22 June 2015

Coles to buy Supabarn supermarkets in ACT and NSW

19 June 2015 | Canfan

Independent supermarket chain Supabarn has today announced it will sell all but two of its ACT and NSW stores to supermarket giant Coles.

The sale will affect Supabarn’s Civic, Wanniassa, Kaleen and Crace stores, plus one under construction in Casey. Five stores in New South Wales will also be sold.

The sale is yet to be approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, but if it goes ahead, Coles will acquire the stores on a leasehold basis.

Supabarn, which opened its first store in the Canberra City in 1991, has not exited the market completely. It will retain the soon-to-be constructed store at Kingston, as well as a store in Gymea in Sydney.

According to a company statement, Supabarn’s directors have decided to scale down for family reasons.

All Supabarn store employees will be offered the opportunity to continue to work at their store.

SupaExpress stores are not included in the sale and will continue to trade as normal.

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rubaiyat12:20 am 24 Jun 15

creative_canberran said :

If you want to boycott imports, you’ll hurt Australia literally twice as much.

How much Australian wine, olive oil and pasta are the Italians importing?

rubaiyat11:51 pm 23 Jun 15

Maya123 said :

San Remo is not the start and end of Australian pasta. There is other Australian pasta.

Who knows if any of my other posts will see the light of day.

“Italian Semolina” is made from our excellent Australian Durum Wheat, which is fresher and better here.

Also San Remo is a brand and who knows where they have made the pasta given our labelling laws.

Finally I cook with quality Australian pasta and it cooks perfectly al dente, and the dish is what you make it. You can make a great dish with most any pasta, except for the real rubbish, and you can stuff it up with the best pasta.

Maya1235:32 pm 23 Jun 15

creative_canberran said :

rubaiyat said :

creative_canberran said :

I stopped buying Australian made pasta and now buy imported Italian. It costs a bit more, but it’s much better quality.

You do realise that Italian pasta is made with Australian durum wheat and that the Australian pasta is made with exactly the same ingredients and even uses the Italian machinery to make it?

There are real examples of qualitative differences, unfortunately people are really bad at picking them, mostly they go for the sounds like/looks like and marketing helps them fill in the blanks in their heads.

Not the stuff I buy, made using Italian Semolina. And not all pasta is made the same way, even if pasta uses the same basic ingredients. I buy the italian stuff because it tastes better, has better texture and is available in a couple of shapes Australian brands don’t make.

rubaiyat said :

I go to source. A quality Australian pasta is a quality pasta. How you cook it and what you add to it is more important than any psychological impressions you may have as to its mythical paesano origins.

Take a look at what San Remo, the Australian brand, sells as orecchiette. Then look at what the Italians call orecchiette. San Remo should be done for false advertising. Rubbery garbage that’s the wrong shape.

San Remo is not the start and end of Australian pasta. There is other Australian pasta.

creative_canberran5:19 pm 23 Jun 15

rubaiyat said :

creative_canberran said :

I stopped buying Australian made pasta and now buy imported Italian. It costs a bit more, but it’s much better quality.

You do realise that Italian pasta is made with Australian durum wheat and that the Australian pasta is made with exactly the same ingredients and even uses the Italian machinery to make it?

There are real examples of qualitative differences, unfortunately people are really bad at picking them, mostly they go for the sounds like/looks like and marketing helps them fill in the blanks in their heads.

Not the stuff I buy, made using Italian Semolina. And not all pasta is made the same way, even if pasta uses the same basic ingredients. I buy the italian stuff because it tastes better, has better texture and is available in a couple of shapes Australian brands don’t make.

rubaiyat said :

I go to source. A quality Australian pasta is a quality pasta. How you cook it and what you add to it is more important than any psychological impressions you may have as to its mythical paesano origins.

Take a look at what San Remo, the Australian brand, sells as orecchiette. Then look at what the Italians call orecchiette. San Remo should be done for false advertising. Rubbery garbage that’s the wrong shape.

rubaiyat2:12 pm 23 Jun 15

dungfungus said :

Genie said :

creative_canberran said :

Zultan said :

And the duopoly strengthens its grip….

