Whinge of the day thread...

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Capsicum Red $10.90 kg. This little black duck ain’t buyin.
One of the best lettuce growers in Qld was not offered enought by the supermarkets to cover the cost of the carton let alone the product so he ploughed the lot in. What a waste of rersources and effort. That was about 16 years ago. I bet the capsicum grower got about 50 to 70c..
 
Thank god for road side vegie stalls here in Geraldton, Dragon and i stopped after a fish last night for some Tailor on the way home from our Favourite beach and picked up almost our weeks supply of vegies for $8, 4 reaonable size red Capsicuns $2, 2 large Lebanese cucumbers, 1 kg bag of medium size Roma Tomatos $2 and lastly a large egg plant $2, we worked out we would save close to $20 buying this way.Best thing we ever did moving here as there is stalls all over town l;ike this, makes it even not worthwhile growing our own!
By the way we bagged out with 8 tailor for those wondering and colled down as well .
 
Thank god for road side vegie stalls here in Geraldton, Dragon and i stopped after a fish last night for some Tailor on the way home from our Favourite beach and picked up almost our weeks supply of vegies for $8, 4 reaonable size red Capsicuns $2, 2 large Lebanese cucumbers, 1 kg bag of medium size Roma Tomatos $2 and lastly a large egg plant $2, we worked out we would save close to $20 buying this way.Best thing we ever did moving here as there is stalls all over town l;ike this, makes it even not worthwhile growing our own!
By the way we bagged out with 8 tailor for those wondering and colled down as well .
Yes, we always visited roadside stalls when living in Geraldton.
There was a crazy law to do with tomato growing in Geraldton (then the tomato growing capital of WA.) Tomatoes could not be sold directly to major stores. They were trucked to Perth, processed, then trucked back to Geraldton stores. How crazy was that law?
Same applied to potatoes.
 
I have on good authority that producers, contracted to the large chains, must dump/poison, the remainder of their crop once their quota has been filled. Sad but true.
Not sure if that's 100% right Mackka. This mob say they purchase produce that the big supermarkets reject due to size, blemishes, shape etc.
https://farmerspick.com.au
Might be worth a look for those in a delivery area?
 
Here's an example of stealth marketing. i bought the one on the left early last year. When I went to buy one this month they'd shrunk by 125 grams. One quarter, or, 4 ounces. But the price was the same as the 500 gram jar was. You'd think it should be one quarter cheaper, wouldn't you? I won't be buying Cottees any more.IMG_20240209_204454MP.jpgh
 
Yes, we always visited roadside stalls when living in Geraldton.
There was a crazy law to do with tomato growing in Geraldton (then the tomato growing capital of WA.) Tomatoes could not be sold directly to major stores. They were trucked to Perth, processed, then trucked back to Geraldton stores. How crazy was that law?
Same applied to potatoes.
I’d say this still is the norm, picked, sent to Canningvale markets and boomeranged back.
I remember a mate with a mango farm saying he couldn’t sell direct, I think it’s an equal competition thing.
 
It's why Tony Galati, the potato farmer with the distinctive monobrow, started the Spudshed discount fresh produce supermarket chain here in WA in 2015. At the time, all commercial growing of potatoes in the state was under the control of the WA Potato Marketing Corp, who prosecuted him for illegal planting of more than his allocated quota and direct sale of his potatoes to the public at his market garden.

He realised that by establishing his new shops on Commonwealth land (mostly near airports), he'd be outside the reach of restrictive state trading hours laws and attracted initial customers by giving away his potatoes free!

Now he's a WA legend, with 17 thriving stores!
https://www.spudshed.com.au/about-us/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2015-01-27/potato-giveaway-sparks-spat/6048692
 
Here's an example of stealth marketing. i bought the one on the left early last year. When I went to buy one this month they'd shrunk by 125 grams. One quarter, or, 4 ounces. But the price was the same as the 500 gram jar was. You'd think it should be one quarter cheaper, wouldn't you? I won't be buying Cottees any more.View attachment 12903h

This seems to be the way most of our grocery items are going. Pick up a pack of muesli bars and you'll find the box if not smaller then only partly filled. Same of you select a packet of biscuits, the pack is either smaller or filled with one-use-plastics.
Take a look in the cool drink fridge, skinny cans of Red Bull, Coke and others, all reduced in size not price.
Yesterday I tried to buy a decent sized burpless cucumber, there were none, all were the same size. They don't grow that way so where are the rest?
What happened all those big juicy apples and pears we used to get?

This is what happens when these big companies are allowed a monopoly on the market. Cottee's are only trying to compete with cheep products manufactured by or for Coles and Woolworths. The suppliers are forced to produce what they want to sell and then we have no choice but to buy what is offered. I doubt you'll see any improvement unless there is some government controls put back in place to allow and promote fair trade.
 
