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Peter Dutton calls for boycott of Woolworths after Australia Day merchandise dropped
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
20 points (85.7% liked)
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Woolies would keep the crap if people bought it. I'm unconvinced they would drop the range if it were making them buckets of money.
I'll bet it's loads more profit per shelf to fill that space with back-to-school stuff.
It's us who don't want Australia Day stuff. Possibly because we don't exactly have wads of spare disposable income to spend on luxuries? Maybe because we have a personal stance on Australia Day? Maybe we just don't care?
Nah, it's just more DEI-led stuff where they're trying to pander to the vocal minority to score points, like Bud Light and Target did in America, where it backfired massively. Make no mistake, they're dropping it for "inclusivity" like Kmart did, not because it doesn't make money. They even mentioned this in their statement:
It'll be back next year when they fuck around and find out this year. Keep politics and pandering out of grocery stores. Didn't ever think I'd have to say that lol. It's ridiculous.
Ultimately, Coles and Woolies are untouchable. It's almost impossible to boycott them. That's the whole problem with the grocery duopoly in Australia. I don't foresee this move having any impact on them either way. They know it, too. You may be right and they're pandering somewhat, but I am a cynic and I believe they're doing it because the range isn't making enough money to justify its shelf space.
In a large city they can be practically boycotted. Most people just can't be bothered.
If you utilise Aldi, IGA and/or Foodworks, you can get most of what you can get from Coles/Woolworths, and you will probably save money.
Although making trips to multiple different supermarkets is an inconvenience.
Fwiw I think you're both right, the duality means they don't give a fuck if there is a blowback as you'll be right back there anyway and they're likely doing this because they figure the pandering may be worth the more money.
Wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing is just to stop people asking "why the fuck aren't they passing on cost savings".
They're absolutely pandering, which is why they put this in their statement:
Even if this were true, it would be because they've determined that the "inclusivity" (whatever that is) is going to make them money.
Just like Bud Light and Target did in the US. Look how that worked out for them.
Uh, how did it work out for them ? InBev's share price is higher than it was a year ago.
Bud Light tanked. It was the number 1 beer in its category up until that decision - a title it had held for 20 years. It isn't now.
Their vice president responsible for it was removed.
They lost marketshare across the board.
Their american sales have not recovered.
Bill Gates threw $100 million at their stock in an effort to get it to go back up. Remember - Bud Light is not their whole company. Bud Light has likely been irrevocably harmed. Other beer brands have gained market share, Bud Light lost the number 1 spot it had held for 20 years. Share price isn't everything when it's a worldwide brand.
Some facebook-meme level reasoning here bro. If gates bought $100m in stock in september then he's made $10m on that bet in the last 4 months. You can cherry-pick whatever factoids you like but the bare facts are, no one really cares.
I guess we will see what happens when woolies share price tanks this week. SMH.
So you ignore 90% of my post that proves my point to focus on the 10% that you think proves yours? Lol
Let me guess - it was a coincidence that bud light got dethroned after 20 years at the same time they pulled their stunt?
Dude. You asked how things worked out for Bud Light. Bud Light is InBev. Things are going great.
You're trying to shoe-horn their PR failure into your narrative that left-leaning companies get cancelled to make yourself feel better about... things, but the fact is Woolies ditched the merch because most people aren't really interested in buying shitty plastic flag stuff on the 26th of January any more. Dutton whistled, and you barked. Woolies is doing fine. Even if they walked back this decision they would just stock a token flag in January because.... there's no money in that shit.
Bud light is doing terribly. Just because the parent company is going well it doesn’t mean every product of theirs is 😂. Again - 20 years as americas number 1 beer……..Dylan mulvaney partnership…….loses number 1 spot immediately, hasn’t regained it. Market share dropped. Competitors market shares increased. Bud light was irrevocably damaged from that stunt.
The overwhelming outrage at Woolies at the moment shows that it was a stupid decision. They did it for the wrong reasons and they will feel the pushback in one way or another. Will it be as big as bud lights? Not a chance with our supermarket duopoly, but they will lose customers and the stunt won’t gain them any new ones.
