Dr Eric Crampton: Please legalise new supermarkets

Jaw-dropping bit from the Grocery Regulator, in interview at Interest.co.nz:

“What we've been told by these players is when they come and they want to open up a large store in New Zealand, the cost to get a spade in the ground is double that of Australia,” he says in a new episode of the Of Interest podcast.

“Now that is significant. And when they look at 'do we open up a store in Wagga Wagga or Tamworth or wherever in Australia' versus coming to open up in Auckland where there is massive demand or any of the other centres, really, the cost is double that of Australia. And the timeframe often is more than double as well. So when they do their business cases, they look at that and say, 'well, we're going to be better off by going elsewhere rather than here.' Now the government is saying that they're going to change things to make New Zealand more competitive for international players. And that's really what we're looking at.”

The Commerce Commission released its first annual grocery report on Wednesday which revealed ComCom’s efforts to boost grocery competition over the past year hasn’t had much impact.

Later in the podcast, he says that Costco would already have expanded to more places in NZ if expanding in NZ weren't so freaking hard.

It shouldn't be surprising that the grocery regulator hasn't chalked any wins as yet. The real problem is largely out of the regulator's hands: RMA, Overseas Investment Act, Council processes.

On council processes, just look at this clusterfxxk. This is what an incumbent who has been here forever has to deal with: a company that knows the system. If even they can't get through it, what hope for someone who's new to NZ?

Woolworths has backed out of its fight to install a new entrance and signage to its FreshChoice store in Greytown.

It’s left heritage campaigners and business owners, who have spent almost a decade fighting the plans, breathing a collective sigh of relief.

The supermarket giant appealed to the Environment Court after an independent commissioner for South Wairarapa District Council declined it’s proposal to create a new access to the store from Main St in December last year.

The plan included the demolition of the existing house at 134 Main St, the installation of a 8.3 metre-wide new vehicle crossing and an internally illuminated 3.6m high, freestanding sign.

Matthew Grainger, Woolworth’s director of property in New Zealand, said it hadn’t been able to find “a solution that would work for everyone”.

“We simply haven’t been able to reach an outcome that would be satisfactory for the community and viable for Woolworths which is why we’re withdrawing our appeal."

It marked the end of a “diabolical” process that had dragged on for nearly a decade, Gina Jones from the Greytown Heritage Trust said.

Minister Bishop's move to set mixed use by default in places subject to intensification under the National Policy Statement on Urban Development is a great start in opening things up.

But I'd love it if retail grocery had access to the fast-track consenting regime. If an entrant could put dozens of sites up and down the country up for simultaneous approval through that regime, rather than waiting for consents to dribble through over the next decade...

Dr Eric Crampton is Chief Economist at the New Zealand Initiative. This article was first published HERE