New supermarket monopoly conspiracy theory

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#2692645 14-Apr-2021 13:22

antonknee:

I couldn't think of anything worse as a consumer - not everything needs to be a bloody subscription quite frankly. And online shopping is not always convenient IMO (and I say this even though my entire job is online shopping).

Sometimes you really do just want to get a simple item from the shop you're already at/going to, and I think this is even more the case with household items that you might buy from say the supermarket or somewhere like a Bunnings/M10/The Warehouse/Kmart.

Yeah, waiting for a loaf of bread to turn up is not going to work.

OTOH our cats eat a bag every two weeks, pretty much on the button. We don't subscribe but I see there are businesses that will send you a bag every x weeks by courier.

Quite by chance I heard a snippet of radio about this business:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124818164/supie-an-online-alternative-to-traditional-supermarkets-plans-to-open-in-auckland

Online shopping has disrupted every other sector of retailing - why not supermarkets too?

Many of the issues laid out in this thread as barriers to entry into bricks and mortar have a much different impact for an online entrant.

e.g. no expensive, prime property required.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

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#2692647 14-Apr-2021 13:27

KrazyKid: Could be a new model for the super markets - buy your groceries on subscription :)

This only lasts until the first time the service picks out damaged fruit and veg that technically are what you'd ordered but not what you'd have bought, or substitutes something that you'd never have got if you'd been doing the shopping, or puts an order with perishables on your front porch in the sun because you've had to pop out, etc. The amount of data processing and analytics that Instacart needs to do just to provide an OK (nothing special) service is staggering, I can't imagine any supermarket in NZ being able to do anything like that. Even if they got Instacart involved, I don't know if NZ has the infrastructure that's needed to support something like this.

antonknee

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#2692665 14-Apr-2021 13:49

Oblivian:

antonknee:

I couldn't think of anything worse as a consumer - not everything needs to be a bloody subscription quite frankly. And online shopping is not always convenient IMO (and I say this even though my entire job is online shopping).

Progressive/Countdown just launched subscription delivery https://shop.countdown.co.nz/deliverysubscription/plans

Yeah I saw that - although it's basically a delivery charge as a subscription (ie pay $x per month for all your deliveries, instead of $y per delivery) instead of being a subscription of $z per month for all your groceries.

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#2692669 14-Apr-2021 13:55

elpenguino:

Yeah, waiting for a loaf of bread to turn up is not going to work.

OTOH our cats eat a bag every two weeks, pretty much on the button. We don't subscribe but I see there are businesses that will send you a bag every x weeks by courier.

Quite by chance I heard a snippet of radio about this business:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124818164/supie-an-online-alternative-to-traditional-supermarkets-plans-to-open-in-auckland

Online shopping has disrupted every other sector of retailing - why not supermarkets too?

Many of the issues laid out in this thread as barriers to entry into bricks and mortar have a much different impact for an online entrant.

e.g. no expensive, prime property required.

There absolutely are products and services where it works well.

Supie sounds interesting - a hybrid of ugly produce and farmers markets, plus a limited range of household stuff. The cost of product and of delivery and any logistics issues will be what makes it or breaks it IMO.

KrazyKid:

Could be a new model for the super markets - buy your groceries on subscription :)

Saying that this is what my food bag & hello fresh do to some extent already.

Actually I subscribe to HelloFresh and previously to My Food Bag and enjoy these services - so the model works, and I was possibly a little hasty in my original "no more subscriptions" reaction.

I'm actually surprised Countdown haven't copy-pasted it given they already have the food, they already do recipe cards, and they already have the logistics sorted out.

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#2692762 14-Apr-2021 16:01

The “Bag/box” subscriptions would never work for me. My diet is far too restricted to suit their model so I’d end up feeding most of it to the cows in the field next door or something!

I get dog food and coffee on sub though.

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#2692763 14-Apr-2021 16:02

gzt:
sbiddle: Speaking to a few people still in the industry a few weeks ago I commented about the high prices of apples this year.

That's interesting. I would not expect fresh produce suppliers have much ability to set prices to recover costs. Years ago supermarkets bought a significant volume of fresh produce at auction. Has this changed?

I was in Hawkes Bay at the weekend. The trees are groaning with unpicked apples.

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elpenguino

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#2692765 14-Apr-2021 16:04

Whatever happened to PYO?

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

Rikkitic

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#2692840 14-Apr-2021 17:46

elpenguino:

Whatever happened to PYO?

Too lazy, too dumb, too don't know what fruit is.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

elpenguino

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#2692862 14-Apr-2021 18:28

Rikkitic:
elpenguino:

Whatever happened to PYO?

Too lazy, too dumb, too don't know what fruit is.

Now I think about it, apple growers might have exclusivity contracts.
But inviting people to PYO doesn't see much different from farm gate sales.
I would hope there's a legal barrier rather than lack of imagination leaving fruit to rot.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

Senecio

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#2692906 14-Apr-2021 20:52

elpenguino:
Senecio: Our company puts consumers front and centre of everything that we do. But the reality is that we can’t get our products in the hands of our consumers without our retail partners. So we have to play the game as best we can.

Ah, well, have you heard of this thing called the internet?

But seriously, that kind of thinking has to stop. Nothing has to be the way it is, unless you want it to be.

What about selling directly on subscription?

We do sell online. It represents 0.001% of our sales volume. Not every product suits direct to consumer subscriptions

steve2222

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#2693294 15-Apr-2021 15:18

Oblivian:

Progressive/Countdown just launched subscription delivery https://shop.countdown.co.nz/deliverysubscription/plans

'Just' - nah not really. Countdown have had this for a while now. I myself have had a 'subscription' for well over a year and it existed before I decided to use it.

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#2693326 15-Apr-2021 16:54

Rikkitic:

An awful lot of talk here about the interests of suppliers and measures to protect those. What I miss is the interests of consumers. Why is everything always about the former and rarely about the latter? If I buy something in the supermarket, I don't give a damn about any cosy arrangements regarding placement on the shelves or who sucks up most to the franchise owner. I care about price to me, and availability of the item I want. These threads always seem to bend to the commercial interests of the producer/manufacturer/importer/retailer. What really matters in all these cases is the consumer. If we don't spend the money, they don't get it.

These threads always start with uninformed rants so necessarily the view of the suppliers and retailers need to be stated. Trade is just that - an exchange of value. If you have no value to the retailer or supplier it doesn't happen.

Rikkitic

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#2693350 15-Apr-2021 17:38

If there's no value for the consumer it won't happen either.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#2693352 15-Apr-2021 17:39

Rikkitic:

If there's no value for the consumer it won't happen either.

Yip but it seems that isn't an issue

sbiddle

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#2693425 15-Apr-2021 19:15

Geektastic:

I was in Hawkes Bay at the weekend. The trees are groaning with unpicked apples.

Remember there are some late harvest varieties (Granny Smiths and some high colour Braeburn varieties such as Eve) that are still being picked at present. There are then other varieties such as royal gala which are picked during early/mid Feb to around mid March in Hawkes Bay that still remain on the trees because there were insufficient pickers to pick all the crop.

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