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May 28, 2008
Preserving cash: it's your Choice
We can't help but wonder if the Australian Consumer Association, which publishes Choice, hasn't been absent without leave in the battle between the consumer and the corporate forces invading our increasingly strained finances.
Here they are hitting the media today with some advice on smart shopping, neglecting to say that their supermarket survey was published almost a year ago. Given the savage price increases that have occurred since then, their figures are completely irrelevant ... although it's still true, as Choice discovered then, that you save an awful lot of money buying from Aldi, rather than Coles or Safeway.
Coincidentally, today's Metro Life&Times section in The Age has a similar survey (which unfortunately we couldn't find online). They found a basket of nine essentials (bread, milk, free-range eggs, spaghetti, chees, cereal, biscuits and tea bags cost $21.68 at Aldi (any Aldi, due to their national pricing), and $36.81 at Coles Northcote, $33.58 at Safeway Fitzroy, and $37.45 at IGA Fairfield. That represents savings of between a staggering 72.7 per cent in the case of IGA, to 55 per cent at that particular Safeway.
Choice's survey was more exhaustive. They compared the prices on 33 items at 111 supermarkets around the country, and put Aldi cheapest at $55.70, Coles next at $97.47 and Woolworths/Safeways most expensive at $105.43.
In our opinion, the ACA should have been out there campaigning on behalf of the consumer - possibly, you know, around election time - to get both political parties to do something about the shameful rip-offs that have resulted from the obscene supermarket duopoly that our legislators so blithely tolerate.
We don't think we're being unfair to the ACA when we suggest that what they're doing, instead, is trying to sell their own product: Choice. We've had an online subscription to Choice for years, but frankly we're disappointed by the ACA. They seem to us to be well-mannered poodles, rather than what the consumer needs right now: a, snarling, snapping attack dog. For one thing, they only do a supermarket survey every three years, for God's sake! They should be doing one every month, and jumping all over Kevin Rudd every time the results come in.
And where the ACA advises consumers to negotiate with banks and telcos, well, what precisely do they recommend they negotiate? The only way to negotiate with a telco, in our opinion, is to switch over to VoIP, and to get all your mobile calls onto a capped plan ... you know, the ones that Telstra doesn't tell you about, but which we've been writing about for ages.
Posted by cw at May 28, 2008 11:02 AM
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Comments
In 'Choice', or anywhere else, has anyone ever seen a consumer-focused comparison or review of the services offered by dentists? Variation in costs, value for money, response to 'mistakes', quality of advice, etc.
Posted by: David Horwood at May 28, 2008 01:29 PM