“Yeah, I forgot to mention that. But it's still two stores under one owner, dominating 2.5 miles or more of high street with not even a tenth of the strength in competition to keep them from doing whatever they want.. That can't be healthy.”

“Crow., St. Pauls, Bristol. "'d prefer that some other firm took over one of the existing Somerfield stores."

The Co-op bought them some time ago & are gradually rebranding them.”

“Ok, looking at the Wikipedia entry for Tesco shows plenty that stinks, and I'd certainly feel cheated if Tesco's competition ended up wiping out Somerfield and making a worse monopoly than we have now.

Re prices, I suspect all of the supermarkets do dodgy things. Just watching the price of chicken in Somerfield is interesting, they often offer 'half price' chickens that are never half price. There has never been a 2.2 Kg bird for £9. They know they'd never be able to sell it and they wouldn't try. I accept that a 2.2 Kg bird for £4.50 is a better price at times of surplus than the usual 2.1Kg bird for £6.50 (and it's better quality too), but I don't see why they need to lie to us. I mention this because price fixing is something I can't observe directly, but this is. So even where dodgy practises apply, a bit of direct scrutiny that allows us to walk away to their rivals will be something they notice and care about, price fixing or no price fixing. I won't say that it keeps them honest, but if a balance of power can be maintained between them then it might be better than an outright monopoly in a district. For example, if they end up competing to provide a better Fair Trade range, that might accelerate takeup of several better standards. I'm not in favour of more supermarkets in Gloucester Road either. I'd prefer that some other firm took over one of the existing Somerfield stores. The best times were when Kwiksave had one, and Somerfield had the other. There really was a lot of price competition and range competition at that time. Was about the only time I can remember that visiting a supermarket could be called 'fun'. They were really trying to win people over instead of shafting them behind their backs. Anyway, given how well most of Gloucester Road has survived, I'm not anxious about it. Most of it looks like it did 25 years ago. That wouldn't have happened if people didn't want it that way. I think the manipulations of traffic laws and parking were a bigger threat, and so far as I know, even that has been resisted effectively.

Crow.”

“@crow

You talk about competition amongst the big supermarkets which, on the face of it looks good for the consumer, but if you look a little more closely you will see that the OFT has proved that they enage in price-fixing cartels. Just look up 'Tesco' on Wikipedia.”

“The Government has done a U-turn on its long term refusal to appoint a supermarket Ombudsman to ensure that farmers and growers get a fair price for their produce ¿ days after David Cameron announced that the Tories will make such an appointment if they win the next election.

New Labour have constantly refused to set up such an office despite years of complaints that food suppliers were being bankrupted by supermarket ¿blackmail¿ to force them to drop their prices. The supermarkets reneged of as voluntary ¿fair trade¿ agreement, according to farming critics.

Even now, however, the duties of the new office have not been fixed and, according to The Guardian newspaper, the Government is still meeting fierce resistance from the big four of Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury¿s and Morrison¿s.

The Tenant Farmers Association has welcomed the Government's announcement that it is to create a retail food industry ombudsman but has criticised the length of time it has taken to reach the decision.

Said TFA chairman Greg Bliss: ¿Whilst we very much welcome the fact that the penny has eventually dropped in Government, this is a decision that should have been made at least a decade ago.

¿I shudder to think of the number of good farm businesses we have lost over that 10-year period as a result of unfair competition and the many more farm businesses which although still functioning, have struggled to make a profit and reinvest in their businesses".

Interesting to see that the big 4 supermarkets are opposed to a supermarket obdusman to protect farmers. Just goes to show they will do anything to ripen their monopoly to the detriment of the ordinary man - and there are people in support of this? The same people who claim that immigrants take our jobs, no doubt?”