Aldi is expanding, CostCo has entered the market. A local operator whose dairy case is perpetually home to expired products hasn’t done anything to improve competitiveness in the local grocery market.

I’m glad I’m not the only one with this opinion. I stopped shopping at Kaleen when we bought a roast pork over a month past the used by date. The store had shrink wrapped over the original packaging and covered up the previous used by date. They even had the hide to ask for the product to be returned for a refund, my other half didn’t feel like throwing up again to fetch it from the bin.

If it didn’t smell and it wasn’t green it would have been perfectly OK for consumption if cooked correctly.
I was working in the bush years ago and a blow fly got into the fridge box and the steak ended up with maggots all over it. I washed them off, cooked it and ate it. No problems.
Too many people get hung-up about use by dates – all it does is make food more expensive.

The maggots would have selectively eaten off any decaying meat.

It is a bush medicine trick to clear gangrene from a wound, used by Weary Dunlop in the Japanese prisoner of war camps.

Still take back off meat to the shop. Not worth the risk and certainly not what you paid for.

rubaiyat2:04 pm 23 Jun 15

That should be “Waiter” not water, and I should add that the wheat used by the Italians has been shipped halfway around the world in relatively open ships holds before it is packaged and sent back to us at an inflated price.

I go to source. A quality Australian pasta is a quality pasta. How you cook it and what you add to it is more important than any psychological impressions you may have as to its mythical paesano origins.

The same as all that stale non-virgin Spanish olive oil that was repackaged as Italian Virgin Olive Oil and dumped on the gullible Australian market for decades.

I take your point on good quality AGED balsamic vinegar, but if we can do wine, we can do that as well. Personally unless it is aged, I loath the stuff and much prefer sherry or apple vinegar.

dungfungus1:53 pm 23 Jun 15

Genie said :

dungfungus said :

Genie said :

creative_canberran said :

Zultan said :

And the duopoly strengthens its grip….

Aldi is expanding, CostCo has entered the market. A local operator whose dairy case is perpetually home to expired products hasn’t done anything to improve competitiveness in the local grocery market.

I’m glad I’m not the only one with this opinion. I stopped shopping at Kaleen when we bought a roast pork over a month past the used by date. The store had shrink wrapped over the original packaging and covered up the previous used by date. They even had the hide to ask for the product to be returned for a refund, my other half didn’t feel like throwing up again to fetch it from the bin.

If it didn’t smell and it wasn’t green it would have been perfectly OK for consumption if cooked correctly.
I was working in the bush years ago and a blow fly got into the fridge box and the steak ended up with maggots all over it. I washed them off, cooked it and ate it. No problems.
Too many people get hung-up about use by dates – all it does is make food more expensive.

It didn’t look like anything was wrong with it on the outside. Until you opened it. When you instantly throw up at the smell of rotting meat, not something I’m going to cook up and then eat. (or serve the the dozen guests we were expecting later on that evening)

Well, you didn’t say that. I thought you were disposing of it on date expiry alone. I have never had a problem like that; I don’t envy what you experienced.

rubaiyat1:53 pm 23 Jun 15

creative_canberran said :

I stopped buying Australian made pasta and now buy imported Italian. It costs a bit more, but it’s much better quality.

You do realise that Italian pasta is made with Australian durum wheat and that the Australian pasta is made with exactly the same ingredients and even uses the Italian machinery to make it?

Penn and Teller did an hilarious send up of NY food aficionados in a “Water Café” where a knowledgeable water served up water from all around the world explaining the fine differences, whilst Teller filled up all the different shaped bottles from a hose out the back.

There are real examples of qualitative differences, unfortunately people are really bad at picking them, mostly they go for the sounds like/looks like and marketing helps them fill in the blanks in their heads.

