Supermarket prices: Our shopping is part of the problem too - John MacDonald

We are part of the problem with supermarkets. Therefore, we have to be part of the solution, writes John MacDonald. Photo / 123RF

OPINION:

I think I'm going to be the only person in New Zealand today who's going to say "stop beating up on the supermarkets".

The Government has released details of what it's going to do to try and help us pay less for our food and groceries at Pak'nSave, Countdown, New World, Four Square, Fresh Choice and Super Value. The whole lot of them.

It comes after the Commerce Commission looked into how the supermarket companies have been operating here. You'll remember it found things like supermarket companies holding on to big blocks of land so competitors couldn't set-up shop nearby and suppliers living in fear they'd be cut loose if they didn't sell their products to the supermarkets at the cheapest prices possible.

If you're a supplier to the big supermarkets it's been a bit of a mixed blessing because we know that they tell their suppliers "hey, we'd like to put a special on your product but we're only going to do it if you drop your price". And they do that so they can look like they're doing us all a big favour with the special without having any impact on their profit margin.

It's been an absolute rort, hasn't it? And the sooner that sort of stuff stops, the better.

And I've been quite happy to bag the supermarkets over all of this because it's just been bullying behaviour. And so the Government is saying now it wants more competition, and it wants more of an even playing field.

So, for example, if a new outfit wants to set up shop here they will have guaranteed access to the wholesale prices the supermarkets have access too. So too will dairies and Night 'n' Day stores which, currently, have to buy their products at the same price we do at the supermarkets - and then add their profit margin on top of that.

Which is why things are more expensive at the dairy and Night 'n' Day.

So rort after rort after rort.

But I think we - the shoppers - are to blame as well, for the grocery bills going through the roof. It's not all the supermarket's fault because we - as shoppers - are part of the problem.

For example, it seems we've stopped worrying about what is in season and what isn't.

We demand access to products like fruits and vegetables all year round and so the supermarkets, naturally, respond to customer demand which means we can pretty much get whatever we want all year round - and we are paying through the nose for it.

Whatever happened to waiting until things are in-season? It wasn't that long ago, was it, that you could only buy a punnet of strawberries in the summer. You see them all year round now because we, apparently, need them in our smoothies and on top of our muesli in summer, autumn, winter and spring.

Buying things when they're in-season is so old-hat now. But it's not the supermarkets forcing that on us - we're demanding it and the supermarkets are responding to our demands. So, of course, things are going to be more expensive.

Some of us get all hung-up about whether the eggs we buy have come from hens living the dream out in the fresh air, instead of being stuck in a cage in a shed with the lights on 24/7. I'm not saying that's a bad thing but the minute our conscience has a say in what's on the shopping list, the price goes up.

We also seem to think that we have to be able to get a park right outside every time we go to the supermarket. We couldn't possibly walk a few blocks or get a bus.

And so the supermarkets have to have these huge pieces of infrastructure to maintain. Each parking space is worth tens of thousands of dollars. And who pays for that? We do - at the checkout.

We have created these monsters ourselves. And if you think the Commerce Commission and the Government's going to have all the answers, then you're dreaming.

We are part of the problem. Therefore, we have to be part of the solution.