Reaction to grocery market report

For more reaction and comment on the Competition Commission report visit the EDP where Janet Farrow (Sheringham Chamber of Trade) said people appreciated the need for a larger grocery store in the town, but the current plans were too big and in the wrong place and that “The current offering of shops is diverse, with nearly everything people require, plus several niche shops. With retailers having a pretty hard time of it anyway, the fear is that a large Tesco would be a double whammy for a lot of traders. You could see Sheringham change in a way that people would not like. For a lot of businesses it would not take a lot to tip the scales.”
You can also see the BBC reports where Peter Freeman, chairman of the commission and inquiry group chairman, said: "Our principal concern now is to focus on competition between retailers at the local level, where it most matters to consumers, as this is where many of the potential concerns we have would be evident." He said they now needed to see what choices shoppers had in particular areas and how competition works between retailers of different sizes. "It would be a cause for concern if supermarkets, either individually or collectively, were in a position to increase prices or lower their offer in any particular locality or region because of lack of effective competition," he added.
View the full report at the Competition Commission website.