Supermarkets claim that they come to town they bring cheap food & jobs. But the reality is different...

  

Supermarkets claim that when they come to town they bring choice, cheap food, development and jobs. But the reality is different:

1. Local choice is eroded as smaller, independent shops struggle to compete with the supermarkets. Between 1997 and 2002 more than 13,000 specialist stores around the UK – including newsagents, Post Offices, grocers, bakers, butchers - closed. The loss of local, independent shops can have serious impacts in terms of access to food, particularly for people on lower incomes or those who don’t have use of a car.

2. Money is siphoned away from local communities and towards shareholders and distant corporations. A Friends of the Earth study of local food schemesix found that on average just over half of business turnover was returned to the local economy – compared to as little as five per cent for supermarkets.

3. Traffic congestion increases. The distribution systems used by supermarkets and the location of out of town stores generate large amounts of traffic. Recent work for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) suggests that car use for shopping results in costs to society of more than £3.5 billion per year, from traffic emissions, noise, accidents, congestion and accidents.

4. Local jobs are lost. Supermarket claims that new stores bring in jobs fail to consider the wider picture of independent retailer bankruptcies. A 1998 study by the National Retailer Planning Forum (NRPF) examining the employment impacts of 93 superstore openings between 1991 and 1994 found that they resulted in a net loss of more than 25,000 jobs or 276 per store opened.

5. Food and packaging waste is generated. Packaging now makes up nearly a quarter of household waste. A shocking 35-40 per cent of all household waste which ends up in landfill begins life as a purchase from one of the big five supermarkets.

6. Suppliers are exploited and the environment is damaged. Supermarkets use their market dominance to exploit suppliers and farmers and drive down prices, thus ensuring that environmentally damaging practices are continued both in the UK and overseas.

Extract from "How to…oppose a supermarket planning application" Friends of the Earth, Sept 2005