Competition – simply a popularity contest?

On 26 June, representatives from FoHV attended a meeting with the ACCC to express concerns about the likely loss of product and service variety and choice should Woolworths proposed purchase of the Hawker IGA go ahead.   Contrary to expectation, they were advised that closure of small businesses at Hawker would not be a competition issue as new businesses might open up and operate more successfully;  loss of a single store would not, by itself, affect local suppliers and the ACCC does not have the authority to monitor and consider the overall impact of successive closures;  possible construction of a larger supermarket on the car park was not a consideration as the issues would be the same as for the current store;  creeping acquisition by Woolworths of independent supermarkets at Kippax, Charnwood and now, possibly, Hawker is only significant in that there are already four Woolworths stores in Belconnen, with a fifth to be built in Giralang.   The ACCC is waiting on analysis of the survey results to ascertain whether the product and service choice provided by Supa IGA is valued by a sufficient percentage of the population to warrant preserving it.

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All things must come

After further postponing their decision on Woolworths’ proposed purchase of the Hawker IGA, the ACCC commissioned Roy Morgan to conduct a shoppers’ survey by telephone and on-site at the Hawker shops.  The ACCC has now announced that their decision on whether the purchase would be anti-competitive will be released on 4 July – Independence Day (USA).  Is this significant?