It’s not surprising that Tesco is reported to be angered by the Competition Commission’s demands that large supermarkets should pull in their reins when it comes to future expansion. The move towards ever-increasing growth has been ongoing across the multiples as part of the fight for market share.

From experience, apart from developing into a shouting match, I would expect the decision to be strongly challenged. But I have a feeling that the final outcome, if adopted, will not make any real difference.

The reality is that the country is already awash with stores of various sizes. These are already collectively responsible for the majority of food that we buy. There are few parts of the UK where the public is not spoilt for choice, exemplified in areas where some of the biggest retail names already share sites or trade opposite each other, cheek by jowl.

And unless major disaster causes their downfall, they are there to stay for the long term. If any retailer does stumble, as in the past, there is the probability that their stores will be sold quickly and absorbed into other empires so numerically, little will change.

Simply restricting the future size of existing outlets will do little to change the competitive pattern of out-of-town shopping or even that of the much-changed high street.

Many major retail players are returning in one guise or another to our town centres - if they are not there already - with additional smaller stop-and-buy outlets, which also extend past the pavement onto once little considered selling platforms, such as station forecourts and garage sites. So it is not just size that is the major criteria.

In the process, our once-loved butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, not to forget fishmongers and greengrocers are, alas, a dying breed. Those that remain, apart from facing the big battalions, are often faced with exorbitant rents and additionally, have to compete with both farmers’ markets and most recently, the discounters.

Initially held at bay, ironically perhaps by our home-grown supermarkets, these discounters have gained a significant following since the recession and have been accepted by the consumer as part of the retail scene.

On the other hand, convenience stores that might have wrung some advantage from the demise of specialist traders, have shrunk in numbers. In terms of fruit and vegetables, most have been unable to fill the gap because of lack of knowledge over seasonality and the perceived risk of perishability.

Meanwhile, the multiple trade regards fruit and vegetables as one of its flagship sections and already controls some 85 per cent of retail sales.

Napoleon’s opinion that the British are a nation of shopkeepers has taken on a new meaning in the 21st century and, whatever the Competition Commission has in mind, it will not turn the clock back even a second.