"These measures aren't being introduced in direct response to the so-called cost of living crisis," she says.
"This is a competition thing… And this isn't going to make a change overnight. When you're trying to make a sector more competitive, you're not going to get competitors coming tomorrow. These things take some time to work through."
At the moment, the sector is dominated by supermarket giants Foodstuffs and Woolworths – a duopoly that has contributed to New Zealand having the fifth-highest grocery prices in the OECD.
A Commerce Commission report released earlier this year indicated that supermarkets were making excess profits of around $1 million a day and that local giants had employed a number of strategies to retain their dominance in the industry.
One such approach includes anti-competitive land wars where supermarket groups buy up land or dictate the terms of leases to block competitors from getting a foothold in the market.
"People who have been to Napier will have seen this situation play out because there are two Countdowns across the road from each other," says Tibshraeny.
"That seems a classic example of Countdown not wanting to give up that spot to have a competitor come in. So you have two Countdowns right across the road from each other."
Following the Government's action against such practices, the supermarket giants have relinquished some control they have over land.
"Foodstuffs North Island has released a statement saying it has already released 78 out of 135 titles, and Foodstuffs South Island is also active in the process of removing restrictive land covenants. So it sounds like there is a bit of progress there."
The thinking behind this strategy is that it will create a commercial environment that makes it more appealing for competitors to enter the grocery space.
The Herald reported this week that Aldi is among a number of international retailers looking to expand into New Zealand.
It would join Costco, which has just opened a store in West Auckland and is currently eyeing expansion into Wellington and Christchurch.
Tibshraeny says that if the commercial environment is right, we could see more international supermarket giants looking to enter New Zealand.
But shoppers will have to be patient in waiting for this competition to have a substantial impact on the local market.
Even if new players enter the market in the coming years, Woolworths and Foodstuffs will continue to have enormous footprints across the New Zealand market.
It will also take time for competitors to build premises and establish their stores in the local market. All this could take years to actually come to fruition. And then it will take even more time for the competitors' footprints to grow sufficiently to really challenge the supremacy of the incumbents.
Tibshraeny sees the Warehouse as the organisation best placed to offer immediate competition to the duopoly. We've already seen the impact of this in terms of the pricing of butter – and if the Warehouse expands, other items could follow.
In terms of a wider impact on pricing, Tibshraeny says that consumers should be prepared for a longer wait.
"It's good to think of this as a slightly longer-term project, increasing competition. If people are looking at what the Government's doing to ease the pain of inflation, this is probably not where they should be looking."
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