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Small independent retailers are being squeezed out of the market by supermarkets and large rivals and could vanish from the High Street within ten years, politicians in an all-party parliamentary group have warned.
Concerns over alleged "predatory" pricing methods at supermarkets as well as their increasing presence in the convenience store sector have also prompted calls for a Competition Commission investigation into the grocery market.
To halt store closures, the MPs made a number of recommendations, including setting up a retail regulator and suspending further mergers and takeovers in the sector until its future is decided.
The group said that if smaller stores were squeezed out, there would be social, economic and environmental consequences felt by local communities, and that the erosion of small shops is viewed as the erosion of the “social glue that binds communities together”.
Group member Philip Hollobone MP added that smaller retailers feared they would no longer be able to compete against bigger retailers if current trends continue, explaining: “As consumers, we may be benefiting in the short term from the low prices and the attractive offer that supermarkets can present to us, but in 10, 15, 20 years time, the prices we pay for our... supermarket goods, may actually be rather higher than we would wish”.
The Forum of Private Business (FPB), which represents small and medium-sized firms, welcomed the findings. Spokesman Ben Pinnington commented: “The government needs to look at the inexorable growth of the supermarkets to try to come to some kind of control”.
But the British Retail Consortium (BRC) dismissed the report and accused the all-party group of trying to turn the clock back and reverse some well established trends in consumer shopping habits.
Source:
RedAlert
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