It’s not collusion; that is a specific legal term - but even more broadly, there isn’t any active discussion between the two retailers. If there were, given the tens of thousands those two companies have employed, wouldn’t you think there’d have been whistleblowers, ACCC fines and the like?

I’m not trying to defend supermarkets here, just dispel miss-information.

Prices are rising because costs are, I worked in agriculture when the Russian invasion of Ukraine occurred - causing fertiliser costs to literally triple, and labour costs for farm hands sky rocket due to the lack of backpackers during COVID lockdowns. Both of those costs got passed on to the supermarkets and ultimately to consumers.

Publicly traded companies have open financials; anyone can open up their most recent P&Ls and see what their actual Net Profit %s are, and they’ve remained flat for a very long time.

You would be able to see that there isn’t heaps of fat that another player in the space could do to noticeably impact basket spend.

We already have Metcash/IGA, Aldi, Amazon, Chemist Warehouse and Bunnings all providing a tonne of competition in key grocery categories.

What makes you think adding another would make any difference?