News
Victory for the superstores ‘spells doom to small shops’
Thousands of small stores are doomed after a Government watchdog approved supermar-kets’ expansion plans, it was claimed last night. Community groups fear that city centres will become ghost towns as the ‘big four’ – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – move to extend their empires. The proposals are expected to speed the closure of small independent outlets, which are already being lost at a rate of more than 2,000 a year.A spokesman said: ‘A narrow obsession with competition between a few giant retailers who offer a very similar quality of life. ‘Local independent businesses could be crushed.’ And the policy director at the New Economics Foundation think –tank, Andrew Simms, said the pro-posals were ‘perverse’. ‘They lay the field wide open for a mass extinction event in smaller enterprises that are crucial to the health and resilience of British retail,’ he added. ‘If the commission’s proposals go unchallenged, Britain will become a dull reflection of those sprawling U.S suburbs fed by soulless retail parks, and known in the U.S as the “dead zones”.’
Salisbury has been known for its market and shops for centuries. But now the cathedral city has become the epitome of a ‘Tesco Town’, with the company’s supermarkets accounting for 58% of all grocery sales. Despite being home to just 45,000 people, Salisbury has four supermarkets – two Tescos, one small Sainsbury’s and a small Waitrose.
Locals complain that since Tesco rose to dominance, the city centre has turned into a ‘ghost town’. The supermarkets draw customers out to the city’s outskirts, and Salisbury’s high street has no greengrocer, fishmonger, butcher or baker.
Brian Mascall, manager of the twice-monthly farmers market, said: ‘the centre of Salisbury now has almost no retail life – they just can’t seem to survive. ‘Everything is based on the outskirts, where the supermarkets are.’
The chamber of commerce’s president, Ian Hudson, added: ‘Putting a large store on the outskirts of the city pulls people away from the centre and other shops follow to take advan-tage of the extra shoppers there – it is a domino effect. ‘We are starting to see a few busi-ness closures.’
-Daily Mail 16/02/08