Brisbane, QLD


Wednesday, August 29, 2012

A TOURIST TURN OFF

The other day I was reading Sandra's blog "Madsnapper" where she was upset about the prices of bread and grapes that she had bought that day. I couldn't help comparing them with our ridiculous prices for food. Our dollar has soared over the last few years and is now worth more than the US dollar.
This is making it hard for people wanting to export their wares and it is making it very unattractive for tourists to come here. This is causing problems as we depend a lot on tourism. We have a beautiful/interesting country, even though some say we lack history and culture, we still used to attract millions of visitors.  I don't want to put anyone off visiting but I just want Sandra and others to know how well off they are with their food prices. We tried to take shots with our phones in the local supermarket without being seen which is a little difficult so the shots are not good but still may tell the story.
 One loaf of sliced wholegrain bread 700g,( nearly 2 lbs) $4.59

 3 litres (about 5. 5 pints) of milk $5.19

Seedless grapes $12.94 kg (2.2lbs) imported from USA (it is out of season for ours which do get cheaper in season.) Just look at the quality too, they were probably great when they left USA but now they are half rotten. My shot of the tomatoes at $10 kg didn't turn out. There was a sign next to the tomatoes saying the store apologises for the lack of tomatoes as there is a shortage at the markets. They are usually about $4 to $5 kg.

Another reason our food prices are high is because we only have 2 big supermarket companies, Coles and Woolworths. They have very little competition so they can get away with putting up their prices. Now you know why we're trying to grow our own veggies.

One good thing about our country for tourists is that we don't have to pay gratuities to anyone although you can if you want to.

For those following my blog, I am pleased to tell you that Sonya and Bernie arrived home in LA safely, the babies were well behaved on the plane. They all slept for 4 hours when they arrived home. Then they started adjusting bed times for the boys so they would be able get over jet lag.
The good news is that Bernie got offered two TV roles within the first week back so that is encouraging. I'll tell you more about them when everything is finalised.

Enjoy your grapes without gripes......


28 comments:

  1. Great blog Diane. Well done.
    I point blank refuse to buy any overseas products in supermarkets, and as you know they have to be marked - Australian product or where they came from. Costs are out of control here, courtesy of the two major supermarkets.
    I support the local bakeries, may cost a bit more, but TipTop bread to me is like eating carboard!
    Milk prices have sky-rocketed, but it seems from rural reports, the farmers are not getting any benefits. Heaps of the dairy people are selling up before they are bankrupted.
    Maybe we should all just live on air, then again I suppose a tax will be applied even to that!
    Who once said in a moment of prophesy - "Life wasn't meant to be easy"!!!!
    He sure nailed it when that was said in the 1970's. Little did we realise that it would come and bite us in the bum!
    Cheers and doom and gloom
    Colin (HB)

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  2. You are so right. I was complaining once to Dianne in the UK as we were chatting about the price of gas here once. She asked me how much it was and I replied with a grudge "$3.79". Then she told me they paid 9.something per gallon which wouldn't have been in dollars so I'm not sure how it compared with the US except that it was way more expensive there than here. So I sat back and counted a few blessings.

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  3. our bread like the one in your photo is 2.99 and 2 pounds of grapes would be 8.00 my grapes were under 1 pound for 4.00. our veggies here in Florida are much less than other places in the states because we have year round growing here. milk is 3.60 a gallon. also we have dairy farms in our area. now i am wondering what these prices are in other parts of the states. i think CA is closer to your prices than ours.

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  4. I'm with Colin - the only way to break the supermarket monopoly is not to go there. Quite apart from that, local produce (bakeries, greengrocers, stalls, markets, your own garden) actually has flavour so is more satisfying. And my local non-chain supermarket has WAY more product variety - it actually makes shopping almost fun!

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  5. Australia has become one of the most expensive cuntries to live in. We pay A$6.75 a gallon for petrol (checked today). We only really have 2 supermarket chains and they own about 80% of petrol stations. So they bump up the grocery prices sky high then generously give you 4 cents a litre off buying their petrol (18 cents a gallon).

    Bring over Cosco and Walmart, please. That'll put the fox amongst the chickens.

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  6. Oi, that is amazing the prices! I've heard (and it just hearsay) that Australia has always been one of the more expensive places to live.

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  7. Wow ! that's indeed very expensive ! I converted some prices into Euros, 1kg tomatoes would cost around 3 € and that's already an expensive price ! For a whole grain bread we would pay around 2.50 ! But then what does expensive mean ? it depends on what your monthly income is. When I think that an Egyptian waiter earns 100 € per month plus tips and feeds a whole family with it, then of course our prices are expensive. When a Norwegian comes to Belgium or France he finds the prices so cheap ! If I would get the pension of a Suede or Norwegian, I would be rich in Belgium !
    That's nice that they had a smooth flight then getting such good news for Bernie !

