Emmet Oliver

But I think you're looking at really a perfect storm here.

So because you're seeing increases from every direction.

So, you know, you've mentioned insurance, but it's the retail crime that's, you know, it's impacting the stores quite significantly.

And that's knocking on their insurance costs.

It's knocking on the employees' well-being and welfare costs.

And then on the other side, you're looking at the labour costs, which are becoming astronomical for stores, like we've just mentioned.

And so it's really creating that perfect storm for retailers at the moment.

Yeah, so it's kind of a knock-on effect is what you're seeing there.

So when the minimum wage goes up for your junior staff or your entry-level staff, you're looking at the supervisors, the training managers and the department managers, and they're looking to maintain that difference between them and the staff below them.

And then that has a knock-on up the way.

You're seeing an increase in fresh food.

We've seen that again and again because a lot of stores are...

looking for exceptional talent around fresh food.

So they're willing to pay a little bit more for that.

And that's the point of difference that they're offering in their store.

So you'll see some of the retailers and the fabulous fresh food offerings across the businesses.

And then the retail security officers, the reason their salaries has gone up is it's a supply and demand thing.

So

As we mentioned, crime's gone up quite substantially over the last few years.

And so retailers are investing more in their retail security officers.