Actually I'm staying in a Victorian country town called Castlemaine where there are two supermarkets under the IGA franchise. There are no Coles or other superm

Actually I'm staying in a Victorian country town called Castlemaine where there are two supermarkets under the IGA franchise. There are no Coles or other supermarket competitors here that provide the venue for a 'supermarket war' as its described. I can assure you that the prices I quote are accurate. I'm also fairly confident that the shelf price for ordinary refined flour white bread would drop significantly if there were competitors. Cheaper options are available in a regional city called Bendigo some 35km away, and I've no doubt that there are even greater discounts available in larger cities. And there's the rub. Lack of meaningful competition in many sectors in Australia leads to a kind of price rorting, as I believe it's called by the Australian consumer and competition agency. I have no political axe to grind. I'm merely on the one hand pointing out a price differential observable to any visiting european, and on the other indicating what seems to be an effect of limited competition. Australian prices generally have increased greatly relative to the English pound in my experience. The reasons for that aren't that difficult to understand, and ordinary supply demand leads to large regional variations I'm sure. Australian politics are not my politics, though I presume they're yours. I hope I haven't stumbled into some local political schism.