Supermarkets are coming under increasing pressure over their treatment of suppliers, customers and now staff. Fifteen hundred workers across four Woolworths distribution centres have walked off the job over pay and safety conditions. It comes on the same day the boss of Coles has endured a six-hour grilling on competition in the sector.
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00:00Workers are the latest group to voice their anger at the big supermarkets.
00:10These guys are striking because Woolworths decided not to negotiate further.
00:16The strike action in Sydney and Melbourne comes as the supermarkets' bosses are facing
00:20a grilling in public hearings.
00:23There is very much a situation where there are two dominant retailers, isn't there?
00:29Having been at Coles for 13 years, I can assure you that competition is very fierce.
00:35The government asked the ACCC to do this inquiry after price gouging concerns.
00:41You'd agree that the gross margin is not a low one.
00:44It represents a reasonable margin.
00:49Coles and Woolworths have been emphasising the growing threat they're facing from Aldi,
00:53which now has 600 stores.
00:56So we start with Aldi and see what we can get with Aldi, because it is cheaper, and
01:00then we go to Coles and Woolworths.
01:02They've got a good choice of meat, it feels like good value.
01:06Retail expert Gary Mortimer says the big two are right to be worried.
01:11Aldi would probably be set to overtake Coles in store numbers.
01:14Smaller format stores, less range, less staff, and also global buying power.
01:20The big two say they're facing growing competition from Costco, Amazon, even the Reject shop.
01:26It'll all come down to the ACCC to decide if this constitutes enough competition.
01:32There are more competitors in many of the other markets.
01:37The Consumer Watchdog is releasing its final report in February in an election year.