A round-up of supermarket news and gossip
It sometimes seems like Big Brother is watching as the supermarkets impinge into more and more aspects of our lives. The latest move by Tesco is to target 8,000,000 broad-band users in its internet war with BT. Britain’s largest supermarket says its web-based service will revolutionalise the way people make calls. It has also promised to slash the cost of international calls.

The use of home computers to make telephone calls has surged in the last year. A spokesman for Tesco said the version it would offer would be for the mass market and not one for techies. While web-based calls have been slow to take off in Britain, this is not the case on mainland Europe.

The John Lewis Partnership, which trades in the food retail sector under the Waitrose banner, is considering raising the age at which staff can draw a full pension from 60 to 65 as part of a plan to save more than £10m a year. Also under review are benefits for retired staff including the £20 Christmas bonus. The business hopes to cut the cost of supporting retired staff by more than £400,000 per year.

Poor figures have scuppered bonus payments for Asda workers. Less than 40% of their eligible store staff will receive a bonus this year after the supermarket group failed to hit sales and profit targets. As a comparison, in 2005 113,000 staff eligible for a bonus shared a payout of £19m.

Tesco is planning “aggressive” price cuts after announcing it is growing at four times the rate of rival J Sainsbury. Nick Goulding, chief executive of the Forum for Private Business, which represents small shopkeepers said: “Tesco has become the King Kong of the high street. It is too powerful, too greedy and too dominant. This includes a land bank with 185 development sites.”

In the “knowledge economy” high technology is cutting the cost of collecting and analysing vast quantities of information. Conventional wisdom has therefore favoured such ideas as flattened hierarchies re-engineered processes and knowledge management. Yet our era has seen the rise and rise of Wal-Mart, which is getting larger thanks to information technology. It is a contradiction – to some it represents the best of employment values. To others it is a ruthless capitalist juggernaut exploiting workers and bankrupting suppliers.

The Sainsbury family continues to shed its stake in the once famous family business. Sir Timothy Sainsbury has reduced his stake in the company. He is no longer a major shareholder and no longer required to declare his interest in the company.

Supermarkets are moving into the travel business- cashing in on the loyal customers who order over the internet. The growth of food orders on supermarket websites has created the opportunity to offer scores of extras such as DVDs contact lenses, books and now holidays. Supermarkets are confident that their sites will be used as a one stop shop.Asda has teamed up with a major holiday sales company. Sainsbury’s, like Tesco offers reductions on the prices of holidays when loyalty card points are cashed in and the Co-op has had Travelcare in stores for years.

The chief executive of J Sainsbury has announced its strongest quarter for four years.

Runaway sales of chocolate puddings and “no-touch turkeys” helped Marks & Spencer to its best Christmas trading for three years.

Wm Morrison is to cut 1,600 jobs after the supermarket chain closed depots in Bristol and Kent after a review of its distribution network following the £3bn takeover of Safeway in March 2004.

Ahold the Dutch retail group, has won approval from a US court for its £623m class-action settlement with shareholders for overstating profits.

Winner 2005: Stuart Rose of Marks and Spencer, lifted the share price above 400p.

Loser 2005: Sir Ken Morrison of the Wm Morrison supermarket group, dented his reputation as a reliable retailer with the difficult takeover of Safeway, its ex rival.

GEMINI