Consumer pressure

Don’t let food labelling inconsistencies, the skewed global food economy and the retailers’ business imperatives spoil your appetite. It works both ways. Retailers monitor their consumer responses very carefully. Even a small number of complaints (say 10 a day) will not go unnoticed. And don’t forget – you are holding the purse strings. A change in sales numbers and the opinions voiced on social media platforms will have an effect. Remember the recent Twitter and Facebook outcry against Woolworths copying Frankie’s vintage beverages, a small company from KZN. It resulted in Woolworths dropping their entire range of drinks, although the Advertising Standards Authority ruling only required Woolworths to change some aspects of the packaging. The Woolworths CEO, Ian Moir, facebooked: ‘Customer opinion is much more important to us than the right or wrong of this issue and the trust of our customers is far more valuable to us than a product range.’

Well, if that’s not encouragement from the horse’s mouth. Let’s ‘vote’ for local products with our rands and we’ll quickly see the product ranges offered by the retailers fall into line. And we don’t even have to wait for every single shop in the country to change its offerings. With the customer profile feedback from the use of loyalty cards like ‘MySchool’ or ‘SmartShopper’, retailers can tailor their goods exactly to what will sell at each shop. If the preference is local, they will stock it. It all boils down to bucks.

The Western Cape MEC for Agriculture recently suggested that local products should be placed separately from imported products on supermarket shelves to make it easier for consumers to choose local products and support local farmers. This is an interesting idea although it is unlikely that supermarkets will hurry to implement it unless we consumers lobby for it. Maybe a good way to start it off would be a ‘buy local’ month with all local products displayed in one place?