International financial oligarch Blackrock has a substantial stake in Woolworths, the predatory grocery chain with absolutely no scruples, which has killed off thousands of family-owned businesses across Australia.
Now the grocery cartel Woolies and Coles have been discovered buying up vacant land, getting local council approvals to set up shop, then sitting on the valuable allotment.
Woolies, Coles and Aldi have been ‘land banking’ for decades a fact known to Cairns News for many years, where the multinational cartel sits on development approvals holding out any opposition waiting to build new premises when the time suits.
Woolies’ latest venture is to build a supermarket on vacant land it has held in Mareeba for a number of years.
An unwritten agreement between Woolies and Coles for either not to encroach on Mareeba or Atherton it seems has run out of steam.
Woolies has had premises in the Tablelands town of Atherton for many years and Coles has held Mareeba for a similar time.
Each agreed not to start a store in their respective towns but the deal it seems is now off with Woolies about to build in Mareeba according to industry sources.
Without doubt it will exert pressure on Coles and IGA, the only grocery stores in Mareeba..
Woolworths could force the excellent, long-established IGA store with its many local employees to close down, which is a normal business model for the grocery duopoly.
The present local council was not involved in the decision to allow Woolies into town to build on Rankin’s former sawmill site. Previous councils signed off on the deal which has worried some small businesses in the town.
Experience has shown over many years that anywhere the cartel sets up shop, local small business is affected. Atherton lost a number of small businesses when Woolies then Kmart came to town and there remains a number of empty shops in the main street.
The Tablelands and Mareeba/Dimbulah Irrigation Area are substantial producers of fruit and vegetables. Yet almost no local produce is sold by Coles and Woolworths will not stock it either.
Avocados, bananas, mangoes, citrus, grapes, milk, potatoes, onions and beef from the Tablelands is rarely sold in local duopoly stores. In deference to IGA which is a substantial supporter of locally grown produce. Almost no local bananas are sold by the duopoly.
Tablelands growers have to send their produce 1900 klms to the Brisbane markets from where it could end up anywhere in the country. Neither Woolies or Coles has any preference for locally grown food.
The former sawmill site should have been preserved for a small business precinct which could have provided local entrepreneurs and cottage manufacturers with a shopfront accessible to the public.
Transnational financier and stock holding company Blackrock is the major shareholder of Woolworths, followed by, wait for it Vanguard, followed in third place by Norway’s Norges Bank then Australian Foundation Investment Company.
Cairns News has been told by former small business owners that Woolworths actually hire staff to visit any family owned or other competing businesses in shopping centres to record their commodity prices then set Woolies’ prices below the smaller competitor, often at a loss, and keep it there until the small business is unable to compete any longer.
This process could take a year or more but eventually the predatory multinational wins out and the small business closes down. This is Woolworth’s code of practice throughout the world which is why no Australian should shop there. Then there are the farmers who supply Woolies with produce direct from their farms. These are often larger family farms dotted throughout the states who have contracts with the retailer.
Industry sources say these independent suppliers are nearly always at loggerheads with Woolies or Coles over changing the goalposts in the supply contract.
Woolies has no qualms about sending anyone broke.
Cairns News.can you send us a postal address please.
You are sending the wrong message to the Community of Mareeba – why do you think majority of us now shop in Atherton as we have choice of Woolworths – Big W – Suoercheap Autos – Harvey Norman Electrical – Bunnings – Medicare Office and a massive Australian Award winning IGA – and you have the audacity to deny us a Woolworths Supermarket in Mareeba – how dare you👎🏽
I know for a fact and have heard from Wooli employees that their staff are sent with a note book to check the prices the small stores are selling at in town so as to compete against them
Dutton’s apparent strong support for Israel is going to cost Australians a lot of money if he wins the next election.
MASS EXODUS? Israel’s Economy SELF DESTRUCTS
Commenter Michael
I am informed by the ( traditional ) ways they do things in Asia.
Why should a farmer with a truck and a surplus of some produce have to go through any middleman ? In Asia the way they do things is basically how things were done in Europe more than 100 years ago, before the monopolists moved in.
People who want shiny perfect fruit and veg can continue to go to the monopolists and they will, they don’t care about the spray, if they did they would wash everything with dilute Hydrochloric acid.
It
Farmers can sell through coops. That that’s same as selling from the back of a truck. But if farmers want to get the local community on side they need to clean up their act with the amount of poisons, chemicals and pesticides they use. People are sick of being sick.
The reason why WW-Coles get in-between the growers and the consumers is the local council, who will penalise farmers for selling produce from a truck, and who will prevent farmers’ markets from starting up on common land, with their regulations and requirements. It is well known and understood that the councillors are often married to a developer or someone similarly involved in ripping off the public. You can go to the council meeting and ask 3 questions publicly, eg.
Why don’t we have more farmers’ markets for fresh produce.
Why do we have so many “super” markets and no alternatives.
Why can’t farmers sell their produce from a truck on the side of the road.
These laws apply to local councils and Woolies et al will not be not exempt either.
For the big boys to refuse local produce could well represent the makings of a restraint of trade complaint and/or an Unconscionable Conduct complaint as well:
https://www.mondaq.com/australia/consumer-trading-unfair-trading/394804/councils-can-be-found-guilty-of-misleading-or-deceptive-conduct;
https://www.lindsaytaylorlawyers.com.au/in_focus/consumer-laws-and-councils/
https://www.australiancontractlaw.info/law/unconscionable-conduct
The local farmers representative groups should know all thIs and be beating up the ACCC and ASIC about it and, when they read this be asking themselves questions about the liability and governmental breach of contract factors that I unfortunately must kee droning on about.
Only fools repeat themselves, but whenever you are dealing with people who are so indoctrinated and gaslighted you have no other choice.