By Keith Berg C&I Editor at Large
I had occasion to visit Costco’s big warehouse in Sydney’s West a few days ago.
As I was waiting for the carpark elevator, I was joined by a young man labouring behind a heavily loaded trolley. Costco’s trolleys are huge and, on closer inspection I noticed that his was loaded with what looked like about 50 packs of 24 Mount Franklin water.
“You have a store do you?” I asked. The reply came in the affirmative.
“How come you don’t buy from one of the wholesalers?” I couldn’t believe the reply.
“If I buy from Coke,” the young man said, “I pay $23 per pack of 24. Here I pay $9 normally, but $7 when it’s on special.”
Little wonder then that so much store stock is being sourced from supermarkets at tiny margins for manufactures. And the manufacturers HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME