{
  "id": 8989202,
  "title": "Every party has pitched its own supermarket fix. What if we combined the best ideas?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/every-party-has-pitched-its-own-supermarket-fix-what-if-we-combined",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-21T18:41:09.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Conversation AU",
    "slug": "the-conversation-au",
    "url": "https://theconversation.com/every-party-has-pitched-its-own-supermarket-fix-what-if-we-combined-the-best-ideas-292359"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Four years after the Commerce Commission criticized New Zealand's grocery market, the parties fighting for election have proposed various fixes. Foodstuffs and Woolworths control about 82% of the market, and policymakers aim to improve competition and reduce grocery prices. National and New Zealand First suggest implementing structural changes to Foodstuffs, while Labour proposes separating the wholesale and retail operations of the major supermarket groups. ACT wants to reduce planning and regulatory barriers to allow new competitors into the market, and the Greens advocate for nationalising 120 supermarkets to form a public-owned chain called KiwiMart.\n\nThese policies address different aspects of the grocery system, and combining them might yield better results than each approach alone. This concept, known as \"market-shaping,\" involves determining the kind of market a society desires and selecting appropriate rules, organisations, and infrastructure to achieve it. My own research on market-shaping highlights how analyzing the entire system can reveal crucial information about its parts and the power dynamics at play. This perspective could help New Zealand attain its objectives for a better grocery market, such as affordable prices, genuine choice, reliable nationwide supply, and opportunities for smaller retailers to expand.\n\nNational's proposal involves reorganising Foodstuffs into a nationwide Pak nSave group and a separate New World and Four Square group, allowing store owners to retain their businesses and brands. This would require approval from the Commerce Commission to implement. While Pak nSave and New World may compete with each other, sharing cooperative governance, buying, warehousing, and distribution, splitting them could intensify this rivalry. However, it might also replicate systems, weaken bargaining power with suppliers, and reduce economies of scale, especially in smaller towns and rural areas.\n\nLabour's plan targets a different part of the system by requiring Foodstuffs and Woolworths to run their wholesale supply businesses independently from their retail stores. This would allow them to retain ownership of both and provide grocers the right to purchase from any wholesaler on \"fair terms.\" It would also eliminate anti-competitive restraints affecting small retailers and ban supplier \"junk fees.\" Separating the wholesale and retail operations of major supermarket groups is not a new idea; the Commerce Commission considered it during its 2022 market study but did not recommend the step. It recognized that combining retail and wholesale creates substantial efficiencies and doubted an independent wholesaler could attract enough business to operate on a large scale. Examining models like Australia's Metcash, which supplies more than 1,200 independently owned IGA stores while managing buying, warehousing, and distribution at scale, might provide useful insights for a New Zealand context. Safeguards would be necessary to prevent the formation of a new wholesale monopoly.\n\nAlthough National's proposal may increase competition between Pak'nSave and New World, it would not necessarily enhance wholesale access. Splitting Foodstuffs could create a more competitive retail environment, but wholesale reform is necessary to ensure retailers have suitable sites, workable rules, and the ability to obtain land and consent to operate efficiently. Moreover, Labour's claim that \"the time for reviews is over\" overlooks whether their proposal would function better independently or as part of a broader package. Policymakers should weigh forced restructuring against alternative measures addressing wholesale access, retail sites, infrastructure, and market entry. Rather than assessing policy interventions in isolation, a comprehensive evaluation of combined reform packages could provide a more integrated approach, combining increased retail rivalry with independently run wholesale distribution, fair access to shared infrastructure, and lower entry barriers for new grocers.",
  "summary": "The election has produced competing prescriptions for NZ’s grocery market – each targets a different barrier to genuine competition.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}