Foodstuffs is technically a cooperative. But it is a very
particular kind of cooperative: its members are the
individual grocers who own and operate the stores. Consumers
and supermarket workers have no ownership stake.
So
while the Foodstuffs structure has cooperative features, it
should not be confused with a consumer or worker
cooperative. And in the wider grocery market, Foodstuffs and
Woolworths together account for around 82% of the
market.
National’s proposal to divide Foodstuffs would
create three major nationwide supermarket chains rather than
two. That may increase competition, but it essentially
leaves the ownership model unchanged: supermarkets would
still be owned for the benefit of their existing
owners.
The Green Party’s proposal for a publicly
owned KiwiMart offers a different starting point. The next
step should be to ask whether KiwiMart could become
a genuinely cooperative enterprise, with
shoppers able to become members and shareholders, in much
the same way that farmers are members of
Farmlands.
That would create a different kind of
competitor: one owned by the people who depend on it, rather
than simply another corporation competing for market
share.
In line with Progressive
Party policy, the objective would be to develop
economic democracy—giving consumers and
workers a meaningful stake in the enterprises that provide
essential goods and services.
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The supermarket sector
could be the beginning rather than the end. The same
cooperative approach could be applied to other sectors,
including banking, retirement villages and
electricity.
The question is therefore not simply how
we break up the supermarket duopoly. It is whether we use
this opportunity to change who the economy is
ultimately designed to serve and who gets to own
it.
