What are your supermarkets doing for you?
Home » Magazine » Good, issue 1 » Features » Back to the source » What are your supermarkets doing for you?New Zealanders spent around $16 billion at the supermarket last year. Most of that went to two giant corporations—
Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises. Between them, they decide what you and your children will eat. So, are you getting the food that you want?
I’m a fussy shopper. I like my food organic, I like it unpackaged, I like to know what’s in it and where it’s come from. I’m paying for it—and food ain’t cheap these days—so I figure I should be able to get what I want. Food is one of the more important things I fork out for. The quality of my mortgage, haircut or new boots won’t have anywhere near the long-term impact that my food choices will.
So, what’s available in my local supermarket? Not much. There is a small organic section that offers overseas grains, dried foods and American hot chocolate for $12 a tin. There’s a large produce section, but because I don’t live in the CBD—where marketing departments think people like me live—my organic choices are limited to one measly shelf.
There are no country-of-origin labels on any of the fruit or vegetables, and most of them come covered in plastic or strapped onto a polystyrene tray. By the time I’m insisting I don’t want any plastic bags, I feel as excited about my food shopping as I do about paying my tax.
I’m not getting what I want, so I ring Mark Baker, general manager of retail sales and performance at Foodstuffs, the company which owns the New World, Pak ‘n’ Save and Four Square chains.
“Where’s all the organic produce?” I ask. Mark tells me there’s no demand for it. I’m surprised—overseas, organic food is the fastest growing sector of the food industry. UK supermarkets these days resemble health food shops, with the amount of organic produce on display.
“We keep hearing how organic is going to be the next big thing, but the reality is it only makes up one percent of our total sales,” says Mark. And how much do they put out to sell? “One percent.” That’ll be why, then.
I suggest that as one of the two retailers responsible for providing Kiwis with 85 percent of their food, Foodstuffs has the opportunity to take the lead. Foodstuffs has a great education programme around obesity—no longer selling sweets at its check-outs—so why not do the same with sustainability? Give us more information about the products we buy, I plead, tell us about fair trade coffee and seasonal fruit.
Mark tells me New Zealand customers just aren’t interested. “We get people complaining when we put out recipes with our meat. They say we’re bombarding them with too much information.”
I get a similar response from Brett Ashley, general manager of fresh foods at Progressive Enterprises, an Australian-owned company that runs Supervalue, Foodtown, Woolworths, Countdown and Freshchoice.
“I haven’t encountered any more consumer demand for either organic or local produce,” he says. “We have a policy when sourcing any product to look for quality and value for money. We’re interested in buying the best product for the consumer and so we’ll source from anywhere in New Zealand. Our customers can buy Canterbury lamb in Auckland.”
In our current climate, perhaps this isn’t something to boast about. What’s wrong with Aucklanders eating lamb from the Waikato? This sort of thinking seems a bit behind the times to me. The people I talk to want their supermarket to offer them more choice, and they certainly want more information. Isn’t there a marketing advantage to be had?
The UK supermarkets certainly think so. They’ve spent the past two years tripping over each other to be the greenest, most sustainable retailer in the land. Marks & Spencer’s ‘Plan A’ puts warning labels on air-freighted produce, only sells sustainable fish stocks, and recycles plastic waste into school uniforms—and even has Greenpeace singing its praises. Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, has promised to put carbon labels on every one of the 70,000 products Tesco sells, so shoppers can compare carbon emissions the same way we compare fat and salt content. A long process, to be sure, but the first 30 carbon-labelled products hit the shelves earlier this year.
Mark Baker doesn’t see such behaviour catching on here. “Foodstuffs is not going to start making bold statements,” he tells me. “We’re a very conservative organisation.”
This sort of brick-wall mentality usually drives me crazy, but by the end of the conversation I’ve grown to like Mark. They might not be crowing about it, but because all Foodstuffs stores are owner-operated, much of their produce is sourced from local suppliers. “When the store is owned by a local person, you do the right thing by the community or else the community gets cross and won’t buy from you,” says Mark.
Wouldn’t it be helpful to let their customers know this? “You’ve got to understand,” he says, “we’re a very understated nation. We like to do what’s right as opposed to telling people what to do.”
Fair enough, but what about those of us who aren’t so understated or conservative, who want more choice, more information and better food from our supermarkets? Just let us know, says Mark. Right then, we will.
Talk to your supermarket
Write to the manager of your local branch or the supermarket’s head office, and ask for country-of-origin labelling, less plastic wrap, no more polystyrene trays and next week’s winning Lotto ticket. Hang on, that’s what we want. You must want something too, so tell them.
FOODSTUFFS
Email: www.foodstuffs.co.nz/ContactUs
Write: PO Box 5401, Lambton Quay, Wellington
Phone: (04) 472-6435
Since Foodstuffs supermarkets are locally owned and operated, you'll get the best result by contacting your regular supermarket directly. The postal address and phone number for your Pak ‘n’ Save or New World supermarket can be found online.
PROGRESSIVE ENTERPRISES
Email: customerinfo@progressive.co.nz
Write: Private Bag 93306, Otahuhu, Auckland
Phone: 0800 40 40 40
Because Progressive supermarkets are centrally operated, all enquiries and suggestions must be made to head office.
Sat June 28, 2008 @ 12:03 PM
