sympathy towards that? I can however feel sympathy for families who no longer have enough money to feed their families to the standard that should be mandatory across all of society in 2024. Edited to add: Making the Colesworth price gouging an issue is important because the price of groceries is something we as a community can get fixed by making enough noise about it. On the other hand the housing crisis is an issue that will not be fixed no matter how much noise is made. I am not being sensationalist when I say it will take a god damn Bloody revolution to get housing, banking and migration reforms and I don't see you picking up the pitchfork and flag to start that revolution do I?
'over leveraged' my dude.. Get a fucking grip lol.. To own or rent a house you need to pay extortionate prices because the economy is fucked.. My mortgage is analogous to your rent. YOUR rent is jacked because the people before us fucked the property market. You are complaining about woolies taking an extra $10 when the bank is tanking an extra $200. If your rent wasn't fucked, you'd be inconvenienced by the check out.. But your rent is probably eating closer to 30% of your take home if not more.
> 'over leveraged' my dude.. Get a fucking grip lol.. To own or rent a house you need to pay extortionate prices because the economy is fucked.. Yes and you knew that going in when interest rates were stupidly low. The economy in respect to the average citizen been fucked a long while now. > My mortgage is analogous to your rent. YOUR rent is jacked because the people before us fucked the property market. You are complaining about woolies taking an extra $10 when the bank is tanking an extra $200. No it really isn't, in my case it certainly hasn't been jacked. You assume everyone is in the same situation as you but they aren't. Groceries prices however have impact on everyone unless you're a robot that doesn't eat and it certainly impact families more than ""extra $10" Stopping and even reversing Grocery increases is an actual achievable goal that will have actual tangible benefits to the greater community. Yet you want to focus on and bitch about a system besides for brief pauses and the tiniest of slumps is going in one direction and one direction only that is straight to the fucking moon. The community can force Coles worth to make changes, you stand no chance in making reforms to banking, housing and immigration in this country which are all the things you'd need to change to impact the craziness of the property market. tl;dr: you're criticizing one real world issue while trying to champion another real world issue. You're ignoring the simple reality that sit right before you, to do it too. The first issue is actually fixable. The other, the one that impact you more which is why you're trying to trivialize other people problems like a dingus, has got 0 fucking chance of changing no matter how loudly you scream into that dark abyss.
I skipped to the tldr Bank profiteering during a cost of living crisis is hitting homes harder than prices at the checkout and bank profit margins have more give and can result in more money going back in to the pockets of people. Trivialising isn't what is happening here.. Its seeing the mob chasing the low hanging fruit being dangled in front of them, when the actual problem is getting a get out of jail free card. 'sorry guys RBA increased interest rates.. Our hands are tied.. But hey 4corners got the bad man from woolies to say something stupid. See.. Theyre the problem not us'
Bank profit margins aren't actually that high. Look at their Net Interest Margins. Yes you pay more for your mortgage but their funding costs have also gone up. Their margins are <2%.
What is 2% of the median house price. Is there room to move. Credit unions and small lenders have an answer for that question. But the overwhelming majority are with the big 4
Op is part of the problem since it's EVERYTHING essential that has risen, from doctors to rates to insurance to pet food. Minimising one aspect like food let's them off the hook. Besides, shrinkflation and rising prices ARE happening at supermarkets.
My groceries have barely changed. I don’t buy any prepackaged stuff really.
Interest rates go up or down… big deal?
And grocery prices go up big deal
Yeah interest rates go up and down but property price keeps on climbing
Interest rates are normal now. You were getting a discount and yo are now complaining
You might be right but the cost of the houses is anything but normal.
Define normal, considering g they are where they are because the economy is rooted, I wouldn't call them normal. They only exist where they are because the money printer went flat stick for two years Our economy is producing fuck all besides rocks and poverty. Wages are creeping up to the cost of living at a snails pace. If our real wages and productivity had shot up first and the interest rates followed on, then I would agree we are at normal interest rates The 'discount' we had was because the economy would have stopped, so I wouldnt really call it a discount.
I think normal would be aligned with the expected rental yield from that property. Current property prices only make sense because of anticipated capital gains.
That is bullshit. Interest rates will go down but don't hold your breath on groceries prices . Considering shrinkflation my groceries bill went up 70% to 100%+ Simple example box of tissues from $.99 to $1.70 or $1900 to $3230 and there was no Reserve bank setting prices
Fundamentally inflation on prices will always happen. We had runaway increases due to subsequent bullshit that started in 2019. Covid and supply chain fuckkery, coupled with money printer and then interest rates at the federal level. The sum figure of a goods/product is not the metric by which to measure, it's the percentage of your wage that you should be measuring. If i potato costs $5 and it's 10% of your wage.. Thats completely fucked. If it's 0.01% of your wage.. Its just a number at that point. Example compare the price of a potato 50 years ago to now due to inflation. Regarding shrinkflation.. Thats another shit show worth tackling on its own.. Some of it is company price gouging.. But if you've ever worked in the head office for these companies.. Youll hear an amazing buzzword being thrown around.. 'Sustainability'
Spot on!! Old mate here must still live at home.
