It is fashionable to believe supermarkets to be the evil empire, but I Iike their good value, choice and - broadly speaking - their service offer.

They do the basics of life well. Actually, they do the specialist niche stuff pretty well too. I didn’t say I loved them, and down in Bristol, home of the infamous ‘anti-Tesco riots’, there are some that have a different view. But I am not convinced by anyone who smashes up their own town, however aggrieved they are about big business.

There is a worry for many though that independents are only ever crushed by the multiple juggernaut and planning policies are too favourable to land bank-hoarding mega-retailers. Yet there is a good reason why there are so many supermarket chains in our towns and cities. It is no capitalist conspiracy - the more mundane truth is that Tesco (and the other big players) are really very good at what they do.

But if you are an independent and you have a genuine, creative and customer value and service-oriented offer, you won’t be edged out. In fact, customers will seek you out and you will prosper. Contrary to killing speciality food, the big boys have provided a shop window for the tasty, the different and the quirky. Brand uniformity gives supermarket chains presence, but food innovation is their lifeblood. But it is a balancing act, tempered by economic order quantities, centralising supply chain efficiencies, standardisation and consistency, and this provides opportunity for independents.

Exotic fresh produce ranges in supermarkets are narrow, often pre-packaged and relatively expensive and targeted at the cautious mainstream customer. Independents can appeal to specialist tastes, micro-seasonal demand and satisfy the market for more than one variety, size and ripeness.

But what of relationships between the retail superpowers and their suppliers? This is the context of the 10-year saga of the Groceries Supply Code of Practice. There should be such a body as the adjudicator and with teeth, but it may be public money poorly spent if we are to enter ‘quango’ territory. In my experience and analysis of the dealings between supermarkets and their suppliers, there are indeed unpleasant practices at the periphery, but most relationships are business-like and once established there is remarkably little supplier turnover. What keeps the best of these going is constant and open communications up and down the chain.

The food system is power imbalanced. This is a normal economic phenomenon - very few business exchanges take place between equal numbers of buyers and suppliers of equivalent size. If they did, one party would always seek to unbalance it. My view is the close, non-contractual and trust-based operation of supply will continue. It will be imbalanced in control and reward, but suppliers have access to a large and regular market and can do well serving it.

Martin Hingley is a professor of strategic marketing at Lincoln Business School