Australia’s independent retailers have launched a fresh attack on the newly-launched GroceryChoice website.
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The site was established by the government at the suggestion of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission following the conclusion of its inquiry into the grocery sector.
According to the Queensland Retail Traders & Shoppers Association, which represents independent retailers throughout Australia, the site is “flawed and distorted”.
“The federal government has been seen to fall over itself in slapping up a website that gives a free kick and A$13m (US$11.28m) worth of taxpayer-funded advertising to major supermarket chains, including the Coles-Woolworths duopoly which has delivered Australians the highest rate of food inflation in the entire OECD year after year,” said QRTSA spokesman Scott Driscoll.
“The federal government is in the process of cutting the throats of Australian family-owned independent retailers who serve their communities, support Australian farmers and producers, employ local Australian kids and re-invest in their local communities,” he continued.
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By GlobalDataSpeaking to Brisbane-based 4BC Radio, Driscoll said the website is unrepresentative of the competitive pricing offered by independent retailers.
“The… website will further concentrate market share, destroy genuine local competition and promote major chains who, by direct comparison with local independent retailers, bypass Australian farmers and producers for lesser quality foreign imports,” he concluded.
