Factcheck: Supermarkets are evil.
On the surface, you may find this argument confusing. Why are supermarkets evil? They provide us with food which fulfils one of our basic human rights? If you’re asking these questions, you’re not wrong, but I want to take a different approach. One that’ll leave you wet from liberal propaganda.
According to Woolworths, their supermarket chains “are on a mission to deliver the best in convenience, value and quality for our customers”. You may recognise Woolworths as they own Countdown. On the other hand, Pak N Save and New World are owned by Foodstuffs, whose philosophy is based on ‘supporting every New Zealander to access healthy and affordable food’.
The main premise as to why supermarkets are evil lies in profits. We can see this as we encounter a pandemic, a war, and inflation. As students we experience these in housing, petrol, and food costs. Recently, a block of cheese at Countdown sold for $21.50. If you compare food prices to this time last year, they’ve increased by 7.6%. Seeing this, I’ve personally begun to question whether supermarket prices are solely the result of globalised events, or whether businessmen are driving up prices to make extra profit.
This isn’t a conspiracy. New Zealand has the sixth highest grocery prices in the developed world. Woolworths and Foodstuffs essentially control the $22 billion grocery market. Their profit margins are 50% more than the international norm, and that was last year alone. There is little to stop business owners driving up food prices, for their benefit. It’s been revealed that in 2022, supermarket profits are twice as high as they should be. You can image these corporations as big, fickle men pickpocketing from the working class.
For us, that means a bigger struggle to make ends meet. If you were already struggling in pre-pandemic times, the present is only harder. If we look back at Woolworths and Foodstuffs values, we see a contradiction. They’re failing to provide convenience and access to affordable food. It’s difficult to look elsewhere and support smaller businesses, and often those that do exist are driven out by corporate competition.
At its core, supermarket prices and profits are unjust. We need options, and they are available, they just aren’t packaged as convenient. For those who are fortunate to have patches of grass outside their flats, build a planter box. Having the ability to grow your own vegetables is a massive middle finger to supermarkets. Farmers markets are another option in supporting smaller businesses who’ve been through the thick of the pandemic.
At the end of the day, my main proposal is always more radical. Revolt against the capitalists, the bourgeois, and the elite. They don’t care about you and it’s time we give them the same energy. Set Countdown on fire because of their price freezes. It is in this process where you find comradery, my beautiful marxist.
