Petrol as they like to call it here.  On July 1, there was a removal of a government subsidy on gasoline in Australia.  A move made to try save money on their budgets.  It resulted in a ~20 cent jump in gas prices.  Sensing opportunity in the new-found perceived preciousness of petrol, the big grocery stores are running promotions that offer 40 cents per litre off fuel.  This has hit the headline news, because you only get the offer if you buy $300 worth of groceries at once.  The media is kinda in a stink about it because the offers are a little deceptive, and it’s not worth it to buy that much food to try claim the petrol discount if you don’t really want the food.  Then, the grocery store combines the offer with less sale prices on their items, making their profits higher when people go searching to fill out the minimum purchase.  The two big grocery stores are working hard to control the whole market here and it’s getting attention because they do abuse their near oligopoly from time to time.  They do things like advertise specials and then don’t honour them at the checkout or just double the price and advertise it as a special when you buy two.

Most of this is just background capitalism to me, except that I do end up paying more for regular groceries here than I do at home.  Sometimes I wonder if it is just that Australia doesn’t benefit from the closeness of America, and their demand for cheap food.  Nevertheless, this is the way it is here.

But one reporter raised a good point that started me thinking about all this.  The grocery stores are not charities.  The fuel discount is not something they feel they owe the people that have supported them to these heights of capitalistic success.  They will simply take back the funds through higher prices or less discounts.  More tricks to increase the ARPU.   And one of those U’s is me.

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