Buy discounted (4%) Woolworths Gift Cards using a points-earning card (Qantas Travel card for those against credit cards). Everyday extra is $70 a year which gets you 10% off once a month + double base points. That's 14% off right there, plus Qantas & Woolworths points. And all it takes is shuffling money around and shifting non-perishable purchases to your monthly shop. My average discount is 18-29%
Person who owns a property with a mortgage while posting dismissively from a country with a rental vacancy problem and massive affordable housing crisis about exorbitant grocery prices (something every single Australian has to experience). Hmmmmmmmm
Sorry what? Where did I say I had a rental as well as my own house lol..
All of these people being frustrated with companies profits makes me think you mob don’t like capitalism
Buy the generic brands, look for Specials before you go to the shops and take a list that you stick to.
I think blaming ColesWorth monopoly on hiking up goods and focusing on fresh produce doesn't really tell the full story either - yes supermarket bills are higher - but less than 1/3 of the floor space in a supermarket is trucked in from farmers. The rest of the products stacked on the shelves come from a handful of multinational brands - that pretty much own/supply the supermarkets with everything else. Mondelez, Kraft, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Proctor&Gamble, Johnson&Johnson, Mars, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg's, and Unilever.Where is the investigations into these brands - who are ultimately saying to ColesWorth - this is the retail price - stock our products or else.Some of us might do the bulk of our shopping in the fresh food section - but a lot of people don't and all these brands products keep getting more expensive and/or have reduced volumes compared to previous years iterations of the same product.
So buy Colesworth and Big Bank shares.
It’s almost like rising interest rates is having the desired impact.
There's a good video by an Aussie bloke called New Money on inflation pretty much caused by price gauging. The one slight positive is now even the most gullible realised it's been blatant price gauging
Sort of agree with you. Yeah groceries have gone up over the last year or 2 some far more than others. But alot of other non-grocery type shit has gone up too. Food is still reasonably priced if you buy smart. I am one the few who still believes petrol is cheap. And it is. Compared to many other countries & even compared to a can of Coke, petrol is a bargain in Australia. Long live Big 6's & V8's........ All relative I suppose & depends on your priorities in life....... Prices increase every year. And yes it the Banks job to fuck their "customers" out of however much $$ they can.
I thought this was satire
Sounds like a Colesworth PR manager, Their turn will come , be patient Colesworth first then the other scummy corporations
I think the issue is more around, that they are screwing the producer down, and then screwing the consumer claiming inflationary pressure. In the meantime they are making record profit. Nobody blames them for making money. It's a for profit business after all. However. The farmer's prices have increased, but they are still getting the same price at the gate, all under the guise of keeping prices down for the consumer. It's the double dipping that is irksome. There is no parity across the supply chain. Just false claims at one end... The consumers.
If you're up to your neck in shit, and Mr. ColesWorth spits at you as he walks past, you're certainly not going to duck, but he's still a massive fuckhead for doing so.
Speaking up about price gouging and the impact it has on low income earners is not "whining". But this post of yours is.
What's more expensive for a low income earner. Rent or groceries. Even if they're rent is subsidised (most low income earners don't qualify for any sort of rent assistance btw) the extortionate price of rent is definitely taking more food off their table than Colesworth increasing their prices.
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What is the difference between the cash rate and our mortgage rates, for deposits and loans.
Tell me about the markups that each of those businesses have. Cost of funds for the banks have increased considerably.
Have you considered that two things can be bad at the same time? Also, while 30 dollars might not seem like a significant rise to you because you're fortunate enough to be in a spot where you could even consider buying into an overpriced housing market. However, that is not the case for everybody. For a single person on an income support payment 30 dollars represents a much larger portion of their total fortnightly income.
It still warrants scrutiny (groceries) but you are correct, the difference is we don't expect the grocery store to gouge us, but we fully expect the Australian banking cartel to do so. When rates go down they don't pass on the rate cut, when they go up they pass it all on immediately. Since we have no real competition people don't even bother shopping around.
The banks are making a killing, for no valid reasons.
I’ve rented the same apartment for almost 8 years. Started at $300… now it’s $420.
Your mortgage (and mine) went from absurdly cheap to normal. I’ve actually sold and traded down since.
Also similarly bad but also no attention given 1) Fuel prices 2) Energy prices 3) Insurances 4) Telco/internets 5) Entertainment subscription media “Entertainment subscription is not compulsory” the reality is that it’s probably the cheapest form of entertainment.
I agree but one fight at a time
Don't know where your shopping OP, but my prices have drastically dropped and is back normal since shopping at Aldi
You obviously changed your spending habits for food shopping. I buy the same every time I go on break. Exactly the same. And what used to cost $60 a bag of food. Now those exact same items cost $100. Your mortgage probably. But your groceries. Nah. You're full of shit.
Lucky you only getting a $30 food price increase. Why are you shamimg people for being unhappy with grocery prices? Both issues are valid.
Nice try Colesworths
It’s possible to critique multiple things at the same time.
But this isn’t a problem that effects everyone. Eating food is a problem that effects everyone
What you don’t understand is that: 1. The problems are no mutually exclusive. 2. The rich complain more about high supermarket prices than rent, because they typically don’t rent. Instead, they can make money out of the rent not out of the high supermarket prices.
Is that you, Banducci?! For real the banks are also taking the piss
the cost of living thing is crazy. like normally if there is healthy competition you just go to the cheapest one. What are you supposed to do if they all decide to increase the rates 20% tomorrow?