Abdel Badoura spent over a decade working for suppliers wanting to sell their products within Australian supermarkets. In 2024, he blew the whistle on what he described as “the tactics and practices Australia’s supermarket duopoly, Coles and Woolworths, deploy to price gouge suppliers and, ultimately, customers.”
Badoura testified in April 2024 before a Senate select committee on supermarket prices.
“Coles and Woolworths are currently running risk-free businesses,” he stated. “They are propped up by suppliers who are paying for the majority of their expenses, with the Australian public being overcharged at every step. They have gotten away with this for years due to the lack of competition in the market and their market power abuse. As a result, you consistently see higher recommended prices, compared with other countries on the same products from large multinationals.”
Badoura went on to describe the tactics he saw the supermarket giants use in abusing their market power to raise prices. According to Badoura, “In my experience, having directly negotiated price increases with Coles and Woolworths over a long period, the playbook they use time and time again is fourfold.”
“The current cost of living crisis on food has been deliberately fuelled by the greed of Coles and Woolworths,” Badoura claimed. “Make no mistake about it – we find ourselves in this situation because there is no true competition in the supermarket industry.”
During his testimony, Badoura touched upon the immense risk he was taking in coming forward to blow the whistle.
“Blowing the whistle on the supermarket duopoly’s price gouging and market power abuse is the biggest risk I have taken, both personally and professionally. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t apprehensive about the future. By publicly giving evidence, I have effectively made myself unemployable in this industry and possibly others. But despite the risks, despite the advice I received discouraging me from doing this, I feel compelled to speak up.”
