Re: Dairy giant Arla
Originally Posted by
spitfire
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None of this would have been a problem, if everyday folks hadn't inadvertently put Ernie out of business!
The home delivery by milkmen, as it always used to be, couldn't compete with the supermarkets. They could undercut all the prices so attracting customers to buy milk at the supermarket rather than from the milkman. Many already did their shopping at the supermarkets, so just as easy to pick up their cheaper milk at the same time.
That is like a lot of produce and products, the supermarkets have cornered the markets, often by forcing suppliers and growers to sell to them at lower prices or not at all. I recall seeing a documentary on this when a grower did not want to accept the low price offered for his lettuces, the supermarket buyer then just walked away leaving this chap with hundreds of lettuces and nowhere to sell them! Supermarkets will, from what I see, seldom reduce their profit margins or dividends paid to shareholders but expect to screw the suppliers / growers to the floor by paying poor prices. That is what happens when supermarkets have the upper hand in this way and also the custom of many of the customers. IMO