Another Cookie Crumbles

[izmeina]

Izzie heard on the news Friday morning that yet another Australian business has fallen victim to the evil green lights of the liquidators. These are the mob who made the Anzac biscuits. Not to our taste as they have far too much sugar in them but their shortbreads and other cookie creations were very tasty and most important was the very short list of ingredients on the back. Unibic used butter when everyone else was into nasty palm oil and assorted hydrogenated horrors.

Always made a point of buying their shortbread for presents at Christmas rather than the ubiquitous Walkers variety all the way from Scotland.
Guess that Unibic could no longer compete with the cheap Chinese imports and the highly subsidized European offerings

Then it was off to Fremantle for a long overdue visit to Juicy Beetroot Cafe. It turns out that they are now the only shop left on Tum Tum Tree Lane. All the rest have gone to the wall like most of the town since the greedy goblin land owners are killing the goose that laid the golden egg

The old reliable Merchant Cafe which has significant nostalgia value for this serpent has also shut its doors. Years ago it used to be Old Papas and it was the place Izzie slinked to for a coffee after a particularly magical January afternoon at the old lunatic asylum

Used to wonder how they could ever earn enough to cover their costs since they sold mainly coffee and tea, cakes and snacky kind of things like the Dome cafe just over the corner.
Did have a habit of only going to coffee shops and such in the quiet times but even the weekend rush could not possibly pay for such a large and centrally located bit of real estate. And sure enough, that is exactly what happened
They are apparently going to move to the beach end of town like everyone else. But then the rents will go up there too and the whole cycle will repeat itself

Will need to slink down to the IGA in the next couple of days to grab lots of packets of Unibiccies as they will be most likely the last of the real thing made here in Oz except for the real home made thing.
Arnotts does not count as they are no longer Australian owned and they do all the cheap short cuts.
Which company will be next on the chopping block? Who knows?

Comments

[ozfille]

I'd heard that Unibic was the supplier of most of Coles & Woolworths generic brands of biscuits and like the farmers I guess their prices were squeezed by the duopoly. This, along with rising wheat prices that happened at the same time as the gfc and coinciding with the building of a new factory in Victoria (with state govt money) to service their contract with the evil supermarket twins sent them over the edge.

[izmeina]

There was a story several months ago in the weekend paper about some of the tactics used by the two big bullies to squeeze the last cent out of their suppliers. The sudden onslaught of stories of happy farmers makes the Izzie want to puke. It is kind of a corporate version of 'socialist realism'

The newspaper story stated with Pascall the sweets maker losing the contract they had with Woolies for decades because the latest price was just so ridiculously low. Now of course most of the own brand confectionery is made in China like everything else these days. Coles is up to the same nonsense too
Seems also that most of the discounts in the weekly glossy brochures are at the expense of the manufacturers too. Used to notice that a special would be this week in Coles and two weeks down the road over at Woolies
Those proving non compliant in the negotiation of new contracts are likely to have their product pulled off the shelves until 'agreement' is reached
It so so seriously sucked
We had so much more choice of supermarkets in the ancient 70s when those two were just bit players. When did the rule change to grant them the lion's share of the market