Saturday, October 15th, 2005

Time

Event

8:45a

Hurrah for Becky Fox There is a big reshuffle in the supermarket stakes going on around here at the moment. Woolworths opened a huge new supermarket earlier this year on the site of the old Willagee Hotel. I wrote about our first visit on 20 March. I think we have been back once since then. We concluded that as nice a store as it was, the prices were too high, right across the board. Their weekly specials in the junkmail did nothing to change our minds. We continued to do most of out supermarket shopping at Coles and Action. Apparently we have not been alone. This fact was recognised by the Woolies people and to remedy the situation, they and a South African group bought up the Western Australian company Foodland, or FAL a few months back. This included Woolworths acquiring many of the chain of Action stores in Western Australia. There have been a few rumours circulating about how the changes will materialise for shoppers. It appears our local Action store is to be rebranded as a regular Woolworth's supermarket. This seemed to be confirmed yesterday by one of the staff I spoke to. She said that they had a meeting to that effect on Thursday, but had been told to keep it to themselves until a formal announcement was made. The other part of the rumour is that the Willagee supermarket which opened in March is to be converted to a Big W store, which is the Woolworth's equivalent of Kmart. The woman at Action said she had heard that rumour too, but was unable to discuss it. She thought these changes wouldn't happen until after Christmas. Whatever happens, it seems the price of our groceries are going to increase. The genuine specials at Action have noticeably waned since the takeover. About two weeks ago came the news that the nearby Leopold Hotel has just been purchased by a supermarket chain. I was sure I had heard it was Woolworths, but the woman at Action said yesterday it had been acquired by Coles-Myer. This makes sense because their Coles supermarket is just up the hill. For the past twenty years they have been wanting to have a liquor outlet in the supermarket, but have continually been thwarted by the licensee of the Leopold, who argued there were more than enough liquor outlets on that side of the road. If Coles have the Leopold license they can transfer it to their supermarket up the road. They do have a liquor store across the other side of the highway, but the big money is where the desperate housewives shop for their essentials, like food. This will mean the end of the Leopold. Not great loss because it is pretty scungy anyway. A firetrap awaiting "an electrical fault." As to how many drunk drivers have departed on their final journey from there over the years is anybodys' guess. The Coles store seems to be under strain from the recent competition. This hasn't resulted in lower prices. The other driving factor is probably increased delivery costs because of the soaring price of fuel. Coles seem to be attempting to tackle this by decreasing their range, and replacing items with their own brand wherever possible. The liquor side of both Coles and Woolworths remain extremely profitable in these inflationary times. There are a lot of alcoholics to supply. As minor shareholders in Coles Myer we get no breaks any more. However, they are starting to appreciate that the shareholders' discount card which they abandoned was an incentive for people to shop there. Coles-Myer directors are still making absurd decisions. The latest is an advertising campaign for womens' clothing in their Myer department stores. They have engaged one of the stars from the American soapie Desperate Housewives to parade in their spring glad rags. She was unable to or unwilling to come to Australia, so the ads are being made in Hollywood. They have constructed a fantastically expensive set depicting Melbourne's Flemington racetrack. Naturally there is also a fantastically expensive American film crew and fantastically expensive cast of extras. All this is to coincide with Australia's spring racing carnival, the highlight of which will be the Melbourne Cup on the second Tuesday in November. They must reckon that all of Australia's desperate housewives will be inspired to flock to their womens' departments and spend up big. That they felt obliged to make the ads in the US is enough to bring tears to a small shareholder's eyes. We have better film crews and just as attractive women here. My vote for the most beautiful young woman at the moment goes to nineteen year old Melbourne jazz singer Becky Fox. She's featured in today's The Weekend Australian's "Magazine." It's worth buying today's edition just to take a peep at her. Myers can keep their desperate housewives. Becky Fox has it all. Hurrah for Becky Fox. She's gorgeous. I've gotta buy her CD. I've already told my wife. © MMV Paul R. Weaver. About the writer Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days. (Comment on this)

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