THE footprint of Australia's two largest retailers, Woolworths and Wesfarmers, has grown to such an extent that each company has a higher market share than the American retail juggernaut Wal-Mart in its US home.
From food and liquor, financial services, electrical goods to hardware and even private label beer, the march of the nation's super retailers appears unchecked.
Between the two of them they account for 25 cents out of every $1 spent in Australian retailers, according to analysis by IBISWorld, which values the market at $350 billion.
Each group now has a higher share of wallet than the world's No.1 store chain, Wal-Mart, and on a par with the British retailer Tesco. IBISWorld says that for every $10 spent in Australian shops, $1.25 and $1.30 goes through the respective tills of Woolworths and Wesfarmers, the parent company of Coles and Target.
This year analysts expect Wal-Mart to account for $US1.10 for every $US10 spent in American stores.
Last Tuesday, Woolworths announced its intention to go into hardware wholesaling and retailing and it is soon to launch a private label beer to take on the premium European and domestic beers. Earlier this year it acquired the organic retailer Macro Wholefoods to expand its upmarket grocer group called Thomas Dux.
But while its growing market share might worry some politicians - namely the independent Senator Nick Xenophon - and competition experts such as the University of NSW's Associate Professor Frank Zumbo, analysts and marketing experts see scant sign of resistance from shoppers.
As long as the two companies continued to provide a wide variety of products, value, innovation and a good in-store experience, there was little reason for shoppers to go elsewhere, said an IBISWorld retail analyst, Ellada Mirimanian. She added that few shoppers were aware of the breadth of the companies' ownership.
David Evans, of the advertising agency George Patterson Y&R, said that, according to a rolling survey of 4000 consumers, the results of which are due out in a month, trust in Woolworths was rising steadily and had eclipsed that for Coles.
"They [Woolworths] have done remarkably well with sub-brands like petrol [and] they now have the consumer's permission to move into other areas," said Mr Evans, the agency's strategic planning director. "Woolworths has yet to let them down and until they do so, then they have fantastic potential. It's getting harder for Woolies to make a mistake."
But the companies' dominance is worrying organisations such as the consumer group Choice, which said commercial success was leading to less competition. "Just how big do they have to get for the competition regulator to move?" said a spokesman, Christopher Zinn. "What's the cut-off point? We would like to know."
Mr Zinn said among his members there was growing awareness and concern over the growing might of the supermarket chains.
But both Woolworths and Wesfarmers rejected the idea that their success was leading to an erosion of competition. Woolworths went further and disputed the veracity of IBISWorld's figures.
A spokesman cited a speech made in the past week by the Woolworths chief executive, Michael Luscombe, in which he said the best evidence of competition was the 21 million customers who each week could have shopped elsewhere but chose to go through his stores instead.
A Wesfarmers spokesman, Keith Kessell, said the competition regulator's inquiry into the grocery market had shown it to be in "robust good health".
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