Over the last month or two I have been noticing that when shoppers look into the meat fridge they have a lost vacant stare on their faces. This has not been very comforting because I know what the problem is, we are facing the latest horror story, sorry this does not come with blood sucking vampires or the latest monster from outer space.
No this story is about the cash sucking activities of Supermarkets, no need to name any we all know that Australia only has two major suppliers and that they don't compete with each other in anything other than "How much can we get away with charging". No I don't ever expect a confession, I just don't have any other explanation for what I see when I go shopping.
My latest scare was the belief that meat is a special @ $15.00 per kilo. Yeah they do sell mince for around $10.00 per kilo, but then you only eat that special once. It is not what it use to be and I don't want to ask why the product has become so awful, my suspicions of reclaimed and chemically glued meat off cuts is enough to generate horror for weeks if not months.
Then in a moment of wishful thinking I thought about a Not for Profit Supermarket, now that would throw some competition into the market. All those CEO's with seven figure salaries would be chocking on their Vita Brits and Cornflakes, then the protest of why Not for Profit Supermarkets shouldn't be.
A Not for Profit business is a very dangerous idea, to operate a business that can make a profit but doesn't have to make a profit, is something that challenges the very fabric of what we have now. But why are we so enamoured with the concept of profit? It does not benefit me when I look into the meat fridge at the Supermarket. In fact for the consumer there is no advantage, all profit every guarantees is that prices increase.
The question should be asked, how much profit is too much? I only need to remember the lost and dazed shoppers at the meat fridge to wonder if too much has been reached. The horror of realising that the products you could buy twelve months ago, are now too expensive.
Profit for profit business might be a system that we cannot afford and what the world really needs is NOT FOR PROFIT CAPITALISM. I hope that this thought gives the seven and eight figure CEO's a dose of indigestion. It is my obsevation that the more profit taken, means more debt incurred by the individual consumer, and that inturn keeps the financial meltdown pot simmering. The last thing I want is for the financial meltdown pot to boil over again, but that might just be the next instalment of my meat fridge horror story.
