Saw this on Business Insider.
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-bargain-hunter…
Surprisingly Ozbargain wasn't mention as contributing factor. Haha
Australian Bargain Hunters Are Hurting The Economy The RBA Warns as The Price Wars Wage on
Lbazinga8888 on 25/06/2019 - 15:00
Comments
And customer service in those two giants is going down the shitter because they're too focused on making a profit than making sure their stores are staffed properly. And Coles are planning on doing even more of it- more self serve, less staff, more 'convenience', while Woolworths are systematically firing the hardest working people in their stores.
You would have noticed that there are far fewer staff walking around the lanes, tidying up, etc
These are the staff you would usually ask a question on when/where something is at.
Instead, they have many annoying staff walking with the large double black trolley doing the online shopping orders.Yup. For one, my old store scrapped the in-house butcher so there's noone qualified to ask about meat cuts etc, and it's fruitless asking anyone else because frankly we have no idea.
4-5 checkout people is $100 an hour these days, so it's a massive saving, even with the increased theft.
Never seen self serve at Aldi and they seem to be doing alright.
I remember when the masses laughed at Aldi shoppers for bagging their own groceries. Oh how the tables have turned.
Many people both elderly or not, do not want to scan and pack their groceries.
There are still some serviced checkouts for people who do not want to scan their own groceries. I actually prefer self-service checkouts, they're just much faster and I don't have to try and be faux-nice to someone.
I don't have to try and be faux-nice to someone.
Maybe you have a personality issue then,
Maybe you have a personality issue then,
Maybe, it doesn't change my point.
The nearby Woolies, apparently the second busiest in the country and the busiest in VIC, put in a massive array of self checkout machines a few years back now. AND IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER THANK (profanity) FOR THAT, because queues before were insane and now you basically never have to queue at all.
So whether they're breaking even or not financially, self checkout is such a drastic improvement in the shopping experience that I'm pretty happy aboutu it.
Sure if you've ducked in to buy Morning Fresh, or a packet of Libra yeah - self-check is fine.
But for the average Jack that has a trolley half-full - self-checkout is a pain because I guarantee you he wont be able to scan all the items in the trolley faster than the checkout person.Maybe not, but that's offset by getting to the checkout instantly instead of after waiting for 20 minutes. Self checkout is vastly more efficient at scale. The old way might be fine out in the far flung burbs, but if you have to service a lot of people… It doesn't work.
@ely: All good, you will in the end pay for it one way or another, the massive losses on Woolies and Coles from self-checkout theft won't be 100% absorbed by them.
They will increase the costs of items with the banner that overall cost has gone up.@frostman: Sometimes I don't mind paying for convenience :) WW and Coles are reasonably economically rational, and have a better idea of the costs than you or I do, so presumably they'll balance it one way or another - if the reduction in costs and increase in customer satisfaction due to a better experience aren't sufficient, then they'll presumably raise prices. Still better than having to spend ages in a queue and have to deal with the poor bastard with the shit job of packing my groceries!
Australian companies need to add real value or go broke.
The days of importing $1 items from China and then selling them there for $50 a pop are almost at an end.
you tell em walter!
It's true. Aussie companies before the internet could charge what they liked and consumers were none the wiser. But now, company X sells Widget A for $50 in Australia, but consumers in 10 seconds can google widget X at Amazon.com and see it sells for USD$14.95.
Consumers are far more informed and all the info is out our fingertips.
So true - all you have to do these days is check Aliexpress and boom there it is at a quarter of the price.
Don’t really know what the RBA does most of the time.
However I do know people are very , very well paid in the RBA.
That is what gives them the credentials to say things.
It may not make sense but hey, when those dudes earn so much money, there must be some reasoning behind what they say and do right ?
RBA 101
Mofos can say anything they want but unless they have any skin in the game it’s just a conversation equivalent to talking about tomorrow’s weather.
Don’t really know what the RBA does most of the time.
Clearly
However I do know people are very , very well paid in the RBA.
I wouldn't say so. I know people who work at the RBA. They'd probably get a much higher salary in private industry.
That is what gives them the credentials to say things.
Not their education, their experience, their expertise, their knowledge?
Monetary policy in Australia has been fairly good compared to the US for example. At one point, the Fed chairman was Alan Greenspan, a man who fundamentally did not believe in monetary policy at all and as a consequence just kept the money spigot all the way open.
We are heading towards zero rate that's already happening in EU and JP. (Briefly went into negative rate too).
Hope we won't get there.
Crap product quality, crap service, crap prices. What ever happened to value add? Retail industry and properties run by offices now by people that have NFI on customer experience.
The hoarding of wealth is what damages the economy… you'll never read that on the business insider. Being a savvy shopper just means you're able to reward a greater number of merchants, retailers and restaurateurs.
Good Economy = People spending = People working harder = Mortgage
We are all slaves
"Australian Bargain Hunters" are forced to try and make ends meat because their wages have stagnated over the last 6 years of Liberal Government and their 'efficiency dividends". Wages have haven't kept up with inflation, yet Liberals still want to give tax cuts to the richest people in society. Those same people that can afford professionals to minimise their tax and set up complex structures and strategies to lower their tax bill to a % poorer people could only dream about.