Maya1231:37 pm 23 Jun 15

Genie said :

dungfungus said :

Genie said :

creative_canberran said :

Zultan said :

And the duopoly strengthens its grip….

Aldi is expanding, CostCo has entered the market. A local operator whose dairy case is perpetually home to expired products hasn’t done anything to improve competitiveness in the local grocery market.

I’m glad I’m not the only one with this opinion. I stopped shopping at Kaleen when we bought a roast pork over a month past the used by date. The store had shrink wrapped over the original packaging and covered up the previous used by date. They even had the hide to ask for the product to be returned for a refund, my other half didn’t feel like throwing up again to fetch it from the bin.

If it didn’t smell and it wasn’t green it would have been perfectly OK for consumption if cooked correctly.
I was working in the bush years ago and a blow fly got into the fridge box and the steak ended up with maggots all over it. I washed them off, cooked it and ate it. No problems.
Too many people get hung-up about use by dates – all it does is make food more expensive.

It didn’t look like anything was wrong with it on the outside. Until you opened it. When you instantly throw up at the smell of rotting meat, not something I’m going to cook up and then eat. (or serve the the dozen guests we were expecting later on that evening)

Actually, if it were covered in maggots there might not have been any rotting meat, as they would have eaten it off the good meat. Maggots have been used to treat gangrene for the similar effects.
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Gangrene/Pages/new_Treatment.aspx
A famous Australian example is mentioned in here:
http://www.visitscenicrim.com.au/in-the-beginning/very-famous-locals/bernard-oreilly-family/

I’m not sure I could eat maggoty meat, but likely most of my objection is mental. If I were cooking it (well) for eating I would not serve it to guests, but only eat it myself. To be fair, dungfungus didn’t say he was going to serve it to guests either. I agree that too many people follow too rigidly use-by-dates, but I think that just demonstrates their ignorance.

Genie12:11 pm 23 Jun 15

dungfungus said :

Genie said :

creative_canberran said :

Zultan said :

And the duopoly strengthens its grip….

Aldi is expanding, CostCo has entered the market. A local operator whose dairy case is perpetually home to expired products hasn’t done anything to improve competitiveness in the local grocery market.

I’m glad I’m not the only one with this opinion. I stopped shopping at Kaleen when we bought a roast pork over a month past the used by date. The store had shrink wrapped over the original packaging and covered up the previous used by date. They even had the hide to ask for the product to be returned for a refund, my other half didn’t feel like throwing up again to fetch it from the bin.

If it didn’t smell and it wasn’t green it would have been perfectly OK for consumption if cooked correctly.
I was working in the bush years ago and a blow fly got into the fridge box and the steak ended up with maggots all over it. I washed them off, cooked it and ate it. No problems.
Too many people get hung-up about use by dates – all it does is make food more expensive.

It didn’t look like anything was wrong with it on the outside. Until you opened it. When you instantly throw up at the smell of rotting meat, not something I’m going to cook up and then eat. (or serve the the dozen guests we were expecting later on that evening)

Maya1239:18 am 23 Jun 15

creative_canberran said :

Maya123 said :

watto23 said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

Pretty soon we will have two choices for everything. Woolworths brand cereal or Coles brand cereal, WW meat pies or Coles meat pies. I am getting very annoyed that there just isn’t any variety anymore and the only option is to buy the flavorless cardboard equivalent of foods you used to enjoy, whose ingredients come from produce made in a stinky orange swamp somewhere overseas. No wonder our farming industries are going the way of manufacturing.

I’ve never had that problem, I just don’t buy the own brand products full stop. They’ve tried to corner me into buying their brands by stocking nothing else, but I just stop buying that product or course it elsewhere. There is still variety, the issue is so many people shop on price alone and thus regardless of the supermarkets choice will disappear if people keep buying the cheapest stuff.

