A round-up of supermarket news and gossip
Supermarkets are the cathedrals of our age – so wrote a Sunday columnist.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that supermarkets are taking over the earth with their sanitised, fascistically homogenised new world order, transforming their customers into living versions of the characterless vegetables they push on the public. Anyone who grew up in the provinces knows that, before the ascendancy of the supermarket chains, one could wait ten years to sample a delicacy that the capital had written off in weeks. Then there is the “Waitrose” effect, whereby house prices rise when a new branch graces a neighbourhood.

An investigation will be launched into the sale of bogus organic meat. Enforcement agencies will start a nationwide inquiry into the sale of ordinary meat labelled as more expensive organic produce. Dudley Ramsden is in line to take a 10% stake in a merged Nisa- Today’s and Costcutter, if shareholders approve the merger deal.

Tesco promised to consult local communities on every new superstore as the country’s largest supermarket chain fought to improve its image before a two-year investigation into the grocery sector by the competition watchdog. In a recent speech Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco’s chief executive, revealed a number of measures designed to build links with the local communities. He said “The battle to win customers in the 21st century will increasingly be fought not just on value, choice and convenience but on being good neighbours, being active in communities, seizing the environmental challenges and on behaving responsibly, fairly and honestly.”

Tesco has also overtaken Asda, as Britain’s second largest retailer of clothing by volume. Sainsbury has appointed Anna Ford, the former TV newsreader, as a non-executive director. They have also signed up Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef, for another year for a reported £1m. It is understood that a lawyer who controls a number of the founding family trusts in J Sainsbury, revealed that she had overseen her third sale of shares in the supermarket in just over a year. It is understood the 250,000 shares, worth £827,500 at recent share price (0.01% of the company) were sold on behalf of several different family and charitable trusts.

Bad press for the global Wal-Mart. A film released in the UK named The High Cost of Low Prices exposes the alleged truth about Wal-Mart’s articulation of Christian family values. The article goes on to allege that large multi-national corporations now have more effect on many people’s lives than their own government. It is also suggested that of the 30 largest economies in the world, 15 of them are private corporations and only 15 of them are nation states. Sir Ken Morrison will be preparing for his own exit from the Morrison’s supermarket group. A rumour in the City that he was about to set out a timetable for an orderly transition to a successor sent shares jumping, before it was denied. It cannot be easy to quit the Bradford-based chain after 50 years of service and his acquisition of Safeway is now seen as Morrison’s biggest problem.

A popular evening newspaper has started a Save Our Small Shops campaign and is backed by shoppers, traders and politicians. Almost 20,000 shoppers and London retailers have signed the petition. Friends of the Earth have also launched its own “shop local first” drive.

Business organisations have thrown their weight behind the paper’s plea to spend an extra £10 a week in local shops.

Tesco is the fifth-largest retailer in the world, up one place from 2005, according to Deloitte the accountancy group. Sainsbury is to spend up to £100m over the next two years on buying and developing new sites, in an effort to maintain its rate of growth. The CE wants to get its growth in new sites back to 4 to 5% a year.

GEMINI