Keeping Coles Australian

[ansettrule]

I have read many articles on the take over offer for Coles and feel pretty strongly about keeping Coles Australian owned.
Many people say that they will boycott Coles If they are bought out by an American company, if people feel so strongly about keeping Coles Australian then they should shop at Coles Supermarkets and Target and all of the other coles companies.
Once they are owned by Americans then there will be no way to get the company back.
So we as Australians must shop Coles to keep the company Aussie owned.
I would be interested to here what other's out there feel about this.
Share your thoughts.

 

[one9]

If only everyone had to master a certain level of basic economics, people might start realising that foreign ownership is not such a bad thing....

 

[simongr]

I would shop at coles if there fresh fruit and veg sections were decent, tehy sold organic food and the meat wasnt cough.

I dont know how me shopping there would make them less likely to be taken over. In fact they would be more profitable and thus a more likely target

If you want protecionism why dont we ban imports? Then it wouldnt matter who owned the retailers - they could only sell output from primary industries thus "protecting" more australian jobs.

 

[SF&]

I have read many articles on the take over offer for Coles and feel pretty strongly about keeping Coles Australian owned.
Many people say that they will boycott Coles If they are bought out by an American company, if people feel so strongly about keeping Coles Australian then they should shop at Coles Supermarkets and Target and all of the other coles companies.
Once they are owned by Americans then there will be no way to get the company back.
So we as Australians must shop Coles to keep the company Aussie owned.
I would be interested to here what other's out there feel about this.
Share your thoughts.

I think woolworths and coles own too much as it is
bugger them they own all the pubs they own half the night clubs they are building their own shopping centers where the control the tennants, brumbys for woolies baker desilght for coles etc etc. The run the alcholol trade. they drive our farmers prices down on fruit & veg. they are creating all their own labels so we soon will have little or no choice we will buy coles select or woolworths select, I say bugger coles choose independents in all business think of your kids

I also agree with simongr if you want to be extreme lets be like north korea only our dictator can import the th XO brandy and the mercedes!! ban all imports and connection witht the outside world.

 

[drron]

Well if we all boycott coles then their profit falls,foreign investors wont want to look at them so they remain australian owned.Problem solved.
I agree that Coles and Woolworths already have too much control.Every 2 months I visit the North burnett region of QLD.This is citrus country.I buy good quality mandarins from the grower at 50 cents a kilo.i come back to the Sunshine coast and woolies and coles have them for 3-4 dollars a kilo.As that other queenslander would say "please explain".

 

[Mal]

The problem that I see with the "Big chains" (and being my usual self, I won't name what I perceive to be a "big chain" ) is that for fruit/veg/meat, they don't source locally, but instead send the produce down to Sydney / Melbourne et.al and then send it back to your local store.

So if you were in Rockhampton (for example) which is a big cattle area, the steak you bought at <insert big chain name here> may not be bought locally, but would have instead gone from Rocky to Syd (or BNE not sure), then shipped back to Rocky and packaged.

Same thing perhaps happens in Innisfail (a huge banana growing region, that is when Cyclones don't hit :shock: ), where Bananas are shipped from Innisfail to Brisbane (or Syd) and then back to Innisfail.

There are good reasons for this, but not really good reasons for Joe Bloe the consumer...

 

[stryker]

If you want protecionism why dont we ban imports?

Hey Simon, "we" already do ban imports, unlike the UK (never heard of bananas?).

As for Coles, I'm sure you have been reading the newspapers recently. The senior execs are mostly a bunch of greedy con-men who are ripping the company and you off (I do know because I did work for Coles at a senior level for a while).

It wouldn't do any harm at all for Coles to be taken over by someone like Sainsbury's, but don't forget the Campbell's soup biscuits (aka Arnotts, and Birdseye, aka J.R. Simplott).

 

[SF&]

Hey Simon, "we" already do ban imports, unlike the UK (never heard of bananas?).

As for Coles, I'm sure you have been reading the newspapers recently. The senior execs are mostly a bunch of greedy con-men who are ripping the company and you off (I do know because I did work for Coles at a senior level for a while).

It wouldn't do any harm at all for Coles to be taken over by someone like Sainsbury's, but don't forget the Campbell's soup biscuits (aka Arnotts, and Birdseye, aka J.R. Simplott).

Banned imported goods mainly fruit meat straw seeds etc you are correct due to our protected island status as regular int'l ff we shld all know of course bloody customs cards.
but they are finding ways of bringing in more and more juice concentrate, more wood products more eveything. our beer will be imported due to lack of water maybe one day who knows, all i know is oyur correct greedy coughs

 

[simongr]

Well if we all boycott coles then their profit falls,foreign investors wont want to look at them so they remain australian owned.Problem solved.

Or profits fall, share price falls. Business becomes cheap with a fully established distribution and retail network. Hmm I wonder if that might appear to be an attractive product.

My comment regarding banning imports wasa tad tongue in cheek. I loathe the protectionism of the EU (it was one of my reasons for leaving the UK to get out of the EU). We do already have protectionism here (hmm tried buying a german car recently???)

Coles management being greedy SOB's - hmm again dont all company directors have a legal obligation to maximise returns for the shareholders and have a personal incentive to maximise their own income through the achievement of performance targets and hence payment of bonuses.

Coles is not a charity, it has a cost of capital to deliver a return against.