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Comment by EdwardDiego | Hacker News Reader

Ask New Zealand how a grocery duopoly is going, it's bad for both consumers and producers.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/489686/fruit-and-vegetab...

In Switzerland we have a duopoly since forever, Coop vs Migros. Aldi and Lidl are also players but it is still mainly a duopoly. And that worked quite well, at least for the ~25 years I lived there.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/price-is-right-_swiss-...

Coop and Migros have the biggest margins in Europe. Hardly the picture of competition.

Seems more like tacit collusion.

Tacit collusion is what duopolies are all about.

AFAIK these are also weird orgs of the cooperative type. Each having over 2 million members probably helps keep the prices sane.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migros

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coop_(Switzerland)

Yes, you’re correct they are both cooperative type of organization. They are also integral part of the Swiss culture and identity, and are present all over the country, it’s not uncommon to find a Migros in a small village where you wouldn’t expect one.

Note that Switzerland is really a weird country, it’s difficult to compare it with other places.

Looking at Finnish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S_Group which is cooperative of cooperative. The prices aren't that much better than the competing group of privately owned shops.

And I always wondered if the goal is to provide service to customers/"owners" why are they expanding outside their geographical areas like to other countries.

r/hailcorporate calls

Which is to say, a duopoly is never good.

UK food prices were (until recently) very low relative to income, because we have about 7 major national supermarket chains.

A similar situation exists in Australia. It feels like we are the land of the duopoly, not at all helped by the cosy relationship between regulators, business, and government.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-23/supermarket-profits-s...

There was a big duopoly in the Finnish market, between the K chain and the S chain. But then Lidl (Aldi) (German chain) moved in and shook things up.

Is Aldi owned by Lidl? We have both here in South Carolina. They seem quite different. I like one and not the other.

Edit: It appears they aren’t related corporations.

Same family, but post-dispute. IIRC.

Nope, you’re thinking of Aldi Nord/Aldi Süd. Both are present in Germany and in the US (with one under the "Trader Joe’s" brand, other countries are served by just one of them.

Ach du lieber-schlieber, you are right. I stand corrected.

Lidl's sibling is Kaufland. Both owned by a single company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarz_Gruppe

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