“So for the most part, 3.6c out of every dollar isn’t the hugest amount. It’s going to be really hard to, to make terribly much more out of that.”
National and Labour are duelling it out over the best way to tackle supermarket competition.
National wants to break up the Foodstuffs co-operative, subject to a Commerce Commission review.
The Labour Party is promising to effectively split the wholesale and retail chains of Woolworths and Foodstuffs and allow smaller grocers to purchase stock from any wholesaler they choose.
If elected, the party would free grocers such as Four Square owners from any restraints of trade.
Gallagher owns the Kawerau store with her husband Richard and is one of several supermarket owners who took to social media to speak to her community directly, after National’s announcement.
“It wasn’t really a letter to the whole of New Zealand, it was a letter to Kawerau. We’ve been here for three years. Some of our customers have gotten to know us quite well.
“But we haven’t really had that opportunity to talk about how we got here, and I think it has some real relevance given everything that’s going on. Because we just didn’t rock up one day with a chequebook and say, ‘We’re gonna buy that store’.
“And we didn’t just wake up one morning and say, ‘We’re gonna own a supermarket’. It, it took a really long time. I wanted to be a grocer since I was 17, but I was 40 before we even got there, so there’s a lot involved, we just wanted people to know.”
The couple started their supermarket career at a Rotorua Four Square store in 2017.
Foodstuffs is denying it co-ordinated a social media campaign against National Party proposals to split up the grocery giant.
Over the past day, several locally owned supermarkets operating under Foodstuffs’ brands have posted similarly worded statements on Facebook arguing the proposal could lead to increased prices for consumers.
Gallagher said the social media post was her own idea, after seeing others post. She insists there was no directive from head office.
“I feel like we’re all just exercising our right to have our say and to protect what we’ve worked so hard to build, not just for ourselves but our customers and our communities and our team and our country as well.”
National’s proposal to break up Foodstuffs is expected to save households between $3.85 and $25.38 a week by 2035, depending on how much grocery shopping they do.
The figures are included in a cost-benefit analysis Sense Partners did for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in June.
The mum-of-two says customers tell her every day they are struggling.
“They are telling us that groceries are expensive, and we understand that. We have our families that shop here, we have our friends and our neighbours that shop here as well, and we’re doing everything that we possibly can, where we can.”
Kawerau New World employs 87 people, aged 16 to 80.
She doesn’t think any of the political party proposals would make a difference for competition.
The restrictions placed on suppliers is often talked about as a barrier to competition.
“We can support local growers and suppliers. We’ve got quite a few watermelons in the ground not too far from here.
“We got in touch with Foodies and said, ‘Look, we really want to give these guys as much support as we possibly can.’”
She insists that was the end of the conversation, once all the rules and regulation were ticked off.
“We had watermelons being picked directly from the paddock and in our store sometimes within an hour and a half to support that local grower, and to get a beautiful watermelon to our customers at an absolute reduced cost because we didn’t have all the other stuff that went with it.
“It was brilliant. We do that with a number of local people. Our coffee that we have is roasted in Rotorua, so that doesn’t come very far either, that we have for our customers. So we can support, and we do support as many local growers and suppliers as we can. It’s never an issue.”
Similarly, she says if they want to discount products to benefit their community, they can, with no sign-off from head office needed.
Splitting Foodstuffs into two – with New World and Four Square on one side and Pak’nSave on the other, would definitely affect her business, she believed.
“We all share the same engine room. That includes things like distribution centres, transport, technology, our buying capabilities, and other infrastructure that we get as a benefit through the co-operative.
“If those are somehow separated and duplicated, both groups of owners are affected, and somebody has to design and repay for all of that when it’s already in place. I’m not actually worried about the sign above our door. I am worried about what happens to the systems behind it that enable us to do what we do for our customers and our communities.”
While some supermarket owners have appeared on lists of New Zealand’s wealthiest people in the past, Gallagher laughed when asked about whether she’s on those lists.
“The assumption is they’ve only gotten that way from supermarket ownership. I don’t know them personally, I’m little old Claire Gallagher sitting in New World Kawerau.
“I really can’t talk to that, I certainly can’t argue it either. But there’s also a number of other people that sit on those rich lists that aren’t supermarket owner-operators.”
Customers and staff were certainly aware of the political furore, she said, and she’s been doing what she can to reassure them their jobs and supermarket were safe.
Katie Bradford is a Senior Correspondent at the Herald. She has been a broadcast journalist for over 20 years and was based in the press gallery for 10 years. She specialises in politics, business and Auckland issues.
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