New infrastructure aimed at bringing EFTPOS payments products such as online, contactless and mobile payments to market significantly faster and more efficiently went live last week, signalling a new era for Australia’s EFTPOS as a central payments hub. EFTPOS, which accounts for about 70% of debit card transactions, is owned by the big four banks, […]
EFTPOS moves into contactless, mobile and online payments Read More »
Following the Fair Work Ombudsman’s August call to national supermarket chains and shopping centres, Coles is the first major chain to publicly declare it has an “ethical and moral responsibility” to join with the Ombudsman and stamp out exploitation of vulnerable trolley collectors. Some trolley collectors are being paid as little as $5 an hour,
Fair Work Ombudsman helps Coles end exploitation of trolley collectors Read More »
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has questioned the outcomes of the Harper Competition Policy Review last week and plans to challenge the Harper Review’s proposed changes to market power laws. Cabinet Ministers are considering Mr Joyce’s agriculture competitiveness paper that considers tougher competition law changes to protect farmers from alleged misuse of market power by supermarkets
Joyce fights for fair farm gate prices, stronger competition policy Read More »
Supermarket giant Coles was banned for three years from advertising that its bread was made or baked on the day it was sold and will have to hang signs in stores admitting that it passed off par-baked bread as freshly baked. Coles, which faces penalties of up to $3 million, was ordered by the Federal
As petrol fraud continues to hit petrol convenience retailers, with unattended petrol pumps favourite places for thieves to test stolen or counterfeit credit cards, global payments technology company Visa has rolled out new software to help retailers cut off thieves at the petrol pump. “While global fraud rates across the Visa payment system remain near
New Visa software combats potential petrol pump card fraud Read More »
A recent Cancer Council Victoria survey found strong public support for limiting the availability of tobacco products, according to anti-tobacco smoking group Quit Victoria this week. Quit Victoria policy manager, Kylie Lindorff, said the survey revealed significant and rising levels of public support for limiting the number of venues from which tobacco products can be
Victoria supports limiting retail availability of tobacco products Read More »
Coles and Woolworths may have gained some dairy industry support for their $1 a litre private label milk, but major dairy processors such as Saputo (which operates Warrnambool Cheese & Butter), Bega, and Brownes are looking to increase dairy exports to Asia and gain higher prices and margins for value-added dairy products such as milk
Better milk export prices to dry up supermarket giants’ $1.00 private label milk war? Read More »
With Costco to open its fourth petrol station and first in Canberra next to its Majura Park store, some Canberra petrol retailers may be set for a major shock, including a Woolworths-operated Caltex petrol station a few hundred metres from the Costco site. Costco, which is a major petrol retailer in the United States, now
Costco set for fourth petrol station, ACCC spotlight on petrol price rorts Read More »
The Harper Review’s Draft Report on reviewing Australia’s competition policy has recommended changes to section 46 governing the misuse of market power by focusing on protecting competition and not competitors, which would restrict the ability of major companies such as Coles and Woolworths to force out smaller competitors if their business decisions had the ‘effect’
Competition policy boost for SME retailers, more retail trading deregulation Read More »
Online and click-and-collect ordering of food and liquor is gaining strong momentum with the big two supermarkets increasing sales and ramping up infrastructure, putting pressure on SME retailers to introduce online shopping or improve the online experience for customers. However, independent grocery wholesaler and IGA marketer Metcash announced the rollout of its Metcash One digital
Grocery and liquor leads online shopping, opportunity for independents Read More »
With vertically integrated Coles and Woolworths set for another huge supermarket capacity expansion, price and promotional war, the losers will be Australia’s grocery and fresh food suppliers and independent retailers as the two supermarket giants increase their stranglehold on the industry. This comes against a backdrop of the voluntary Food and Grocery Code of Conduct,
Green light for giant retailers to increase market share as SME business expansion hit Read More »
The under-50 age segment has doubled its consumption of iced tea and breakfast drinks, while the number of Australians 14+ consuming flavoured carbonated soft drinks continues to decline, according to Roy Morgan research in September. Whereas 11,347,000 people (or 71% of the population) drank at least one soft drink in any given four weeks in
Beverage market gets a kick out of iced tea and breakfast drinks Read More »
Calls from Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett, Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson and a senior Coalition senator for a redistributed or higher/broader based goods and services tax (GST), have raised the possibility of the GST being expanded to fresh foods. And Mr Parkinson, commenting about the Tax White Paper last week, talked about the issue of
Expansion of GST to fresh food to meet resistance from farmer groups Read More »