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  8. I still want to visit Australia. One of the frustrating things about rising food prices here in the U.S. is that many government policies seem to contribute to the rising prices.

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  9. Interesting comparison....we notice differences from one part of this country to another. Florida grocery prices are higher than Oregon's. But we count our blessings.

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  10. Some shop can be very expensive but if you have no competition it is possible.

    Greetings,
    Filip

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  11. Here in the USA we are facing some dramatic raises in food costs due to the nearly nation wide draught, I'm afraid.

    As a member of the farming community I feel I need to point out that cost of food is based on supply and demand. A part of that is competition of those involved in the marketing. The farmer's part unfortunatly is to settle for whatever portion he can get from the overall price. He/she can not just call the shots for what he wants to charge. If he overproduces, too much supply lowers prices. If he underproduces as he will from during this draught his prices will go up but he will have less product so it doesn't help him a lot.

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  12. There is a shortage of vegetables at the moment, hence very high prices. Almost always when I travel, I find some things cheaper than at home and some things dearer. I expect visitors to Australia will find the same thing. While the bread we eat has the same retail price as the loaf you show, we never pay that much for it. It is always on special somewhere, 2 loaves for $6. I even saw it for $2.80 for a single loaf last week. You can get milk for $1.20 a litre, not that I would buy it as it is not permeate free. If you like Asian food, you can eat out very cheaply in Australia. I was very apprehensive about prices when we went to Japan, but they weren't so bad.

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  13. Yikes! Now those are some scary prices.

    Great pics, though. :)

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  14. I do not think we realize how blessed we are to live in America...and not just because of the food prices!!

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  15. I shall not complain about our food prices! Good heavens, but that was a real eye-opener. Thanks for making me aware.

    Great news for Bernie and family. I wish him all luck. It must be very scary trying to break into a whole new market like that with a young family depending on you.

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  16. Good new re your family.
    Groceries, they supermarkets have us over a barrel...at least your break slices are larger than ours..now that I am home I am not eating as much bread for breakfast....lol
    Tomatoes are expensive at the moment and tasteless. We prefer to buy Australian as in fruit and veggies but sometimes it's not possible.

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  17. I agree with Gattina, it depends from country to country and your income. Prices are rising here too, but the pensioners incomes are frozen! Petrol is very expensive here too 1,72 euro a litre= about 6,88 euro a gallon?
    A travel to Australia is to expensive for us because of the airflight prices now.But there are always places where people have less then we in our "wealthy" world.

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  18. Are these prices in dollars? Wow, I thought we paid a lot for bread and milk. I would not be surprised if we are not headed into a recession. On to yoru great news....Congrats to Bernie and your family.

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  19. Eileen: Yes the prices are in AUD but that is almost the same as USD.

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  20. It is true that prices depend on wages. High wages high prices, low wages low prices. However, I don't think our wages are any higher than in the US.

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  21. I think our fruit and veg price is reasonable, the price of meat has been going up a lot though. As for eating imported fruit I am happy to do so when it is something that is out of season here ... those USA cherries are wonderful and as as cheap as the local ones in season. So much of our own fruit and veg is exported and keeping our farmers in business so why shouldn't we return the favour in the off season?

    I will however pick and choose on price ... I gave up bananas for a year when the cyclones destroyed the plantations.

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  22. My SIL lives in Ozz and she says how much the prices have gone up over there. The prices have certainly gone up here, but I find with the garden we can live reasonably here compared to the UK! Diane

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  23. Diane, sure you're prices are higher than I am accustomed to but even after spending 4 1/2 months in Australia, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. You're country is stunningly beautiful, so is Canada, but to travel abroad and see, as well as experience, the things I did, well now how do you put a price tag on that? I also learned where to shop and I don't eat a whole lot so it didn't bother me. What I didn't like was the price of student housing, now that was ridiculous and something I'd do different next time I visit your amazing country. Now I know different, the joys of travel and hindsight.

    Have a wonderful weekend!

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  24. I think everything is going up and we've had such a bad summer here that I dread to think what the winter food prices will be.

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  25. That's just a long, long trip on a plane with two little ones! I'm guessing they were very happy to get home! I've been surprised lately when I've seen the prices in our groceries here in the US, but I see what you mean by your photos...things could be worse for us, for sure!

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  26. OH MY!
    When I go the supermarket this week I'm not going to utter a word. :)

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  27. Thought of this post yesterday when I went to the Supermarket. California oranges are out of season now and the market had Australian imported ones. They were $1.79 a pound! (I will eat tomatoes and berries instead.) They looked good though.

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