What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love

The other day I went and bought a bag of spinach, one onion, and two carrots — $10.70. You read that correctly. I was shocked. And this kind of thing feels routine these days.

The cost of living just keeps rising, while wages and job opportunities aren’t keeping pace. I’ve always thought: once prices go up, why would retailers ever drop them again? But the real catch is that incomes aren’t lifting, and people are simply trying to keep their heads above water.

We were in Wellington last week, and I’d heard talk about it being a ghost town, but to see it in person was something else. Courtenay Place was dead quiet. The only sound was Burt Bacharach playing from a public toilet, singing “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”
Burt, you’re right.

A Small Business in a Slowing Market

In our flooring business, just six months in, we had two banging months. I thought, we’re winning. But lately, things have dropped off. Last month we just broke even. Still, at least it wasn’t a loss, and in this economy, that feels like a small victory.

It’s not just us. The whole construction sector has slowed right down. Imagine a local building or flooring company with about $1 million a year in turnover and seven staff. Last year, work might have been steady, giving a typical monthly revenue of around $83,000. Now, with fewer projects going ahead, that same company might see monthly revenue drop to about $65,000–$70,000, a 15–20 percent decline. Even a small drop like that puts real pressure on payroll, materials, vehicles, and bills, and quickly turns a comfortable month into a tight one.

You can feel it across the trades: fewer builds, tighter margins, and more people chasing the same jobs. The government is trying to prop things up with more school builds and public tenders, which helps some of us, but the market isn’t what it was.

The Big Shake-Up: Bremworth and Mohawk

And it’s not just small operators navigating change. Even the big players are moving pieces.

The latest news in flooring is the acquisition of Bremworth by Mohawk Industries, a massive American flooring manufacturer that already owns Godfrey Hirst and Feltex Carpets. Once the deal goes through, they’ll hold a huge share of the NZ flooring market, basically controlling most of our local carpet manufacturing.

On one hand, it could mean more stability and investment in NZ-made wool carpets. On the other, when one big player controls so much, it often means less variety and potentially higher prices over time. You only have to look at NZ lamb, somehow cheaper in the UK than it is here, to see how global consolidation can tilt the scales.

Pulling It All Together

When you zoom out, it’s easy to see why so many people are feeling stretched. Everyday costs are high, work is uncertain, and even the biggest industries are shifting under our feet.

For small businesses like ours, it’s a strange mix of optimism and reality. We’re trying to grow in a market that’s shrinking, keep local jobs going, and stay positive while the ground keeps moving. The slowdown has made everyone sharper, more cautious, more resourceful, but it’s also reminded us that resilience matters more than ever.

Maybe the Bremworth deal will bring new opportunities if Mohawk invests in local manufacturing and supports NZ wool. Or maybe it’ll tighten the market further. Either way, it’s a reminder that everything, from the global boardroom to the local job site, is connected.

So yes, it’s hard out there.

But as Burt Bacharach said:

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love, not just for some, but for everyone.”