Il governo dovrebbe introdurre supermercati di proprietà statale?

State owned supermarkets are very unlikely to be any cheaper than the discounters. The profit gouging is mostly further up the chain – look at the record profits the food processors / grocery brands are making.

There are cooperative supermarkets in plenty of places around the country, where the books are entirely public and the customers can be members of the co-op, and margins are kept deliberately low. They’re really not cheap, because they don’t have any buying power. Cope chain in Donegal is one with multiple branches and there’s various other agri co-ops with supermarkets too.

Would it make products any cheaper or better value?

No.

The very large supermarkets operate on razor thin margins. The Government are not going to run a supermarket chain more efficiently than them. It won’t bring down costs for consumers.

No

No. They are very unlikely to be cheaper. Supermarkets generally operate on relatively low margins, in spite of the absolute profit levels that get thrown around.

Now, even if we ignore the incompetence that people generally expect from state operations, a state-ran supermarket would be pressured into doing “the right thing”, for example in relation to employee benefits etc. those profit margins would be eaten into pretty quickly and we potentially have something that is not just “non-profit”, but losing money to be competitive.

I see PBP have gone full communist.

I read their alternative budget yesterday, it’s utter trash, 60bn in tax increases, but no details beyond the dribble like high earners. In effect meaning anyone earning more than 46K.

To then use that 60bn and effectively give it away to those earning under 46K.

Has there ever been a historical example from another country of state run supermarkets working well? I’m usually pretty big on state intervention in response to market failures, but I just can’t see how a state run supermarket is going to be able to provide a better, cheaper service than Lidl or Aldi.

This is some funny shit. If a UCD politics undergrad suggested this in an assignment I’d fail them

Government spending codes and red tape would tie it ip in knots

Nice to see PBP proving once again just how economically illiterate they are.

Maybe we should also collectivise the Irish Agricultural Sector while we’re at it, I heard it was a roaring success in 1930s Soviet Russia.

All in all one of the most Moronic Proposals, I’ve heard this year.

Where do these idiotic ideas come from?

Where do the private and public sector “compete” in Ireland? Where is the public sector cheaper?

Why would the HSE of supermarkets be good value?

PBP say this is needed to offer a better selection of healthy foods to people who don’t have access to them. Even if you think this is a major social issue, state owned supermarkets are not the solution.

It would be far more efficient to change regulations or offer subsidies for healthy food. If people can’t access supermarkets, then expanding public transport would be a better solution.

The real reason this is proposed is because Mamdani has proposed this for New York City so PBP is just copying America. They even called them “grocery stores” in their document.

Supermarkets work pretty well really but the messing with prices of late is certainly an issue that needs addressing cause it sure seems like someone is gouging.

They should introduce state owned oil first. The fucking cunts.

And the Journal yet again wins the award for most thick media outlet in Ireland