Same masthead, two different perspectives - but what they both agree on is that Coles & Woolworths are garnering billions in profit from their metropolitan & regional supermarkets

Same masthead, two different perspectives - but what both agree on is that Coles Group Ltd & Woolworths Group Ltd are garnering billions in profit.

The Guardian, 27 August 2024:

Politicians will declare war on ‘cost of living’ and pundits will argue about inflation. The real point is the profits come at workers’ expenses

The latest massive $1.1bn profit reported by Coles will doubtless produce a new round of hand-wringing about the “cost of living”. Governments will produce initiatives aimed at capping or reducing prices. Pundits will use a variety of measures to argue as to whether such measures are inflationary. Then there will be debates about whether splitting up Coles and Woolworths into smaller chains would enhance competition. And the Reserve Bank will be encouraged to pusheven harder to return inflation to its target range.

But these responses, focused on the cost of goods, miss the point. Coles and Woolworths have increased their margins, yes – but prices for groceries have increased broadly in line with other goods. The real driver of supermarket profits is their ability to drive down the prices they pay to suppliers.

But the input that matters here is labour and it is here that the supermarkets are making big gains at the expense of their workers. Across the board, wages have failed to keep pace with prices over the last five years or more.

At least for the supermarkets, this won’t change any time soon......

TheGuardian, 27 August 2024:

Greens accuse company of price-gouging, as supermarket attributes sales boost to seasonal campaigns and rising digital revenue

Coles has posted a surge in revenue from its groceries business and expanded supermarket profit margins to the highest level recorded in the pandemic era, even as shoppers grapple with fast-rising household costs.

The revenue bump underpinned a robust rise in annual profit to $1.1bn. It threatens to draw Australia’s second largest chain back into the public limelight as cost-of-livingpressures become a central political issue for the next federal election.

Coles chief executive, Leah Weckert, said on Tuesday the supermarkets business was enjoying strong momentum, driven by “a lot of Australians choosing to eat out less and eating at home more”.....

Coles $1.1 billion annual profit came off the back of a $10.5 billion gross profit for the 2023-24 financial year.

Woolworths is set to announce its annual financial results today, Wednesday 28 August. Last year at 30 June 2023 it recorded a gross profit of $17.1 billion and a net profit of $1.7 billion.

What I am sure the majority of ordinary households in both metropolitan and rural & regional areas of the country will agree upon, is that putting food on the table, toiletries in the bathroom, detergent in the kitchen & laundry or petrol in the car is an unenviable task these days.