Kevin Rudd goes a price watching - ACCC and all!

Kevin, didn't know you cared. Fancy you referring to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) a price watch mechanism on grocery prices.

Fresh from the support of Howard's Aboriginal Shock and Awe/Blitzkrieg, via an appearance at the Lowy Institute for International Policy explaining how to tidy up the nether regions surrounding the island continent, your positioning yourself as the consumer's best friend. A-a-a-h, Kevin.

Sorry, don't see you as either Ralph Nader or a re-incarnation of Gabby Horan. However, there are a few things, Kevin, that Miss Eagle would like to know:

1. When Woolworths campaigns on rolling back prices what does this mean for a) employees and b) the farmers who supply Woolworths. Perhaps these questions could be directed to Roger Corbett AM (for Woolworths) and Donald McGauchie AO (for the National Farmers Federation and all farmers) who are each members of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia?
2. Does rolling back food prices or depressing prices through monopoly/duopoly market share mean depressing the income of workers and farmers?
3. If this is so, doesn't it mean that consumers ought to be told the truth about how cheap food at the hands of a retail oligarchy can mean a lower livelihood for many Australians? Y'see, Kev, some of us are a bit scared of the Wal-Mart syndrome - and even an invasion of Wal-Mart itself (what with Wal-Mart's mascot of The Rollback Man 'n' all).
4. Would you run this by Warwick McKibbin, another RBA Board member, next time you are over at the Lowy Institute - particularly when, in a globalized economic environment, governments in higher waged western countries are looking at ways of depressing incomes to compete with low-waged Asian countries providing huge numbers of cheap imports.
5. Oops - after the last part of Q.4 Miss E recalled how we have an almost open slather - due to the lessening or elimination of tariffs and quotas - for imports irrespective of the Current Account Deficit. But perhaps you and Warwick can nut this one out as well.
6. While you're at it, could you run over and have a chat with Ian Harper at the Fair Pay Commission? You might take Warwick with you. Professor Harper made it plain in his recent speech at the National Press Club that, other than the RBA, his was the only organisation with such economic and decision-making independence and that it was the RBA that the FPC should be most logically compared with. With the RBA's role on interest rates and the FPC's role for the lowly paid, this is of cold comfort to the recipients of the low wage rise just given in an economy said to be booming and whose high-end recipients could pay the annual wages of numerous low wage earners all on their own.
   

So Kevin - more and better information please, otherwise this is merely window-dressing and a very poor attempt to look like a man of the ordinary people.

Woolworths, Safeway, Liquor and Fuel - but not food

Miss Eagle has sent the following email to Liz in Victorian Regional Office of Safeway (the name used by Woolworths in Victoria). It is self-explanatory. If you, dear Reader, agree with Miss E, please feel free to write to Woolworths in your state. If you are writing in Victoria, please send to ejamieson@woolworths.com.au.

This afternoon, I was in the Safeway store at Burwood Highway, Ferntree Gully (not the Mountain Gate store). I was stunned to see an advertisement stating, that if customers purchased $60 of goods from Safeway Liquor, they would receive a 20c a litre discount on fuel.

I am amazed at the ethics of such a campaign. I have been told by Kerry in the Area 5 office that this was part of a national campaign organised by the Marketing Division of Woolworths.

The campaign has certainly not been well thought through. It sends very mixed messages to the community:

1. Alcohol is more valuable than food because it attracts a larger discount on fuel at the bowser.
2. $60 worth of alcohol far outweighs in value at the bowser any amount large or small spent on food.
3. The campaign links alcohol to driving in an encouraging way - in more or less the same way that large car parks at suburban hotels encourage a drink and drive mentality.
4. Woolworths, whose income is derived - in the main - from families, encourages a significant slice of the family budget to be devoted to alcohol.
5. The campaign seeks to encourage a significant amount of spending on alcohol which is the root cause of violence and road deaths in our society and ties the name of Woolworths/Safeway to it.

I would ask you to immediately withdraw this marketing campaign from all Woolworths and Safeway stores and to refrain from any similar type of marketing in the future.

I also wish to complain about the way complaints are handled within Woolworths and Safeway.

I am told that the Woolworths system means that someone in the local regional office will email someone in Sydney but that the system does not allow for me to be cc'd. So I have no way of knowing the accuracy of material forwarded to the responsible person regarding my complaint. I have rung the corporate office in Sydney who referred me back to the local regional office. Sydney refused to give me the name of the person with responsibility for the campaign. I then asked for the title, the phone number and the email of the person responsible for the marketing campaign. This too was refused. There is clearly no way for the customer to be in direct contact with the person with corporate responsibility. I am told that the matter will take two business days and I am familiar with the time limit that Woolworths sets itself to respond.

I fear that the manner in which Woolworths deals with complaints means that the complaint will not be acted upon in a positive manner leading to the withdrawal of the campaign and that Woolworths will go on its merry way regardless.

Yours sincerely,

[Name supplied] [address supplied]
Email: [supplied]
Phone: [supplied]
Blogs: Oz Tucker at http://oztucker.blogspot.com/
The Trad Pad at http://tradpad.blogspot.com/
The Eagle's Nest at http://eaglesplace.blogspot.com

We'll wait to see what - if anything - happens.

How big and how bad are those unions and their leaders!

Ya know what Miss Eagle thinks. Howard is running out of objects of fear. He's worn out the refugees. El Qaeda has faded a bit - provided there's no more Bali bombings. So there has to be something to fear - so they're dusting off the latest version of reds under beds - notice the colour of the site background.

O-r-i-g-i-n-a-l thinkers aren't they? Primal fear, primal hate. So we have to hate unions. We're a free society. One of the hallmarks of a free society is a free trade union movement. But we have to hate unions and those who work in them.

So the next election will be run on this fear. So in all this I think Rudd's "Fresh thinking" will work - and he won't buy into the fear thing as Beazley did. And after all "Fresh" works for Woolworths!

Will someone please buy Myer...#2

They have done it. At last, it has happened. The ink is still wet and it will take a while before the old lot go and the new lot come but, dear reader, someone has at last bought Myer. Dear reader, you know how Miss Eagle pleaded for this. Newbridge Capital, with the support of the Myer family, has bought Myer. Bill Wavish, ex-Woolworths, is to replace Dawn Robertson as head honcho. Now, this is a bit of a worry. On the face of it, it seems he is there for his financial skills within the retail sector but will the man from Woolworths (and remember the close links Woolworths executives have with Wal-Mart in the USA) keep Myer downmarket or send it even further down? But there may be other ideas when one considers the following statement

``We want to push into private brands, work with Australian designers to develop lines exclusively for Myer similar to what we have done with Debenhams,'' said Dan Carroll, co-managing partner at
Newbridge. ``The retail market in Australia is pretty mature and the most profitable place to focus on is the upscale, urban consumer.''

This question dovetails with the other query. What plans does Newbridge have for Myer? Newbridge has a distinct Asian focus. The portfolio published on their website does not list any retailers. Although one of the parent companies of Newbridge, the US-based Texas Pacific Group, is currently one of the biggest investors in department stores in the world, having jointly acquired the US retailer Neiman Marcus in May 2005, and also the United Kingdom retailer Debenhams in 2003.

So is Myer going to be a bridge for Newbridge into Asian retailing? This would make a lot of sense, it fits with Newbridge philosophy, and will utilize its growing expertise across Asia. Is this why the Myer family wants to be in? But what will Myer look like in the future in Australia - or if it goes to market in Asia? What will be the Myer ethos? Will Australians still be able to call it my store - or will only the name remain the same to protect a globalized company?