Small-Fry Grocery Pricing Investigation Won’t Stop Spiralling Food Prices

Responding to a Commerce Commission investigation into promotions and pricing in the grocery sector, Taxpayers’ Union Policy Adviser, James Ross, said:

“Unclear pricing at grocery chains is of course an issue, but it is small fry compared to the anti-competitive regulations which allow grocery chains to charge extortionate prices for the things households can’t go without.

“Overregulation allows for the grocery duopoly to engage in cartel-like price setting unchallenged, leading to bumper profits for the fat cats at Foodstuffs and Woolworths, and spiralling shopping bills for the rest of us.

“Effective bans on foreign investment and overly restrictive resource management rules under the RMA mean that this isn’t going to change anytime soon, no matter how many trivial changes the Commerce Commission kindly suggests.

“Rather than picking around the edges of the grocery duopoly, the Government must spend its time implementing the sweeping reforms needed to end the stranglehold the big two grocery chains have over struggling Kiwi families.”