Do you buy it?
If not, then like the other 99.99% of us you're part of the problem.
Until we all vote with our feet nothing will change.
for your lack of information i have not bought fresh fruit or vegetables from a supermarket for 10 years or more
we shop at the farmers markets ,which we are lucky we have a large one here that opened about the 10 years ago
even though it is about a 12km round trip past our closet supermarket, we still travel to get our fruit and vege


maybe a lot of people should go for a drive in the growing areas and you will see the waste for themselves then they may vote with their feet 'but i can not see that happening ,to easy to duck down to coles or woollies instead of driving a few more km's to support the local blokes

example ,last year cruising on the cane train through private properties
all of these properties can be seen from a road

all acres are roughly guessed but i would be pretty close to the mark

property 1 (400 acres of area )
100 acres of table /slicing tomatoes
50 acres capsicum
100 acres of zucchini

property 2 (300 acres)
at least 200 acres of cherry/cocktail tomatoes

property 3 (very large farm 1000 acres at least
at least 300 acres of table and cherry /cocktail tomatoes
200 acres of capsicums
100 acres of zucchini

all sprayed out ,that's right all sprayed out over a 3 week period
why
price offered was below growing, picking, packing, and transport cost

if you have had no dealings with these pricks you would have no idea of the tactics they use
and they say it is the customer that demands perfect fruit and vegetables that is pure bullshit

one of their favourite tactics is return a shipment

how that works ,when checking what is in the cartons if they find up to a set amount of pieces of product not up to their standard ( i don't know what the limit is now but was 4 pieces of product) they contact the grower and tell them the shipment has been rejected
that is not just the 1 or 4 box's that they found some imperfect product in it is the WHOLE SHIPMENT
if that was for 1 pallet or 50 pallets of produce they do not care REJECTED

then the grower has to make a decision on whether to pay dumping fees(that's right dumped at the local tip )or pay extra freight to have it shipped to the local wholesale market (that is they even have a wholesaler there) and try and recoup some of the expenses
usually dumped ,it is the cheaper option than trying to sell 4 or more day old produce on the open market
you would not get transport cost back
 
Yes, we always visited roadside stalls when living in Geraldton.
There was a crazy law to do with tomato growing in Geraldton (then the tomato growing capital of WA.) Tomatoes could not be sold directly to major stores. They were trucked to Perth, processed, then trucked back to Geraldton stores. How crazy was that law?
Same applied to potatoes.

You have to wonder about these people with the mental capacity to dream up these schemes. There has to be a financial gain for the powers to be otherwise these schemes would never get off the ground.

When I was a kid I'd collect cage eggs for old Mrs Watson who lived a mile or so up the road. We were in a suburb of Brisbane in a little pocket up in the hills, Upper Brookfield. It was common practise for us local kids to help out on the small farms for a bit of pocket money. Our families always swapped a bit of produce and I doubt there was ever any calculation of cost difference between that offered.

One thing that always seem strange to me was that Mrs Watson could never offer her eggs to other locals because her produce was carefully monitored by the Egg Marketing Board. Even then back in the 60's they had total control over her egg production. She could not sell or give away her eggs for fear of prosecution.
 
for your lack of information i have not bought fresh fruit or vegetables from a supermarket for 10 years or more
we shop at the farmers markets ,which we are lucky we have a large one here that opened about the 10 years ago
even though it is about a 12km round trip past our closet supermarket, we still travel to get our fruit and vege


maybe a lot of people should go for a drive in the growing areas and you will see the waste for themselves then they may vote with their feet 'but i can not see that happening ,to easy to duck down to coles or woollies instead of driving a few more km's to support the local blokes

example ,last year cruising on the cane train through private properties
all of these properties can be seen from a road

all acres are roughly guessed but i would be pretty close to the mark

property 1 (400 acres of area )
100 acres of table /slicing tomatoes
50 acres capsicum
100 acres of zucchini

property 2 (300 acres)
at least 200 acres of cherry/cocktail tomatoes

property 3 (very large farm 1000 acres at least
at least 300 acres of table and cherry /cocktail tomatoes
200 acres of capsicums
100 acres of zucchini

all sprayed out ,that's right all sprayed out over a 3 week period
why
price offered was below growing, picking, packing, and transport cost

if you have had no dealings with these pricks you would have no idea of the tactics they use
and they say it is the customer that demands perfect fruit and vegetables that is pure bullshit

one of their favourite tactics is return a shipment

how that works ,when checking what is in the cartons if they find up to a set amount of pieces of product not up to their standard ( i don't know what the limit is now but was 4 pieces of product) they contact the grower and tell them the shipment has been rejected
that is not just the 1 or 4 box's that they found some imperfect product in it is the WHOLE SHIPMENT
if that was for 1 pallet or 50 pallets of produce they do not care REJECTED

then the grower has to make a decision on whether to pay dumping fees(that's right dumped at the local tip )or pay extra freight to have it shipped to the local wholesale market (that is they even have a wholesaler there) and try and recoup some of the expenses
usually dumped ,it is the cheaper option than trying to sell 4 or more day old produce on the open market
you would not get transport cost back
Well excuse me for my lack of knowledge on your personal shopping 🤣 That's why I asked if you did & kudos to you for doing so 👍
The sad reality is though that most don't & whinge/whine about these things + blame the government, supermarkets etc. etc. when the problem really lays at our feet. We love convenience shopping & that's what they've given us. IMO only we can change it by getting back to farm gate sales, farmers markets etc.
Wasn't having a go at you & largely agree with what you say.
 
Just a heads up to those of us who share a credit card account with their partners.
Did you know that if you are the principal account holder and you die, your partner will not be able to use her or his credit card exactly at the time when they may need to.
A friend of ours recently died and his wife was locked out of the account and had a huge amount distressing trouble to go through the almost impossible paperwork hoops to secure a new credit card in her name from her bank.
Seemingly, banks are following a policy which has the effect of making it extraordinarily difficult for older people on limited incomes, despite any assets they may have like superannuation, to secure the same financial services they fall over backwards to offer younger people.
 

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