|
Hello again – or perhaps I should say "heaveno" to be more spiritually politically correct. Since our last edition featuring Lori Sturtz's story on "The High Cost of Low Prices" with a photo of a near-empty Maleny Woolworths carpark, the local anti-Woolies campaign has received a boost from afar. It was sparked by Christopher Kremmer's report for the Sydney Morning Herald (14 Oct) together with a bleak carpark photo, which seeded a balanced coverage from Channel 9's A Current Affair, several positive responses from talk-jock Alan Jones, a supportive article by Jane Fynes-Clinton in the Courier-Mail (1 Nov), a mention on Crikey.com.au (3 Nov) and other welcome media reactions including from overseas. It also prompted Craig Kelly of the Southern Sydney Retailers Association, which is at loggerheads with supermarket duopoly interests and is looking into price discrimination issues, to contact Maleny campaigners. Indeed, Mr Kelly was so fired up by Malenyites' success in not shopping at Woolies that he set out to compare the supermarket's supposed "everyday low prices" with those of a local independent market and found that Woolies' prices didn't stack up. He's taken his price findings to the ACCC, which finally seems to be taking notice and may even review its stance on the "puffery" of Woolworths' "fresh food" claims that were raised in early 2006 by local activists. Channel 7's Today Tonight then conducted its own surveys of 17 common fruits and veggies in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and on 26 October announced that prices at independent shops and grocers were cheaper by an average of $25 per shop than at Woolworths and Coles. Meantime, we hear reports that Maleny Woolies has been selling at knockdown prices goods that are well past their "best-by" dates. Check the websites http://www.malenyvoice.com and http://www.malenyvoice.com/mvinc for details and updates. Your local Co-op is doing extremely well despite the Woolies incursion into the Maleny community, so a big thank-you to members and customers for their support. On a final note, I'd like to give special praise to Sue Verstraten for her consistently brilliant shopfront windows, and to Clare Russell whose beautiful collages, which caught my gaze during the recent AGM, grace The UpFront Club walls till 27 December. Compliments of the season to you all. [From "Maple Street Co-op News", December 2006/January
2007; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple
Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.co-op@serv.net.au, |
|
Address: 37 Maple Street, Maleny Qld 4552, Australia Telephone: (07) 5494 2088 (int'l +61 7 5494 2088) Fax: (07) 5499 9246 (int'l +61 7 5499 9246) Email: info@maplestreetco-op.com.au, or maplest.coop@serv.net.au Website: www.maplestreetco-op.com.au |