00:01The Goldfields' biggest city is home to more than 30,000 people.
00:06Coles was seeing double. The consumer watchdog disagreed.
00:10The proposed transaction, which is the acquisition of a lease in Kalgoorlie to put a supermarket in, must not go
00:18ahead.
00:18Kalgoorlie has already got one Coles, a Woolworths, two IGAs and two independent grocers.
00:24But Coles wants to open a second site within six minutes' drive of three competitors.
00:30They would likely result in the departure of a current independent supermarket operator.
00:38And then further, it's unlikely there would be another investor come in and operate that existing supermarket.
00:48The ACCC spent six months scrutinising this proposal as part of its new powers to mandatorily assess all major supermarket
00:56acquisitions.
00:58We are pro-development when it is needed, but the Chamber doesn't think that we need a second Coles in
01:05the location that there is already an existing IGA in place to service that area.
01:10The reaction from locals, mixed.
01:13I reckon it would be enough room for another Coles.
01:16I think we've already got Coles and Woolies and now Spud Shed that I don't think is necessary.
01:21This is the first time that the ACCC has flexed its muscles against a major supermarket giant since getting these
01:28new oversight powers.
01:30Coles does have an avenue for appeal, but while saying today that it disagrees with this decision, it wouldn't say
01:36what it'll do next.
01:38We want to balance the needs of the community to be able to access a local supermarket with the needs
01:44of small business that don't want to see predatory market behaviour from larger players.
01:49So this is going to be an interesting but complex issue to look into.
01:53And it won't be the last, with many more supermarket proposals set to land on the watchdog's desk in years
01:59to come.
01:59.
01:59.
02:00.
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