Powys’ independent shops are vital to our villages.
They provide employment to the people who live in the village. They provide a vital service to those who can’t get to the big town, those people who can’t afford a car or those for whom the bus service is not an option.
Those of us who use our local shop know how hard the shopkeepers work and the long hours they put in. It’s hard enough being an independent village shop but the local shops in Powys are being put under the cosh by Britain’s biggest food wholesaler, Booker.
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In 2017 Tesco’s took over Booker and they promised that the merger would ensure that independent village shops would benefit from their merged buying power.
In reality, the opposite has happened. Price increases have been forced through with the wholesale price being higher than the price Tesco’s charge in their stores for the same item.
Examples have been long grain rice in Tesco’s for 52p yet the packets supplied to the independents are stickered with £1.29, identical bottles of Prosecco, £6 in Tesco’s yet the wholesale price is £6.85. Many favourite items have been delisted by Bookers, Mornflake porridge oats, Yorkshire tea and Colman’s Mustard being just one of them.
To add insult to injury, the Booker own label products all advertise Tesco’s – ‘Jack’s – part of the Tesco family’. Along with this they have upped the minimum order for delivery from £500 to £1,300 as the delivery service has become more and more unreliable.
Please help keep your local shop by shopping locally, help keep your village alive by shopping locally and if you can, write to your MP complaining about the unfair competition local shops are facing.
Paul Wixey, Llanfair Caereinion
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