Love-hate affair with supermarkets

Food security will soon be an issue for all nations (It is not just our communities they kill, but free markets too, 4 May). In a period of diminishing supply and increasing demand, four food retailers enjoy an increasingly powerful position. A credit crunch can be relieved in the short term by printing money; we cannot print food, it has to be grown, but why should farmers bother when the big four supermarkets have such a stranglehold on price? Our dairy farmers are again giving up at an alarming rate, egg producers are going the same way. Why should they make the expensive, long-term capital investment required to stay in production when the market is so skewed against them?

Our national policy of cheap food at any price, coupled with an unquestioning assumption that you cannot have too many branches of Tesco, is leading us towards a food crisis that could make the credit crunch look like a tea party.

James Gray

Winchester, Hampshire

Peter Wilby writes about the impact of supermarkets on independent shops but it is possible for towns to fight back. Stroud in Gloucestershire was besieged by three superstores, but one of the first farmers' markets started to bring customers back into town, thanks to initial help from the town council. Environmental improvements make the town a good place for both young and older people to meet up, and on Saturdays the centres buzzes with life. Then a butcher opened up, followed by a delicatessen next door. A restaurant owner then started a food emporium specialising in fresh fish. As councils need financial incentives to look after independent businesses, the best way would be to charge supermarkets business rates that reflect the value of their car parks, and then enable councils to tap the proceeds for town improvements.

Nicholas Falk

Director, Urbed (Urban and Economic Development)


letters pic 06/05/11
Illustration: Gillian Blease Gillian Blease

Peter Wilby's argument is too simple. The causes of the decline of the British high street cannot be laid at the door of the supermarkets alone. He touches on what is almost certainly the main contributor: the rise of car-borne shopping. In many town centres, parking is difficult and expensive; the shopper has to go from one shop to another on foot, often in poor weather. Parents with young children, in particular, find this trying. When the alternative is "free" parking at a supermarket where they can buy everything they need under one roof, the choice is not difficult. You could also examine the rising rents in high streets (upward-only rent reviews imposed by landlords) and business rates. Supermarkets are not the only shops to have moved out of town.

My colleague Andrew Seth and I have studied supermarkets in some depth (see, for example, The Grocers: the rise and rise of the supermarket chains). Most consumers appreciate what supermarkets provide. It is a vocal minority who complain. But we would agree that, compared with France, our high streets are impoverished. The answer in France, and in other countries such as Italy that want to preserve the health of their artisan food providers, is legislation. If people really want supermarkets curbed, the government will have to legislate.

Geoffrey Randall

Rode, Somerset

Supermarkets on the whole pay low wages and prefer shift-working that minimises their social obligations to their workers (sickness, holiday pay etc): why not change this employment law? The money goes straight out of the local economy rather than feeding and circulating within it. My butcher, fishmonger, baker, veg shop buy "locally", while most supermarkets buy (inter)nationally. Why not change these laws? My local shopkeepers are reporting a big downturn as people tighten their belts. Still it was noted in the deep snow that people walked to local shops. People use their cars and thereby consume petrol too much for shopping: why not a high local tax on supermarket carparks to compare with high cost of parking outside local shops?

Jan Fairley


We are pleased that Labour is considering how to give residents greater control over the future of their local high streets (Ed Miliband backs greater voice for locals on spread of supermarkets – 2 May). But we would urge Miliband to ensure he does not ponder the solution for too long and miss the opportunity presented by the localism bill, currently in the House of Commons and due to pass into the Lords in late May. The legislation aims to empower local people, including by reforming elements of the planning system. But it does not go far enough. If it really is to empower people it should rebalance the appeals system and be amended to include a limited community right of appeal – as the Lib Dems and Conservatives said they would prior to the election – when the legislation has its report stage later this month.

Fiona Howie

Head of planning, Campaign to Protect Rural England

Peter Wilby complainsthat supermarkets are "forcing down prices and increasingly dictating to suppliers what they produce". But before 1964 in the UK, the boot was on the other foot: suppliers and manufacturers had the right, under resale price maintenance agreements, to stop supplying shops that sold goods below the agreed price, so supermarkets could not discount goods which consequently appeared at the same price in small shops and supermarkets. This system was abolished by the Tories in 1964, to the dismay of their small shopkeeper supporters, but was re-legalised in the US by the American supreme court case of Leegin Creative Leather Products Inc versus PSKS Inc (2007).

DBC Reed


Opponents of yet another Tesco store in the Stokes Croft district of Bristol have just cause for objecting to its opening (though not for the violence that ensued). The Gloucester Road – a short walk away from the Stokes Croft area – proudly hosts the following small independent businesses despite the presence of a Sainsbury's mini store and a Co-operative supermarket:

A bakery serving its own daily baked breads and cakes; a fish shop that also organises fishing trips; two fruit and vegetable shops; a delicatessen specialising in olives and unusual fare; two well stocked health shops; a "green" hairdresser using only organic products; a hardware shop with a comprehensive array of goods; numerous excellent cafes and bars, several operating as community resources with talks and activities for all age groups; and a lot more besides.

Need I go on? The area is buzzing and vibrant, attracting a cross-section of residents and visitors from across Bristol and elsewhere. Small is beautiful and dynamic and must be supported by government and customers alike so more such shopping outlets can thrive.

Helen Vegoda


Peter Wilby expresses concern about independent shops and says that next to the motor car their loss has been the most radical cause of change to "the look and texture of our environment". As it is the motor car which is directly to blame for "clone-town Britain" and the fact that 97% of food is bought from the supermarket chains, Wilby's suggested remedies to free up the retail market will have no effect until the freedom to use the car is very severely restrained.

Daniel Scharf

Abingdon, Oxfordshire