| Did you know that Coles Group Limited own: Coles, Bi-Lo, Target, Kmart, Shopfast, LiquorLand, Vintage Cellars, 1st Choice Liquor, Officeworks, and Harris Technology among others. And Woolworths Limited own Woolworths, Big W, Dick Smith Electronics, Tandy, BWS (Beer Wine Spirits), GreenGrocer (online fruit & veg supermarket) and Dan Murphy liquor. This is turning into quite a monopoly from where I’m standing. Especially since Coles are increasing their homebrand…from an ABC report (http://www.abc.net.au/rural/sa/content/2006/s1802145.htm): ‘Coles Group Ltd says farmers should not fear the growth of generic homebrand lines. The company, which owns the Coles and Bi-Lo supermarket chains, is planning to double its homebrand range to 2,000 products within the next few years. Many fruit and vegetable growers are worried that the supermarket giant will buy low-quality, cheap imports to fill the range.’ I’m actually worried that there will be less and less choice of brands, as is happening already. Has anyone else noticed that more and more brands are disappearing from the shelves and only the big names (and usually the least nutritious) are available? I was looking for a particular brand of mustard that Woolworths at Marrickville Metro in Sydney used to stock. Then Woolworths had a major overhaul with some serious product and aisle rearranging. Besides not being able to find anything (they had to start giving out maps to confused customers!), I noticed that there were less brands on the shelves and my trusted mustard brand disappeared from the shelves forever. From a profit standpoint it makes sense because these big brands pay premium dollar to the chain to be placed in a prominent position on the shelves, with the smaller competitor hidden away on the bottom shelf and others disappearing altogether. And now with the addition of more homebrand products, these chains not only monopolise the stores available for supermarket shopping but the products on the shelves as well. I’d love to hear people’s opinion on this so please drop us a line at info@discountshoppingguide.com.au. What is IGA? IGA stands for Independent Grocers of Australia. It was initially founded in America in 1926 and was called Independent Grocers Alliance. It represented an alliance between wholesalers, retailers and manufacturers. ‘IGA became the vehicle for protecting and strengthening the relationship of the three players against the growth of the chain stores.’ IGA was brought to Australia in 1988 with a membership of only 10 stores at that time. This means that 10 independent stores banded together in order to buy in bulk and save money thereby passing those savings onto their customers. Today there are over 1000 IGA stores around the country. These stores are usually independently owned by local people especially the small neighbourhood IGAs. What is ALDI? ALDI is an international grocery retailer that first started operation in the German town of Essen in 1948. It eventually grew using the self-service concept and is now available in Europe, America, UK and Australia. In 2001 ALDI opened its first Australian store. The company aim is: top quality at incredibly low prices – guaranteed. Well, after having shopped there a handful of times I have to say that the quality is pretty good and unbelievably, I have virtually cut my shopping bill in half! The savings are certainly quite amazing. Most people will try it once and get put off by the different brand names, the fervent pace at the checkout and the fact that there is no one putting your items in bags for you. Believe me; once this is mastered shopping at ALDI is no problem at all. And when you see the total of that docket, it’s sure to put a big smile on your face! Happy shopping! Elizabeth Click here for more Money Saving Articles | 
