Photo: SJUY
He pushed the biometric agenda.
WOOLIES CEO GONE
Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci has announced his retirement days after a trainwreck interview on the ABC’s Four Corners, and a month after dividing the community over his Australia Day stance.
The supermarket announced Banducci’s retirement in a statement to the ASX on Wednesday.
The 59-year-old said the decision to retire came after “important conversations” with his family in recent years and awareness of his own “mortality”.
“I do believe in the circle of life, it’s eight years since I got this privilege and it kind of felt right to close that circle the way it started,” he said.
Mr Banducci has “…given notice of his intention to retire and, by agreement with the board, will leave in September 2024, Woolworths Group’s 100th year”, the ASX announcement said.
Amanda Bardwell, head of e-commerce arm WooliesX, will take over the top job in September.
Bardwell will earn a base salary of $2.15 million, with generous bonus incentives.
Woolworths Group chair Scott Perkins added the “timeline is completely unaffected by external events of the last couple of weeks” and that the succession process had started in the middle of 2023.
But you can’t deny the storm he has faced over the past four weeks.
On Monday night’s Four Corners, Banducci walked out of an interview while being grilled over allegations of price gouging and the lack of competition in the Australian supermarket sector.
Banducci walked out after a question about former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) boss Rod Sims, but later returned and finished the interview.
Four Corners reporter Angus Grigg put it to Mr Banducci that Mr Sims had characterised the Australian grocery sector as one of the most concentrated in the world — but the Woolies boss appeared to bristle at the mention of the former competition czar’s name.
Both Coles and Woolworths have denied engaging in price gouging.
Good riddance to a man who not only runs a highly-monopolised business, but also inflamed Australians with his decision to remove Australia Day stock ahead of the public holiday last month.
And, deeper beneath the surface, has been at the realm as Woolworths expands its biometric surveillance agenda across shops nationwide. Perhaps the most important talking point that nobody is mentioning.
Beneath the smoke and mirrors, it’s not just prices or national identity that are being manipulated here.
WOOLIES SAGA
Banducci has been in control at Woolworths through a very controversial period in the company’s history.
Woolworths faced public criticism and calls for a boycott last month after ditching Australia Day products, with Banducci and the supermarket forced into damage control.
Woolworths Group said while it stocked Australia flags all year round, it wouldn’t be stocking anything special for the occasion this year.
The South Africa-born CEO later apologised to staff in a letter for the backlash they had received.
The decision prompted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to call on Australians to “boycott Woolworths”, while Reconciliation Australia welcomed the move (typical social engineering).
But this cultural marxist indoctrination is only the surface level of Woolworths transition.
With the expansion of self-service checkouts, the store now used AI surveillance to monitor item scanning and send alerts when errors are made. Like Coles, they also have ‘smart gates’ in place.
And, when it comes to checkouts, artificial intelligence will eventually phase out the need all together, as supermarkets switch to biometric identification measures like the ones seen in Amazon stores.
The eventual plan is to have people sign up for an account, scan their faces, and instead of paying for their items when leaving the store at a checkout, the customer simply walks out and the camera recognises who they are — charging their account automatically.
In a few years, there will also be barely be any staff left in supermarkets at all, as groups like Woolworths begin a shift to automated workforces.
They are starting at distribution centres, are filling shops as ‘helpers’, and more.
Key logistics facilities in Sydney and Melbourne have already lost hundreds of employees during this transition, and if the agenda continues to this biometric point, there will be barely any need for humans.
Woolworths also trialled cashless payment systems at 11 CBD stores across these regions in 2020, announcing that these locations would not be accepting cash payments from customers.
While Banducci is being blasted for his price gouging and Australia Day decisions, as you can see, he was also completely aware of all of these moves in motion while he was in the CEO spot.
No doubt, unfortunately, his replacement will continue on the agenda.
It’s time Australians boycott the organisation completely.
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Over $2 million! Geez they get paid too well, no wonder prices keep going up. Best to do most or all of your shopping from small business if you can, farmers markets, buy second hand and go direct to manufacturers and farmers. Buy in bulk it saves you money. Try Burrum Burrum for oats and grains, Toilet paper plus for bulk toilet paper, and make your own cleaning products that are non-toxic. I also love Biome who sell a lot of Australian made safely made products. And when you do have to go to a supermarket make the time to stand in line at manned checkouts with cash in hand. The more people that refuse self serve and paying by card the better impact we have.
Also Honest to Goodness sell bulk goods. Any other suggestions how we can avoid supermarkets the better. Grow your own in what little space you can it is surprising how much you can save and save those seeds!
I began reducing my dependence on Moles and Bullies over a year ago. Apart from the unethical treatment of their suppliers, over the top stranglehold of the Australian grocery market, and blatant ripping off customers, the evil scum BlackRock and Vanguard are shareholders. Off topic but BlackRock and Vanguard are also common shareholders across Insurance Australia Group Suncorp and QBE along with too many other companies such as our banks to mention here.
Moles and Bullies, made my day! Yes going to close my Suncorp account very soon, ANZ taking over. Hard to know which bank to go with, I use Bendigo Bank and am thinking of Bank Australia. Any suggestions apart from sticking my cash under the mattress?
It matters very little which bank you bank with. They are in one way or the other all owned by the conglomerates and the Major Shareholders, State Street, BlackRock and Vanguard and if one digs deeper one will find that Vanguard owns BlackRock and State Street. And who owns Vanguard? Well as the saying goes, All Roads Lead to Rome. Who then, sits in Rome in the City of Seven hills? Well I ‘ll leave that for you to find out. All for the “common good” indeed!
That does not make me feel better. What hope have we then? I like to try to make better choices but seems I am wasting my time?
It may not make you feel better but it does make you wiser. The wiser the better as forewarned is forearmed. Our great grandparents did not need a bank. The mattress sufficed.
Coles now ‘Employing’ PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES (Military CONplex/Corporate Contractors – Now ‘ACTive’ in Ukraine – ON the Neo Nazi ‘Side’ of course!), for ALL A.I/Data -Customer -Staff Trace Tracking/#s. Crunching OF ALL & EVERYTHING!
Wellness
For years, I’ve been privately referring to this guy as “Bad” Brad Banducci. For increasingly obvious reasons. Let us also not forget Bullies’ collaboration with the Plan-demic; their hardline response of mandating mask-wearing for customers and employees, and vaccines for their employees. They were one of many Australian mega-corps that quickly collaborated with and helped amplify the virus-scare operation with their policies, marketing and advertising. The Four Corners interview with Banducci was fascinating; you could actually see Banducci being stopped and led away from the interview by some kind of “handlers” or “minders”. Wonder who they were – PR people? Or are there other unseen forces controlling our top CEOs? Makes you wonder….