From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 10 July

A delicatessen stall owner at Prahran market commented, “If you buy it from the supermarket, and not from me, you’ll end-up with the shopping you deserve!”

ON reflection, it is exactly what will happen!

While the item was slightly more expensive at Prahran market, the premise warrants consideration. While the emergence of ALDI in the marketplace has made a discernible difference in the balance of supermarket power, we need, still, to be careful how many outlets the two juggernaut supermarkets are allowed to establish in any of our regional cities.

Their enormous profits notwithstanding – in 2021 Coles $1-billion and Woolworths $1.97-billion – their capacity and readiness to squeeze providers’ profit margins, and to decide what customers will, or will not buy, needs to be monitored. Their speed to dump an item which is not deemed a ‘best-seller’ is without compassion, or regard. How many times have you returned to buy a specialised product, only to find it is no longer available?

Absurdly, it was proffered that chicken wings – the dog’s favourite – were seasonal and, consequently, not available. When asked, “And during which months don’t chickens have wings?”, he stood, gaping – his eyes turning like windmills! The suggestion was so absurd it made no sense to pursue the conversation.

The Danish author Martin Lindstrom’s book, Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy, is an alarming insider’s look at how today’s global giants conspire to obscure the truth and manipulate our minds, all in the service of persuading us to buy.

A marketing visionary, Lindstrom has been on the frontline of the branding war for more than twenty years. Turning the spotlight on his own industry, and drawing on all he has witnessed behind closed door, it exposes the full extent of the psychological tricks and traps that companies devise to win our hard-earned dollars.

Obesity is a societal problem. Supermarkets, in their quest for ever-greater-profit, stack shelves to their best advantage – and especially for children. The suggestion supermarkets should be divided into two separate areas – good and bad for you –  is not without considerable merit. Recognised medical conditions aside, much of what is euphemistically deemed obesity is the consequence of extremely poor diet, and a total lack of exercise. Supermarkets – together with fast food outlets, willingly meeting supply and demand – are part of the root cause.

However, there is another serious and insidious problem at play, and one which needs to be addressed if traders in our regional cities, towns, and villages, are to survive into the future. As Melbourne moves ever closer, and online shopping continues to devastate, local councils need to be vigilant and mindful of the growing problem. Empty shopfronts are a testament to the malaise. Councils need to think long-term survival, as opposed to short-term gain.

Local traders – battling the faceless behemoths who would lull as into a false sense of security with their warm and fuzzy advertising campaigns – deserve our full and on-going protection. Also, locals are more likely to represent the community’s heartbeat, and to remain indefinitely.

Too often the big players ride into town, rip the heart and profit out of the marketplace, and unhesitatingly move-on when the going gets tough – or the profits are too little.

We live in fiscally precarious times. As a consequence of COVID and myriad contributing factors, it has never been more testing. It takes courage to commit to a financial investment. The line between profit and loss is less certain.

IGA is the little kid on the block and deserves special consideration.

Roland can be contacted via [email protected].