What "overwhelming outrage"? The murdoch media is trying to imply there is outrage, but honestly no one cares. There are fewer idiots driving around with tacky plastic australia day flags than I've ever seen.
Woolies did it because there's no money in it. No one is buying shitty imported plastic flags. Their PR people stupidly thought they could get a win with some virtue signalling, and they fucked up. The decision to discontinue those lines was all business.
You’re mistaking the real reason for the made up reason. They are stopping it for the virtue signalling, they’re using “declining sales” (with no more detail) to try and cover themselves.
You really genuinely believe that a retailer would cancel a profitable product line just for a once off headline? That's daft. Virtue signalling isn't worth that much. It's always a statement or gesture rather than an actual change to a product or business policy. "Lets add this rainbow to our facebook page" type stuff.
Absolutely guaranteed that this was a business decision, that PR made the mistake of trying to take advantage of. Honestly, do you think sales of that junk has been increasing?
Woolworths CEO stepping down after yet another train wreck interview. Seems all that virtue signalling came back to get him.
You really think he's quit over cancelling product lines? Weren't you predicting Woolworths would collapse over that or something?
It's a pretty predictable response to the competition enquiry about to ramp up over the next few months. Outgoing CEO gets a huge pay out, new CEO can say "we've fixed all that".
No, I think - as does almost every media outlet - that he has "stepped down" (though we all know he was asked to jump before he is pushed) over the back to back controversies he oversaw and that he handled in the worst possible ways. I didn't predict that they would collapse, I predicted that they were going to "find out" after fucking around - and here we are, the CEO pushed off the ledge.
To fire the CEO before the competition enquiry has happened? That's predictable? lol. No, what would be more predictable is them firing him after the enquiry is finished and has laid out all the anti-competitive stuff they've done - not before.
Preposterous.
CEO doesn't make decisions about what product lines to discontinue. He didn't create the Australia day thing.
Of course you fire the CEO before the enquiry, so you can divert blame during the enquiry. "Oh yeah maybe we did some bad stuff but it's all fixed now".
Woolworths is not "finding out". They are, and will continue to be, one of our largest and most lucrative retailers. Seriously. How do you think Duttons boycott is going? Do you think product managers regret discontinuing the Chinese plastic flags?
Just as it was a month ago, any assertion that Woolworth has made a mistake in discontinuing Australia day merch is just absurd.
Frankly, I'm genuinely surprised you're still fretting about it.
The CEO is ultimately responsible for every decision they make. He absolutely had a say in it and he clearly thought it was a good idea, and he thought his messaging was good.
Nope, you wait until after the enquiry so you can blame them at the end and say "we'll take action by firing the ceo". What if the enquiry comes up with nothing bad and you've already fired your CEO? lol
Again - CEO gone. Enormous public backlash. This whole thing has even further pushed for calls for inquiries and change.
Bet the CEO doesn't think that. Bet the people that pushed him to retirement don't think that. They are a supermarket, not a politician. Keep your shitty politics out of it and sell stuff that people want to buy. Note they never said it didn't sell, they just said there had been a "gradual decline in sales". The best selling product on earth can have a gradual decline in sales but still sell well.
Same with you.
Hey boss, I was just at woollies. Seemed pretty busy. I thought they were good get cancelled over that whole Australia day thing?
Did you see their now ex ceo in there?
It is to the companies that subscribe to the ESG/DEI stuff and want to virtue signal. It's also not just a once off headline, is it? Look at all the people like you going to bat for them, sticking up for the billion dollar company that's been making record profits by raising prices well above inflation for the last few years because they said some stuff has had "declining sales" - note they never said unprofitable anyway.
It doesn't have to be increasing. It can be decreasing and still making them plenty of money.
Fuck around and find out that stocking shelves for a one day event with cheap plastic crap that isn’t selling well is a bad idea?
‘Help help, I’m being repressed!’
Mate what the fuck do you think 'decline in demand' means?
It means an easy excuse that they can throw out there to make people like you believe it's not just for the stupid "inclusivity" reason, and it clearly works on the gullible.
Dude.