Major change to Woolworths and Coles supermarkets that could see shelf prices ... trends now
Coles and Woolworths could be forced to sell land if it stops rival supermarkets from setting up shop, should the Liberal Party win the next election.
Australia's two supermarket giants control almost two-thirds of the grocery market, making it the most concentrated duopoly in the world and leading to higher consumer prices.
By buying up land, they effectively lock out competition, which in 2020 saw German retail chain Kaufland cancel plans to open 20 supermarkets Down Under.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has now vowed to potentially ban supermarket giants from buying up land to stop competitors if the Coalition won the 2025 election.
'In a particular geographic region where there was a concentration of Coles or Woolies stores, to the exclusion of those other competitors, and consumers were paying more by way of price – then I think in that circumstance, you would look at whether or not that market domination would continue,' he told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
Coles and Woolworths could be forced to sell land if it stops rival supermarkets from setting up shop, should the Liberal Party win the next election (pictured is a Sydney Coles supermarket)
'You've got a situation now where Coles and Woolies have their own property development arms, they're purchasing blocks of land so that other competitors can't build within the vicinity of their existing operations or their planned operations.
'So, I think there's a question mark about the appropriateness of that behaviour.'
Former Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci in February told the ABC's Four Corners program it bought land in anticipation of a new suburb development, but denied this was designed to stifle competition.
'That's not something we actively do,' he said.
'We do in some cases buy land — this is one of the pieces of land we've bought and developed — but it's not a way of trying to drive competition.
'It'll be through, we need a store in a new
