The “benefits” of large supermarkets

A new book (“Tescopoly” by Andrew Simms, Constable, £7.99) has come out about what large supermarkets do to towns and cities. Here are a few quotes from an interview with the book’s author in today’s Guardian (which by the way has a very interesting supplement on Rural Communities – of which Seaton is a part – and, in particular, Community Land Trusts).

“You end up with a paradox … flying under the flag of promoting free markets: monopolies”.

“There is the poverty of our “cloned” commercial surroundings, the poverty of knowing the hardship of the people who fill the supermarket shelves and the overwhelming (spiritual) poverty of actually getting to and shopping in a supermarket”.

“When you see a Tesco hypermarket on the edge of town what you are seeing is the surgical removal of the economic underpinning of neighbourhood and communities, to a sort of sanitised, laboratory environment, physically removed from the body”.

“He lambasts [supermarkets] for undermining democracy by flexing their legal and financial muscle against much weaker local authorities and employing former government advisers to forge close relationships with Whitehall”.

“It’s not necessarily good [to have a big supermarket]. It doesn’t make the environment around it a pleasant place”.

“ ..the winner takes all dynamic is killing off alternatives”.

“Local food co-ops, farmers’ markets and loyalty cards for small shops are some of the alternatives to supermarkets that Simms wants to see promoted and encouraged to the same degree that supermarkets have, in effect, been subsidised by a favourable planning regime and business climate that has nurtured their concentration of power”.

We have always had a link to the Tescopoly site on this blog.