Supermarkets have been blighting our land and lives for too long
An inquiry into the pernicious power of these retail giants should be an urgent priority for the coalition
Whooo! Gosh. Umm:
Supermarkets emerge unscathed after third major inquiry in eight years
Correct. We\’ve been though this three times already uhnder the last, Labour, government. Now I agree that they didn\’t find as you would wish but that they didn\’t do so has a number of possible explanations. They\’re neo-liberal bastards entirely in the pockets of the capitalists for example. Or quite possibly that you\’re just wrong.
As you are in some other matters:
It seems absurd to think of large grocery and hardware shops as the cause, or the facilitator, of so many avoidable ills, but barely a week goes by when the actions of supermarkets are not held responsible for some kind of harm, whether it\’s to overweight teenagers, the pub trade or the farming industry.
It\’s true that they are accused of many things but that\’s rather a result of a vocal minority wishing to blame them for many things. Because, you know, there\’s a group who simply believe that supermarkets are wrong and who will grasp at any straw to try and convince the rest of us. Start looking around the nef offices….and the thing is, when the adults actually sit down and try and wor5k out whether these accusations are in fact true, they find they\’re not.
and you see they all benefit from paying hourly rates that are well below a living wage, which means the taxpayer is forced to make up the rest in tax credits.
Jesu Christe you fucking dunderhead. Entirely arse about tip. The value of labour is determined by the demand for that labour and the supply of it. As it happens a substantial portion of the citizenry believe that people should not have to live on what the value of their labour is. Thus some part of society is taxed in order to raise the incomes of those low value labour peeps.
They promise jobs and pay peanuts, and just when every business in town is on its knees, or has gone bust, they replace people with automatic checkout machines that ask for your Nectar card.
And what do you think happens if you insist that there should be a living wage paid to all workers? That the supermarkets must pay more than the market value of the labour on offer? Yes, quite, those nectar self service checkouts come all the faster and thus fewer are employed. Raising that \”subsidy\” that the taxpayers must pay to those now unemployed.
At present, Hay is a delight to visit; apart from hosting the world\’s greatest literature festival, its streets are filled with variety, animation and a sense of community. The business of shopping in Hay, whether for books, antiques or groceries, is a pleasure, but this plan will kill the town. Campaigners estimate that a supermarket would reduce trade for local shops by between 20% and 75%. Traders in Hay\’s open-air market will be snuffed out and the town will fill with To Let signs, charity and gift shops.
But why would this happen? If shopping there for groceries is a joy then people will not abandon that joy for the supermarket aisles, will they? And if they do then it\’s not quite such a joy, is it? This is revelqaed preferences all over again and the \”campaigners\” are on entirely the wrong side of it. Their own very allegation, that the shoppers will abandon the small shops to stalk the soul less shopping centre is the very proof that we need that the shopping centre, the supermarket, is what the citizenry desires.
but in Britain the supermarkets push products drenched in fructose and sucrose without qualm.
Oh dear, you\’ve been reading the Americans again, haven\’t you? HFCS is not really used over here in Europe, it\’s pretty much entirely an American thing.
Supermarkets now account for about 20% of all book sales in Britain, following the suicidal decision by publishers to cut cover prices for supermarkets in order to gain market share.
Err, no. They\’ve not cut cover prices. What they had was the legal right to insist upon a book being sold at cover price taken away from them. In fact, cover prices haven\’t changed at all. It\’s the discounts from cover that have. Jeez, I\’ve a niece who can rant better than this Henry.
But it is the supermarkets\’ oppressive behaviour with British farmers that makes you wonder at the complacency of our legislators. According to the Competition Commission report in 2000, the buying power of the supermarkets means \”that the burden of cost increases in the supply chain has fallen disproportionately heavily on small suppliers\”. Farmers are going out of business in what the National Farmers Union says is \”a climate of fear\”.
The supermarkets protest that savings are passed on to the consumer. Nonsense. Look at their profits.
Cretin. To see whether food prices have fallen you need to look at food prices. Have food prices risn against general inflation? Fallen?
The answer is, roughly, that they have risen in the past couple of years as the effect of the devaluation of the currency has come in (as we know, we import a lot of our food) and for the couple of decades before that food prices actually fell against general inflation. Making the consumer better off and that\’s the person we care about, the consumer.
Across the political divide, there is awareness that supermarkets are abusing their power. Now we need action – a Leveson inquiry for supermarkets that looks at the total impact on jobs, suppliers, the nation\’s diet, the environment, diversity and planning. This should be followed by the creation of a tough regulator and legislation compelling supermarkets to meet the standards of a fairer, healthier, sustainable, more modern and enlightened society.
Twat. What the fuck do you want an inquiry for if you already know what the conclusions will be?