Costco!

I love Australians. Only here can people be so blind-sided by change that they can somehow be quoted saying the most ridiculous things.

"THE nation's most powerful shopping centre owners are trying to stop the expansion of US discount warehouse chain Costco, claiming a planned multi-million dollar development is illegal.

In a raft of objections, the group - which includes Westfield, AMP and the Shopping Centre Council of Australia – says the proposed store is in breach of existing state planning laws, is 'inappropriate' and that to create any special exemptions would be 'anti-competitive' for other retailers."
Costco anti-competitive

"Anti-competitive"? Introducing competition is anti-competitive. Really, the beef they're trying to skewer is that the development site Costco found in Sydney isn't zoned in a manner that a shopping centre or grocery store chain couldn't be located there. Though Costco is neither a shopping centre or a grocery store. It seems that their protest was in vain, NSW is allowing Costco to go in as planned provided they provide infrastructure to deal with added traffic.

In a nutshell, local vendors are getting in a stink about new competition. I can't fault them on this, but they really should think about what they say before they open their mouths. :)

The simple fact is that if Australia wants to be taken seriously in the world market for more than just being a source of raw materials, it's going to have to swallow its pride and open its doors to that world market. Australian businesses are spoiled by teet-to-grave protection from foreign competition which is dangerously self-destructive. A good case of this was ABC Learning centres which was doing fantastic business here in Australia where it was founded... Until it did so well it decided to branch off into the U.S. where it had NO FREAKING perspective on the child-care funding practices in the U.S. NOTHING like the reliable, punctual hand-outs by the Australian gov't. In the end they lost control, garbled their auditing, and ended up sinking leaving the taxpayer to clean up the mess.

So, my thoughts about Costco? BRING IT ON! I can't wait until one shows up in Brisbane.