Carrington Clarke

They are updating these prices regularly.

They can see that in their interactions with their suppliers.

And then the warning that it is going to flow through to some of those packaged items a little bit further down the track.

but this is as close as you can kind of get to real-world data.

And when the Reserve Bank talks about what data they're looking at when they're trying to make these determinations about interest rates, yes, the ABS data is kind of the gold standard.

They are definitely looking at what has happened, but they are also trying to deal with the inflationary pressures coming, not the ones that are behind them.

And so they will be looking through stuff like this to try to understand exactly what is the wave of price pressures coming through

Part of what Woolworths wants to be the headline out of this is that they are going to freeze the prices for these 300 home brand type items.

They say they're going to absorb any rising costs agreed.

But what is interesting here is that they're talking kind of

Using the wave analogy that we've got first wave of price rises now coming through, this is the fresh items.

But then we're going to see these second waves, which will be kind of groceries and what you're talking about with like these pre-packaged items.

And unfortunately for consumers, it's going to kind of be kind of almost constant waves of price rises playing out over the coming months.

Is that right?

Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point.

And the context is important, isn't it?

That you've got these blockbuster cases against the two supermarket giants, Coles and Woolworths.

The timing is extraordinary and there is political pressure as well as public pressure about the way that the supermarkets treat their suppliers, particularly at a time when inflation is out of control.

And the idea that they can squeeze suppliers because of their market power is something that is particularly potent as a concept and dangerous for them.

So I think they're trying to do lots of things at once, aren't they?