I run the ultimate small biz: Just me, selling cold drinks via vending machines. Have been doin' it over 15 years and you get to think about competition quite a bit. LOL
Coke does not think of anyone selling their product to the end-user as their client, just another enemy to be ripped off and vending operators are to be put out of biz if possible. So Woollies and us are strange bedfellows. :) We only survive because Coke discount to the supermarkets so heavily.
If the chains now have brand name manufacturers over a barrel, it is their own fault. They have always had the option to treat smaller retailers fairly and to make product available to them at a fair price but they sacked all their reps and sold via the phone, main office to main office. This is what killed the small operator..... the manufacturer, not the big chains. If the chains can now tell the brand manufacturers that they are no longer needed, then shucks: Who gave them such power in the first place?
Our duopoly is a dangerous thing. No-where else is the retail market so concentrated and everything the gov thinks up to break it up will fail. The only type of legislation which could help is some sort of equal access law which means that the whole market is entitled to fair prices less a fair and reasonable bulk discount.
