Tesco made a bid to alter the Competition Commission’s definition of “local” yesterday by arguing that it constitutes a 30-minute drive from home to a store.
The 28-page submission argues that the UK grocery market should be considered as one national market and attempts to change the commission’s definition of a local market - a drive time of 10-15 minutes - used as the basis of its ongoing investigation into the UK grocery market.
The retail giant is often accused of having a stranglehold on the UK grocery market, with a 31-per-cent share.
The creation of so-called “Tesco towns” such as Inverness, where 52p in every £1 is spent on food and drink at Tesco stores, has fuelled criticism.
But UK number-one supermarket claimed that most shoppers have access to an average of 23 grocery stores, including at least one run by all five of the largest supermarket chains, within a 30-minute drive of their homes.
Rival retailers dismissed Tesco’s argument that shoppers would be prepared to drive for half an hour to find a store with prices five-per-cent cheaper as “ridiculous”.
Tesco also argued that its large stores were restricted by small shops as a “significant proportion” of shoppers spend more than 60 per cent of their weekly budget in smaller Tesco Express or Sainsbury’s Local formats.
No comments yet