New Supermarket Figures Worry Small Retailers

Mon, 08 Mar 2010

 
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New figures from the Daily Mail have revealed that more than two of every five towns in the UK have at least five supermarkets within a ten minute drive. The finding that 42 per cent of the UK’s towns have so many supermarkets has alarmed small businesses, while Conservative MP and chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group, David Amess, called for a government inquiry into the supermarket industry.

Mr Amess wants the government to investigate claims that supermarkets are strangling the high street and destroying businesses. In some cases, the same supermarket chain owns more than one supermarket within ten minutes of a town, while Mr Amess has claimed that supermarkets can overturn any local authority decision by employing high calibre lawyers .

The rise of supermarkets in the UK has seen a decline in the number of independent retailers, down from 500,000 in 1945 to just 35,500. That has coincided with the ‘big four’ supermarkets – Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Tesco – securing a 75 per cent stake in the £80 billion grocery sector. The credit crunch has made it harder for independent retailers, of which 2,000 went out of business last year. The diversification of supermarkets into areas such as loans and insurance could make it even harder for small businesses.