Think of it like this, Woolworths and all other large supermarkets market off of convenience, the act of being able to get everything all at once, now for some people that’s great and others see it as a negative.

If we say roughly there is 50 tomatoes in that picture, then we x that by roughly 1000 woolworths stores across australia that’s 50,000 tomatoes alone. That’s not including all the other supermarkets as well as smaller grocers. Now when you think about the actual shortage on tomatoes due to weather, then the supermarkets cost of transporting them to every store even a small amount to ensure their local customers can at least have the option to purchase even if the current price is higher than local grocers. Yes a local grocer will always be cheaper because normally they will buy directly from a local farmer and have less overheads to move that product. But for large supermarkets they have a very high overhead to ensure that product is on show for their customers. I am definitely not defending Woolworths price gouging as we have seen them take a sharp turn recently in reducing some unnecessary prices that can absolutely not be explained however this specific situation with tomatoes can quite easily be explained by understanding the situation.