The supermarket study

Stuff reports:

Supermarkets will be subjected to a year-long “market study” by the Commerce Commission to see if they are offering consumers fair prices and their suppliers a fair deal.

Those two things are somewhat contradictory. The better the deal for suppliers, then the higher the prices are for consumers.

Groceries are one of our most regular expenses, so we want to make sure pricing is fair,” Clark said.

The average household spent about 17 per cent of its weekly expenses on food, and that had been increasing year on year, he said.

What is interesting is if we look at the increase in food prices over the last three Government terms, as measured by the Food Price Index.

• Oct 11 to Oct 14: 2.2% increase
• Oct 14 to Oct 17: 2.6% increase
• Oct 17 to Oct 20: 5.8% increase

Maybe the problem isn’t the supermarkets, but Governments increasing costs on proeducers and employers?