Supermarkets and Grocery Retailers

Brad Banducci will be remembered for his TV interview walkout, but in his years in the top job he's delivered Woolworths bumper profits, writes Four Corners' Angus Grigg and Elise Potaka.

Brad Banducci is retiring as the supermarket giant announces a massive loss and faces ongoing allegations of price gouging and unfair practices with suppliers.

Four Corners has spoken to insiders, experts, and the supermarket CEOs themselves to find out just how they operate. Here's what you need to know.

You might not have noticed, but Australia's biggest liquor retailers are now selling vast numbers of their own private-label wine, beer and pre-mixes. It's leading to concerns about a further concentration of market power. 

Leaked emails reveal for the first time the tactics Coles employs when a supplier seeks a price increase and how it has taken advantage of inflation to boost profits.

As the weekly grocery shop becomes increasingly more expensive for households, a dozen families are keeping a decades-old tradition alive in Sydney's inner west to get their fresh produce for the week.

Amid an unabated cost of living crisis, and against the backdrop of price gouging allegations, a shift is taking place — the inner-city supermarket as we once knew it is disappearing.

REDcycle collapsed under its own weight, stockpiling recyclable material with nowhere to go. The new soft plastic recycling scheme will feed new, purpose-built waste processing facilities so it has much better prospects, writes Anya Phelan.

Coles plans to deploy data company Palantir's tools across more than 840 supermarkets to cut costs and "redefine how we think about our workforce". At a time of increased food insecurity, Australians should question if this is the right direction, writes Luke Munn.

A report into soaring grocery prices, rising energy bills and steep airfares will be released on Wednesday. Its findings and recommendations will cause a headache for some of the country's biggest and most powerful companies, writes Adele Ferguson.

The ACCC is investigating the disparity between supermarket check-out prices and farmgate prices and one thing it could recommend is a mandatory code of conduct. But would it make the market fairer for growers?

A mother-of-four in the Northern Territory says it makes more sense for her to drive 150 kilometres to a larger town than shop for groceries locally.

Some Australian producers turn their backs on the major supermarkets because of what they say are unfair prices at the farm gate.

Farmers say the current food supply chain model is a "broken system" that gives supermarkets too much power and long-term solutions are needed.

The ACCC can't change the prices supermarkets charge. But it can take them to court if they're breaking the laws in the Competition and Consumer Act. 

The former head of the ACCC has written to Treasurer Jim Chalmers recommending he order the competition regulator to probe major grocery chains' prices.

Some residents of this Victorian town want competition at the supermarket check-out, but one business owner is determined to fight the opening of a Woolworths store.

Recently, 22 supermarket store managers were treated to a two-course meal prepared by a professional chef using only ingredients that could have ended up in the bin, in a bid to show how surplus food can be turned into healthy, delicious meals.

Living in regional Western Australia remains a costly enterprise, with prices consistently higher than Perth for basics including groceries and fuel.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles says the major supermarkets have agreed to participate in the inquiry. It comes after he met with supermarket executives yesterday.

The Queensland premier says supermarkets have agreed to share "information and analysis on prices" to provide more transparency on soaring grocery prices and alleged price-gouging.

With allegations of price gouging levelled at the major supermarkets and an inquiry ongoing, more Australians are seeking other ways to get their groceries.

The latest monthly indicator from the ABS shows consumer prices rose at their slowest pace in almost two years in November.

Grocery prices rose and major supermarkets made billion-dollar profits last year, but Bundaberg farmer Trevor Cross fears rock-bottom produce prices will force him to leave the industry he loves — and there are many others like him.

Woolworths has recalled shortcrust mince pies right before Christmas in NSW because of potential metal contamination.