Date published: 2006/05/09
The BBC says:
The market dominance of UK supermarket giants Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons is to be investigated for the third time in seven years.
The stores control almost 75% of the £120bn ($223bn) UK grocery market and the Office of Fair Trading wants the Competition Commission to take a look.
The watchdog said there was evidence that the buying power of big supermarkets could distort competition.
It was also concerned about planning rules and supermarket land holdings.
"This reference will allow the Competition Commission to examine in detail all aspects of the grocery market, ensuring that consumers are able to benefit from strong competition through even lower prices, improved quality and choice, and continuing innovation in the market," said John Fingleton, OFT chief executive.
A complete waste of time. The main losers will be the ordinary people of Britain, who love supermarkets. The main winners will be the extremely expensive consultants and lawyers who will advise all sides, and of course the Competition Commission itself, which has to continually justify its existence. And Fingleton is taking the piss when he says that by hammering the supermarkets, consumers are going "to benefit from strong competition through even lower prices, improved quality and choice". The main reason supermarkets are doing so well is because their prices are lower (for food of equal quality) and their choice is vast, and they have parking. What the anti-supermarket chattering classes really want is a return to the good old days when people had to spend hours on end shopping every other day and putting up with poor choice and high prices. But most of the zealots are more honest than Fingleton in their arguments, because they will loudly claim that food prices are far too low and that there is far too much choice (why should anyone have the right to eat strawberries in December?). Of course these investigations will continue until the anti-supermarket brigade get the result they want. What we really need is some competition for the Competition Commission.
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