As the great self proclaimed "economic managers", I still wonder how they managed to get in on fear of 'your children having to pay off Labors debt', yet they kept increasing it while in Government and funnily enough made no mention of it.
Labor should have smashed that point home to nullify Liberal's "alternative facts" on economic management, but they missed the opportunity.
No matter… we are definitely headed for a recession now, and the Liberal Party will have no one else to blame. (except us bargain hunters of course)
I want to spend but I can't as house prices are absolutely laughable. I just wanted to do what my parents did - get a routine job, save hard for about five years and buy a house on acreage in a relatively quiet coastal/semi-rural town about an hour from the city so that on the weekends I can enjoy the peace and quiet and the room to move about. With their town now inundated with people, sardine-like unit blocks, and their house approaching $1.5 m in value, to get the same lifestyle I would now need to save hard for about 25 years (a five-fold increase and about commensurate with the increase in the house price-to-income ratio) or move an unhealthy distance away from work.
All the government had to do to prevent the loss of this Australian dream was to ensure against overpopulation (noting that last year more than half of the national population growth was attributable to net immigration) by adopting an immigration program that ensured no-one was allowed in without another person moving out (excepting anyone who sought to move here and work in area with a critical skill shortage), and possibly even adopt a two-child policy as well.
I cannot agree with restricting child birth, and I'm not opposed to all immigration (I am an immigrant myself), but even I think net immigration is too high currently.
Australia's immigration from 1941 until 2000 was typically in the range of 40,000 to 70,000 per year.
We sustained that level for 60 years, it seemed to work fairly well, and it was usually below the rate of natural increase (births minus deaths), which from 2000 to now has been in the range of 110,000 to 150,000 per year.
So if for every 1.5 to 2 new net Australians from birth, you get one new net migrant from overseas, that seems a pretty reasonable ratio to me - you're getting new people, ideas, skills and culture from overseas, but you're doing so at rate which fosters integration and does not overwhelm infrastructure or contribute to bonkers home prices. To me, that seems like a healthy balance. So roughly 60% of population growth from natural increase, and 40% from net overseas migration.
You can see the ratio from 1976 to 2017 in this graph: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Depart… [scroll down one page]. From 1997 onwards (starting with the Howard government, but maintained and taken further by every government since from both major parties) we moved away from a 60/40 ratio, to the current ratio which is more like 35/65 (35% natural increase, 65% net migration) - i.e. currently roughly for every 1 new net Australian by birth you get 2 new net migrants from overseas.
Immigration was used to prevent a recession and a low GDP, now the chickens come home to roost
The problem with immigration though is that it's being used to fill job vacancies in industries we can't supply those skills. So it's not just about the numbers coming in it's the reasons why. How do you fill a skills shortage without immigration, when you also have a government that isn't interested in funding education or looking beyond a four year election term? Australia is strange in that there's this strong anti-education sentiment, coupled with an anti-immigration sentiment so what to do? If this crowd turned around tomorrow and said okay, we are going to fund the wazoo out of courses in which we have skills shortages and then scale down immigration for those shortages in the future then okay. But making changes for 5 years down the line doesn't buy votes. And university graduates aren't the same as experienced workers which is what skilled immigration is primarily being used for. The bigger problem isn't immigration or education, it's the complete lack of a long term plan from this country from both sides of politics. They're so engaged in tiny political skirmishes that there's no big picture anymore, it's really disturbing.
I agree that house prices are a massive problem, but disagree with your "all the government had to do" solution. The many policies that incentivise property speculation also play a massive part in the house price problem (although not, obviously, any overpopulation problem).
All the government had to do to prevent the loss of this Australian dream was to ensure against overpopulation (noting that last year more than half of the national population growth was attributable to net immigration) by adopting an immigration program that ensured no-one was allowed in without another person moving out (excepting anyone who sought to move here and work in area with a critical skill shortage), and possibly even adopt a two-child policy as well.
What country has one of the most restrictive immigration policies on Earth? Japan.
What country now has an unsustainable aging population? Japan.
What country now has an economy that's only sustained by basically zero interest rates? Japan.
What country now has a shortage of labour supply? Japan.
What country now needs immigration? Japan.
Do you still want to restrict immigration to one in, one out? I'm not kidding, you are literally going to kill us all and tank Australia with that sort of thinking.
Japan, with it’s fast internet, fast reliable on time rail, low homeless rate, low unemployment rate, low crime rate, strong manufacturing sector, household debt less than half that of Australia and the highest life expectancy in the world. They must really look at us with envy.
Sigh, strawman - I never said Japan isn't a great place, I said it's aging population is a serious issue and much of it is due to their lack of inward immigration.
Nailed it Stimps. They will solve many of their labor shortage problems through automation and AI as well.
australian governments are what's destroying the economy
We should listen to the RBA as their employees have decades of experience and superior knowledge of our economy, while being highly educated and trained.
This so called competition and bargain hunting is really bad for our economy, so we need to stop this right here, right now.
