Kate Emery: Why Woolworths boss Brad Banducci’s thin-skinned walk-out might be a good thing

It’s the 1-minute and 34-second clip that might actually lead to cheaper groceries (although you might not want to hold your breath).

It’s the clip that reminds us that no corporate boss with tissue paper skin should go near social media.

And it’s definitely the clip that led to a run on spirits in the offices of Woolworths’ PR team this week.

Perhaps you’ve already seen it: Woolworths boss Brad Banducci, unwisely dressed in uniform, like he’s just off a shift stacking shelves and didn’t pocket $7.7 million last year, being asked about competition between Australia’s two biggest supermarket chains.

The snippet of Mr Banducci’s interview with ABC Four Corners reporter Angus Grigg went viral not because it’s news that Australia has one of the most concentrated supermarket industries in the world. Former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Rod Sims has publicly said as much.

The clip went viral because of Mr Banducci’s perceived reluctance to discuss competition. Asked about Mr Sims’ statement, Mr Banducci first rubbished it, then asked to retract his comments and, finally, tried to walk away. His PR team, who presumably had some awareness of the clean-up on aisle four he was creating for them, coaxed Mr Banducci back to the interview.

The moment of the car crash TV has focused on Australia’s supermarket duopoly in a way that no ACCC report could. On X, formerly Twitter, the clip has been viewed 1.8m times, while Four Corners does well to get half a million viewers.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged as much when he told Perth radio it would add to pressure on Woolworths and Coles to act before the Government did. Former government minister Craig Emerson is looking at the voluntary code of conduct for supermarkets, while the ACCC is examining high prices.

“One of the things that is happening, I reckon — and last night will add to it, the Four Corners program — is there’ll be pressure on the supermarkets to do the right thing,” Mr Albanese told Hit FM radio in a reasonably transparent shot across the bow.

“Even before there are recommendations — I mean, they know that public opinion matters to their business.”

In other words: “Do something now, guys, so we don’t have to”.

Nationals leader David Littleproud also felt sufficiently emboldened by the new spotlight on supermarkets to suggest, on Sunrise, that the market leaders could be in danger of having their chains stripped and sold off to competitors.

Will this be the trigger to embarrass the supermarkets, the Government — or both — into serious action on supermarket competition? Let’s wait and see.

But if Woolies’ PR team left any booze for the rest of us, we should raise a glass to Mr Banducci’s thin skin, without which we might not even be having the conversation.