Stalker was interested to see that Britain’s biggest supermarkets could face tougher government controls- including big fines for mistreating suppliers – after they refused to support the creation of an industry ombudsman to monitor and police the relationship between retailer and supplier.
Not surprisingly the Big four – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – rejected the competition Commission’s proposal.
At the end of the day Stalker suspects that the Big 4 and others will continue to do what they always have done – squeeze suppliers to the max and reap the profits without a backward glance. It’s supposedly free market capitalism – so it goes.
Mind you, it looks increasingly like oligopoly (on steroids): a market form in which a market or industry is dominated by a small number of sellers.
