A round-up of supermarket news and gossip
WAITROSE sells more booze to underage teenagers than any other supermarket, according to a new Government survey. The retailer was named and shamed after a six-week Home Office crackdown on alcohol-related crimes. Waitrose sold drink in 22% of the test sample taken. Somerfield with 20% and Asda with 7% were also recorded in the HO survey.

Retailers have embraced the opportunity to open pharmacies since the government partially deregulated licensing in 2004. J Sainsbury has opened 40 pharmacies since 2004 and plans a further 50 over the next year. Asda will open 30 to 40 pharmacies in 2006. Asda said it would consider having GP consultations in its stores.

Wal-Mart is in the news again – for the wrong reasons! Thomas Coughlin the former vice-chairman of Wal-Mart faces a maximum sentence of 28 years in jail and a £1m fine after pleading guilty to fiddling his expenses. It is good for him that the trial was in Arkansas as they still have the electric chair in Florida.

Sainsbury is posed to become the first supermarket group to house NHS surgeries. This follows talks between chief executive Justin King and Caroline Flint the health minister. Sainsbury believes that a move into healthcare would be a natural fit for its brand and is keen to install GP surgeries in those stores that already contain pharmacies. The government wants primary Healthcare Trusts to commission extra surgeries through open tendering.

It is reported that up to 49,000 Tesco staff will share a £111m payout as two of its save-as-you- earn share schemes mature. This will average at a payout of £2,265 per head.

Grocers are setting up shop among the Russian billionaires. The number in that league has leapt to 50. This includes the first dollar-billionaires to have built retail businesses from scratch rather than seizing state assets after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Top among them is Andrei Rogachev the founder of Pyaterochka, one of the largest discount grocery chains in Russia.

Britain’s leading supermarkets are preparing a new wave of expansion from their out-of-town bases into the high street in defiance of MPs’ warnings that their growth is destroying the fabric of local communities. Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrison, which between them control 74% of grocery sales, have built up “land banks” of hundreds of sites awaiting development. The stores are making a concentrated effort to open high street convenience stores. Tesco alone is to double its small town centre groceries to 1,200 over the next 10 years. The Association of Convenience Stores claims that Tesco is overcharging customers using its One-Stop chain of convenience stores.

Asda has signed a deal for a 92,000ft2 store at the Capital Retail Park in Leckwith next to Cardiff City Football Club’s planned stadium. Supermarkets are testing new electronic tags that could be used to track shoppers in the store and to keep tabs on goods after a customer has taken them home. The surveillance chips have the potential to trace the life of “goods from depot to dustbin”. They are based on radio frequency identification and are being used to monitor products from warehouse to supermarket shelves. The miniature tags contain silicon chips and antennas, which transmit information to a receiver. This is potentially an alarming exposure and the UK supermarkets should receive the clear signals that we do not want their bugging devices in our homes or dustbins.

Large retailers want stores over 3,000ft2 to be allowed to open for more than six hours a day on Sunday.

Iceland, bought from the Big Food Group, saw a 15% rise in underlying sales.

In order to cater for all tastes, Asda launched an 8p Valentine Card.

GEMINI