I’m often like that when I want to buy Australian and all that is offered is foreign. Two examples; I was in Coles the other day and I couldn’t find any Australian olives for sale. Instead of buying foreign I left without any, knowing other places where I can buy them, such as the Fyshwick Markets. Same with coffee. There was no Australian coffee on offer, but my local IGA has several choices of Australian coffee on offer, so I went there and bought Australian coffee. If enough people boycotted foreign imports, they would soon learn and offer Australian, befitting Australian producers and keeping the money in the country. Unfortunately, from what is stocked in Coles, I can only presume that most people don’t give a toss about Australian farmers and producers.

I stopped buying Australian made pasta and now buy imported Italian. It costs a bit more, but it’s much better quality. I stopped buying Australian made Apple sauce and buy the Belgium stuff, again better quality but the same price.

There is some Australian grown coffee, but it’s a very small amount. Good luck supplying everyone.

Do you want some Balsamic vinegar on your salad? It’s a geographically protected food product, you can only buy it imported, from Modena Italy.

It’s quality and the product I want that matter. Australian producers either compete, or they die.

Let’s put a price on your anti-import idea.
The value of imported food in to Australia (2012-13) was about $11b.
The value of exported food for the same period was over $20b.

If you want to boycott imports, you’ll hurt Australia literally twice as much.

I will buy foreign when I can’t get local, or local is MUCH more expensive. This is taken of course with food safety in mind. There are certain countries I will NOT buy from, even if their product is several times cheaper. But pasta!! Really! I can’t tell the difference, so I buy Australian. Many of my products, such as bottled fruit, jams, chutneys, sauces, etc, I go one step further. I grow (or pick feral) fruit and bottle it myself. Although this doesn’t help all farmers (I do buy things like sugar though for my jams), it means I have money to spend on other of their products. And making my own keeps it local and keeps transport distance down. We can get very good local(ish – Boroowa, Yass, etc) honey and olive oil too. (Whispered confession; my present tin of olive oil is not local… it comes from South Australia.)

creative_canberran6:11 pm 22 Jun 15

Maya123 said :

watto23 said :

wildturkeycanoe said :

Pretty soon we will have two choices for everything. Woolworths brand cereal or Coles brand cereal, WW meat pies or Coles meat pies. I am getting very annoyed that there just isn’t any variety anymore and the only option is to buy the flavorless cardboard equivalent of foods you used to enjoy, whose ingredients come from produce made in a stinky orange swamp somewhere overseas. No wonder our farming industries are going the way of manufacturing.

I’ve never had that problem, I just don’t buy the own brand products full stop. They’ve tried to corner me into buying their brands by stocking nothing else, but I just stop buying that product or course it elsewhere. There is still variety, the issue is so many people shop on price alone and thus regardless of the supermarkets choice will disappear if people keep buying the cheapest stuff.

I’m often like that when I want to buy Australian and all that is offered is foreign. Two examples; I was in Coles the other day and I couldn’t find any Australian olives for sale. Instead of buying foreign I left without any, knowing other places where I can buy them, such as the Fyshwick Markets. Same with coffee. There was no Australian coffee on offer, but my local IGA has several choices of Australian coffee on offer, so I went there and bought Australian coffee. If enough people boycotted foreign imports, they would soon learn and offer Australian, befitting Australian producers and keeping the money in the country. Unfortunately, from what is stocked in Coles, I can only presume that most people don’t give a toss about Australian farmers and producers.

I stopped buying Australian made pasta and now buy imported Italian. It costs a bit more, but it’s much better quality. I stopped buying Australian made Apple sauce and buy the Belgium stuff, again better quality but the same price.

There is some Australian grown coffee, but it’s a very small amount. Good luck supplying everyone.

Do you want some Balsamic vinegar on your salad? It’s a geographically protected food product, you can only buy it imported, from Modena Italy.

It’s quality and the product I want that matter. Australian producers either compete, or they die.

Let’s put a price on your anti-import idea.
The value of imported food in to Australia (2012-13) was about $11b.
The value of exported food for the same period was over $20b.

If you want to boycott imports, you’ll hurt Australia literally twice as much.

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