Don't let our retailers fall, stop the apocalypse
Bargains are bad mmmkay
Bargains are bad mmmkay
Step 1 : ban ozbargain.
We're spending less because we have too much debt. The RBA artificially inflated the economy and now we're getting the 'correction'.
Everybody knew 10%+ property price increase each year is not normal but no one said that. Politicians and Economist are as good as anyone on a given day.
Even a layman can say if you go too fast, you will eventually will slow down than normal.
Funny how when us basics are paying rent, repaying a loan, shopping on credit cards and generally drowning in debt trying to come up for air, the economy is great! Buying up 3 - 4 houses because the growth will never stop!
We have these greedy fv<ks at the top telling us the economy is great and growing while they slowly hike up the cost of things and ride the gravy train.The minute I decide I can do without and restrain my spending, fat cats have a fit. Its all doom and gloom because Jerry and the like cant make as much money as last year. When I'm being economical and cutting the fat, I give no fv<ks about some white collar crook telling us the economy is bleak. Just because some twat cant buy a new yacht this year doesn't mean the economy is bad.
While others are busy sucking the oxygen out of our lungs, life is good. Minute their supply is cut, cry me river.
This gave me a laugh, pretty much this.
Gravy train is headed for a cliff huh? Almost makes you question why anyone would build a track that leads there.
Lol, sounds like the RBA is starting to sweat now they've only got 5 presses left on their go faster button.
Looking for someone else to blame
Here we are seeing that retailers wonder why people aren't putting money into their stores? The poor have gotten poorer, demand is stalled.
Australians are due for a pay rise. This conservative Supply side economics crap has run it's course, I am glad there are so many more millionaires in this country but for ordinary people there is a record low household savings, very high rate of household debt and it's clear many can not meet cost of living. Medical, education, Utilities. Housing market prices is at it's peak no longer affordable for average people.
The RBA, highly educated and deeply experienced as they are…lol
Clueless just like successive governments have been about how to do right by Australia and its economy.
Google how much the RBA governor and his deputies earns in a year, then correlate that to the extent the RBA have been "successfully" managing rates and being reactionary and defensive to various events.
I am sure people will have very happy with how their tax dollars are being spent.
Very, very happy.
How dare the Australian consumer try to save money when buying products! Why are we spending less money? Cost of living! High cost of electricity, gas, tolls, petrol, insurances, car registration, public transport, council rates, private health insurances, taxes, groceries etc. Surely some of the economic boffins can work it out. Continually slug the consumer is the answer for governments & big business.
Nothing wrong with the economy. Scomo told me before the election!
and after the election he said it's all labor's fault
Let's sell em this:
Tax cuts for all!
into 2024 that Labor will rightly oppose.Once we're in, let's surprise and delight em with this:
Broaden the GST base and raise the rate to match other OECD nations.
Emphasise the last bit. It'd be embarrassing for us to be left behind!IR: Dust off WorkChoices.
CO2: Dust off nuclear generation.Our term is filled.
The problem is that most people know that every price in a store is grossly inflated and to wait for discounting which also gives people more time to think about whether they actually want it. While we wait products are replaced by something better and we then wait again until we have to buy. I personally am at the point where I see little value in anything in a store and usually end up spending money on a cappuccino and go home.
As Kramer said in Seinfeld "Retail is for suckers" when telling George he could get him 30% off on glasses and 30% off on an air-conditioner for Jerry
late to the party, the seemingly sarcastic title really brings out the bigger problem of Australia economy, the lack of grand strategy, shift from industry and technology innovation to real estate boosting, resource selling and immigration importing for (profanity) knows what reason lead to the reality that Australia has few cards left to play until being hit hard by the looming economic crisis, this unfortunate trend has been going on for a while, the recent Mascot tower scandal reflects how we are screwed by the government due to their short sight policy making based purely on stimulating real estate market and profit driving without having a second thought on long term effects down the road; also, the education looks bleak, mass immigration leads to overcrowded public school, students hence struggling more to the university, and higher education now binds tightly with mass overseas student business which is not helping its quality; in retail, things aren't looking any better, people have little choice but often resorting to purchase from overseas or grey importer, local retailers keep shutting down is a worrying sign. for the ordinary people, we are hard-pressed by the unaffordable housing market, increasing living cost and a gloomy economic future without any sustainable industries left to support Australia.
things are not looking too good.
The problem with this statement is that assumes bargain hunters are substituting bargains for a full price purchase. I would think that the majority of bargain hunters are actually making incremental purchases that they otherwise wouldn't buy.
Take Ozbargain for example - how often does a bargain pop up for something you actually desperately need and were going to purchase anyway at full price? My money is on that at least 90% of the bargains end up being incremental purchases, in that people are buying something they otherwise wouldn't have thought about, simply because its a bargain.
So if bargain hunters are making incremental purchases, surely that is only a positive for the economy as it's now money that is being spent and not just sitting in a bank account.
The Bring Your Bags is not an issue, it's the stupid decision by these supermarket giants to remove 4-5 young people from the check-out lanes to save $20/hr and consequently pay $4.5 billion per year (combined) on self-serve checkout theft.
Many people both elderly or not, do not want to scan and pack their groceries.