Giving ground

摘要

When the Competition Commission began to investigate possible abuses of market position by the major supermarkets 18 months ago, it seemed that perhaps time was about to be called on decades of rapid expansion. The heritage lobby, which has long campaigned against the "clone towns" that they blamed on this "Tescopoly" was looking for the government to put an end to them. They are likely to be disappointed with what the commission has said. In fact, it concluded that more stores should be built to intensify competition, and it criticised the supermarkets' tactics of buying up possible development sites to deny them to rivals.