Linda Hall: The Warehouse, Supie and the forlorn hope of cheaper food

The demise of online supermarket Supie is not good news for consumers.

OPINION

Just as I was thinking that food prices might start to ease or at least steady because of competition in the market, the news broke of Supie’s demise.

Firstly, I feel for the workers who arrived onsite only to find they no longer had a job and therefore no income.

Imagine that. Suddenly to have no money to buy food for your family, pay your bills. It’s not the first time this sort of thing has happened and it certainly won’t be the last, but with the cost of living already taking its toll, this is a kick in the guts that nobody needs.

A story in the Herald today reported that staff were told they were unlikely to get paid for the last two weeks they worked.

The online grocery store had 60,000 subscribers. That’s a lot of people buying grocery items that they would usually buy from one of the two big players: the Foodstuff group and the Woolworths group.

The Herald also reported that founder Sarah Balle was confident earlier in October that Supie would “absolutely” hit 100,000 members next year.

Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today. Photo / Warren Buckland.

The collapse is not good news for consumers. So what went wrong with this start-up business?

Will we ever know the truth? Probably not. Balle did say earlier this year she was getting pushback, with some suppliers demanding Supie increase its pricing.

If that’s correct, then I think Grocery Commissioner Pierre van Heerden needs to investigate.

We need more, not fewer, choices when it comes to buying our food. I’m really hoping that The Warehouse keeps extending its grocery offering.

After we ran the story about The Warehouse in Hastings now selling fruit and vegetables, I went in on Saturday and was amazed at how much it has grown its grocery department. There were people with trolleys doing their shopping.

Excellent. Keep it up.

However, we are creatures of habit and going to the big supermarkets is something we have been doing for years because there hasn’t been any other choice and because most people lead busy lives so they like to do a one-stop shop.

It’s hard to break habits like that, especially if you shop for brands.

I used to. As I have said before, I’ve changed lots of my grocery items to cheaper brands. There have been complaints but gradually the complaints stop.

As someone in the office said the other day, if The Warehouse keeps extending its range, you’ll be able to get your kiwifruit and your replacement undies from the same place.

All jokes aside, with Christmas fast approaching and parents/caregivers feeling the pressure to buy this, that and the next thing, perhaps it’s time to rethink some of our Christmas traditions.

You might be surprised how much your children and grandchildren understand that times are tough and this year we don’t need trifle and a pav. We don’t need three salads or three cuts of meat.

What we do need is a nice meal and a game of cricket on the back lawn and maybe a handmade gift or two.

But whatever you decide to do, make sure you shop around. The dearest is not always the best.

Linda Hall is a Hastings-based assistant editor for Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 30 years of experience in newsrooms. She writes regularly on arts and entertainment, lifestyle and hospitality, and pens a column.