ImagesBrighton pictures of the week 20-2-2006

IMAGESBRIGHTON photography by david gray
	L O C A L F O O D S H O P S
	P I C T U R E S O F T H E W E E K 2 0 - 2 - 2 0 0 6

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This week's pictures feature local food shops. In a few years time, there may be no independent food retailers left to shop in, let alone photograph. A parliamentary report just published has said that the onward march of the big supermarket chains threatens to stamp out the independents by 2015. Tesco, the largest chain, already has 30% of the entire UK grocery market. At least £1 in every £8 spent on all retail purchases (non-food as well as food) now goes into a Tesco till. The other three big multiples (Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons) are also locked into a competitive spiral that requires them to take a larger share of the market year after year. Inevitably, this growth is at the expense of smaller businesses. There are still over a quarter of a million retailers in Britain who are sole traders. But, unless the multiples can be controlled, the numbers of corner shops, butchers, bakers, greengrocers and other small specialists will carry on falling. Apart from a few enclaves of middle-class "foodie" stores, our high streets will all be clones, dominated by the fascias and the buying policies of the big chains. Nobody apart from their shareholders could sensibly want this to happen. Support your local food shops this week, because next year they probably won't be there.

Shopping at a Brighton greengrocer in June 2002 (image 2124-14)

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