BB FANS

Lorna Martin, Scotland editor
Sunday January 1, 2006
The Observer

In Inverness, 'dominant' does not begin to describe the extent of Tesco's stranglehold on the population's purses.

The city, the capital of the Highlands and the fastest-growing region in the UK, has recently been dubbed 'Tesco Town'. No area in the country is more dependent upon one retail behemoth.

More than 50p in every pound spent on food by the city's 66,000 residents changes hands at a Tesco checkout in one of the city's four supermarkets - three of which are Tescos. Two are in out-of-town retail parks with shops the size of hangars and car parks nearly as big as the farms which made way for them.

Charles Morgan, founder of the City of Inverness Traders' Association, said the expansion of Tesco had resulted in 30 small independent shops in the city centre's Old Town closing within the last two years.

He refuses to shop in Tesco, whose only direct competition comes from one branch of Morrisons: 'I thought a monopoly was illegal, but under this government that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm not against Tesco or big out-of-town complexes. We need them, but we don't need so many. Our historic centres are being turned into ghost towns.'

Because of the lack of competition, say its critics, Tesco can nudge prices upwards. In Inverness petrol, for instance, is more expensive than at Tesco's in Elgin, 40 miles east, where other superstores, such as Asda, compete for customers - a fact worrying some consumers as well as other shopkeepers.

lol, and why does he think people choose to no longer shop at the small places ?
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Doubtless, if he had the power, we'd all forced by law to shop at 50 different shops for individual items taking upwards of 15-20 hours a week - and paying significantly more for it too.
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Consumer freedom of choice. It astounds me at the arrogance of some business people. They whine and moan about Tesco...which is one of the UK's most successful companies. Its simple envy on their part.

Long live the Church of T. The Church of Retail !

Calrissian: Every store is a blessing

Not sure I agree Cal ,,, Tescos aggressive fight to get produce at the cheapest rates no matter what harms . the enviroment. the producers and as an end result the health of us the consumer.

i wont pretend to know all there is to know about food production, but i will say that most nimals on this plannet spend most of their day in the hunt for food, when was the last time you or me hunted a live meal for our pot, food producers are vital to our society and if the huge supermarkets kill off our own home grown providers because in the short term they can get cheaper from abroad it just harms us as a country

Hmm
Its pure capitilism though !

Hey look, as for the 'poor producers'. If they are too weak to get together and form their own cartel, then too bad.

Do you think all the producers will just disappear? Err no, since Tesco will need to still get easy access to local produce (if only to save face).

The whining from the 'producers' has gone on for more than 2 decades, and it'll doubtless go on for another few decades.

It still amuses me that some still believe that the communist system had it merits. The only system that works is outright freedom of choice, and freedom to sell/buy.

Calrissian: time for a Tesco bought lunch

I prefer Waitrose myself you dont get problems with the Chavs in their

Shop Co-op - more ethical!

Don't shop in Tesco as I find a lot of their bargains are crap. They are almost as bad as Morrisons

We had a Sainsburys open out of town a few years back and it totally killed the town centre, they had loss leaders running for months on popular stuff and who wouldn't resist those? Small shopkeepers don't stand a chance

We are now in the middle of a Price War between all the big Super Markets. Tesco have several large sites, Morrisons have one as have Sainsbury and Waitrose, and now ASDA has moved in. Not sure about the Asda prices as the traffic situation is so bad I have still to get into their store.