I RECENTLY took time off to attend a conference in London about supermarkets.
The best bit was an address by an American lady who had carried out studies into the sociological and environmental impact when new supermarkets were built in a town.
We are always led to be that a new supermarket will have a big benefit in both economic and employment terms.
However, the truth would appear to be the opposite.
They actually reduce overall employment, as many small businesses are either driven out by the supermarket or decide to close their business before the supermarket arrives.
We were introduced to a new marketing term, footfall, whereby they count the number of people actually visiting towns and cities. When a new supermarket sets up shop, footfall decreases as less people visit city centres.
I had to have a chuckle the day after when several supermarkets were accused of selling “dodgy” petrol.
On my way home I passed an oil tanker advertising “Where more costs less”. I should hope so too if you or your suppliers are adding strange mixtures to your petrol and then selling it to unsuspecting customers.
We have not had a good start to this year. First, we have the all that cheap “bootiful” turkey imported from Hungary which just happened to co-incide with the first reported case of avian flu in this country.
Next we have dodgy petrol. I wonder just what other sub-standard products are being thrust at customers all in the name of cheap produce?
Admittedly this conference was a mainly supermarket-bashing session, and none of the big retailers were present to defend themselves. But despite their protestations to the contrary, it has to be said they do not support the sale of local produce in their shops.
At a time when supermarkets now dominate the market for many food products, it is a tragedy that a prime farming area like the Vale of Clwyd is allowed to go into decline whilst centralised purchasing centres operated by supermarkets searches for the cheapest supplies.
I think every person should seriously question the overall quality of many of the goods supplied by the major supermarket chains.
This situation will be likely to get worse as competition between them becomes more intense and they put even more pressure on their suppliers, but at what cost to the quality?
