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Speaker 1: A new insight back here though, into that much debated

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Speaker 1: supermarket sector that I told you about at the start

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Speaker 1: of the show. So this is one of the ComCom.

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Speaker 1: Some of the data bit old, which I would have

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Speaker 1: thought a question in and of itself. In a nutshell, though,

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Speaker 1: we pay more than the OECD average, and guess what

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Speaker 1: if you're in a small town, you have less choice.

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Speaker 1: So Chapwan is the chair of the Gross Reaction Group

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Speaker 1: and is with us. Sue, very good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning.

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Speaker 1: Is this a statutory obligation for the ComCom because this

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Speaker 1: report tells me nothing.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it is an obligation for them to report every

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Speaker 2: year at the moment on how we're doing with trying

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Speaker 2: to bring down prices. And as you can see from

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Speaker 2: this report, no change from the first one that they

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Speaker 2: did last year. We're still playing some of the highest

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Speaker 2: prices in the world for food, and we still have

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Speaker 2: a geopoly situation in New Zealand. Nothing has changed, no

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Speaker 2: new entrants and therefore pretty unhealthy level of competition.

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Speaker 1: When we say highest prices in the world, it isn't

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Speaker 1: the world, it's the OECD percent and the data is

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Speaker 1: from twenty three. Is not possible, I mean, why are

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Speaker 1: we dealing with twenty two year old data?

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Speaker 2: Well, yeah, yes, you've had to ask the Comments Commission,

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Speaker 2: but that's that's the data that they can get. It's

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Speaker 2: not that old when you're looking at at collecting this

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Speaker 2: sort of statistics. And I guess the important thing important

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Speaker 2: thing is that there's really no change. Kiwis are still

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Speaker 2: paying a hell of a lot more than Australians and

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Speaker 2: say those in the UK for grocery.

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Speaker 1: Three percent more. But that gap, as the report says,

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Speaker 1: is closing. Is there hope point being around the twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty three By the time we get to twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 1: is it possible we've closed the gap even more And

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Speaker 1: therefore if it's one or two percent, it's actually not

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Speaker 1: the end of the world.

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't think that we have very healthy competition

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand. We have two supermarkets. They have been

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Speaker 2: under the gun for how many years? Five years and

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Speaker 2: nothing has change changed. So they know that unless you know,

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Speaker 2: they are going to be really regulated or they you know,

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Speaker 2: something really big happens to them, they can continue on

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Speaker 2: and then kenyways, you know, face this sort of no

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Speaker 2: competition and having to pay more at the supermarket.

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Speaker 1: Well, when you see no competition, let me quote you

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Speaker 1: from the report. The report says, for example, in Auckland,

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Speaker 1: it's in the in the low seventies because there is

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Speaker 1: competition in Auckland, as opposed to say, ha hey, where

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Speaker 1: there's eighty eight percent of the market's dominated by the

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Speaker 1: two big players. Are people in Auckland because of that

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Speaker 1: increased competition going hey, look at our bargains. No they're not.

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Speaker 2: No, thaty' not. But add so, what's the number.

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Speaker 1: We're looking for when you talk about competition, what's the

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Speaker 1: number we're looking for? Fifty sixty, seventy forty two.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, So in Australia they are moaning and you

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Speaker 2: know the government is looking at regulating when the two

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Speaker 2: big supermarkets have sixty percent. So we've got eighty eight

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Speaker 2: percent here and in Auckland, I think they've got seventy

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Speaker 2: two percent. We've got lightly decreased prices in Auckland, but

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Speaker 2: nevertheless still very high. So I think, you know, say

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Speaker 2: you look at a country like Ireland, there's five supermarkets there,

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Speaker 2: they've got each got twenty five percent share of the market.

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Speaker 2: If we could get even close to that, then I

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Speaker 2: think key is the benefit.

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Speaker 1: All right, appreciate your time. So suit chepwent out of

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Speaker 1: the gross Reaction group. I don't know how they have

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Speaker 1: twenty five percent market share and that's five of them.

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Speaker 1: But there you go. For more from the Mike Asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks there'd be from six am weekdays,

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