Australians are boozing less, getting fewer flu jabs and choosing home brands: five things we learned from AGM season

Today’s Australians are drinking less alcohol, getting fewer flu vaccines, choosing home-brand supermarket products, wearing AI tech and taking more weight-loss drugs. Here are five things we learned during Australia’s annual general meeting season; a time of year when shareholders get to pepper companies with questions. Supermarkets want you to have a home-branded Christmas Supermarkets want Christmas lunches across Australia to be full of home brands, as the festive season shapes as the next battle between Coles and Woolworths. Coles is promising 340 new Coles-brand groceries and drinks for the festive season, banking on shoppers’ sustained search for cut-price over luxury. Woolworths has been growing much slower than Coles in the last 18 months, but has reported sales of its own-brand products grew at nearly double the pace of its overall supermarket sales in the three months since June. Supermarkets typically get higher profit margins from their own brands compared to private label products. Cheaper home brands also help them compete with discount retailers Aldi and Costco. Flu vaccinations slip – but not as bad as US Australian biotech CSL suffered a share sell-down after disclosing another fall in US influenza vaccination rates – which are below pre-pandemic levels. CSL expects rates to fall this season in the US by a further 14% in the all-important 65-plus age group; a group it targets with a vaccine designed to create a stronger immune response. The chair, Brian McNamee, described the trend as “remarkable”, given the high hospitalisation rates of the last US season, which would typically spark a rush for flu jabs. The infectious diseases physician Allen Cheng, from Monash University, says he suspects the “anti-vax sentiment and polarisation after the pandemic” is one of the reasons there is reduced vaccine coverage in the US. Flu vaccine rates have also been falling in Australia for most cohorts, albeit not to the same extent as in the US. Cheng says the strongest determinant of whether people get vaccinated in Australia is whether their general practitioner recommends it. “Part of the reason could be that it costs money to see a GP, and people can’t necessarily get in to see a GP,” he says. The flu is killing more Australians than Covid-19 for the first time since the height of the pandemic, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday. Consumers look for Meta glasses and AI computers AI-powered tech is getting customers excited, JB Hi-Fi says. Nick Wells, the group’s chief executive, points to AI-powered laptops and desktops as well as wearable devices, such as Meta’s AI-backed Ray-Ban glasses and the health-monitoring Oura rings, with more products in the pipeline. “[Meta’s] ambition for those glasses taking over from what you would ordinarily do on a PC or on a mobile phone, I think over the coming years that will be really interesting to see how that evolves,” he says. “I appreciate it may not be for everyone at this point, but AI in devices is a really interesting dynamic.” Harvey Norman also noticed shopper demand for AI-enabled computers and phones, powering a jump in tech sales at the homewares retailer. Commonwealth Bank has found electronics spending has accelerated in recent months, potentially due to the iPhone 17’s release and strong streaming demand after the new season of Amazon Prime’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. Chemist Warehouse profits from weight loss Chemist Warehouse has revealed Ozempic-like drugs have powered a sales boom that has its competitors rattled. Its parent company, Sigma, reported spending at Chemist Warehouse had accelerated since June, with sales nearly 20% higher in the three months compared to the same time last year. GLP-1 medications, including Ozempic, Mounjaro and other expensive weight-loss drugs, were revealed for the first time as a key part of customer demand at the newly merged company’s first AGM. Explosive demand for the drugs has prompted online “ghost stores” to cash in, masquerading as Australian businesses and advertising treatments that in one case contained nothing but salty water, Guardian Australia has revealed. Chemist Warehouse’s success has competitors rattled. Shareholders grilled executives on the threat from Chemist Warehouse at AGMs for Priceline Pharmacy’s parent company, Wesfarmers, and Woolworths, with both companies acknowledging strong competition in the sector. Australians are boozing less Australians are drinking less and shopping for better-value alcohol, making trouble for pubs and bottle shops around the country. Footy finals season and Father’s Day brought crowds to pubs but they have not stuck around, hotels giant Endeavour reported. With beer prices on the rise and few big events outside the end of year, sales growth is expected to slow, it told investors. Dan Murphy’s and BWS, also owned by Endeavour, sold $24m less alcohol in 2025’s September quarter than they did in 2024. People with cash to splash are still buying premium wine brands but more shoppers are swapping from champagne to sparkling wine, according to the chief executive, Kate Beattie. Coles says shoppers have cut their alcohol spend and are focused on cheap products, after its liquor division saw sales drop by $9m. Dan Murphy’s and BWS plan to regain shoppers with heavier discounting, while Coles hopes to simplify its promotional prices by eliminating its Vintage Cellars and First Choice Liquor stores and converting them to Liquorlands.