I won't use Coles Express for fuel anymore

mysteron347

Well, I won't use coles anything - but that's because it's owned by Wesfarmers - and you don't want to hear that story.

It was obvious when the majors bought into the petrol industry, as they are now doing to liquor and have foreshadowed pharmacy and many others, that their strategy was to first discount their competition out of the market, then mark up to what the gullible public will stand.

That, after all, is what they did in groceries. Same formula - same sheep falling for it.

It used to be that the sign shown outside of the station had to carry the ACTUAL price, in white on a black background. The "oh, that's just a quibble" mob has seen this degenerate into Rafferty's rules. First the colour, then the tag line "after xcents voucher" or whatever. The majors sit back laughing and counting their millions while the chooks argue about whether "the rools" are reasonable. The politicians sit idly by and collect their piles. The consumer-advocate groups are more interested in a thousand different "ratings" systems for everything under the sun.

The motoring advocates do nothing. Remember when we had a loading on the petrol price to discourage people from using leaded petrol? Guess what - we don't have leaded petrol any more, but we still have the loading. It's on 'premium grade' ULP, which is burnt more efficiently than standard grade. People are now discouraged from using the more efficient product because it generates revenue for the government (regardless of which tribe of dictators we have) and the motorists' advocates do nothing.

Yeah - know about it. Saw it coming years ago. Was shouted down then. Now it's likely too late to do anything. Vested interests have the say-so.