Sir, - On a recent holiday in North Wales I could buy a sliced pan in a local supermarket for 17p, a tin of baked beans for 9p, two litres of lemonade for 16p, and so on. These were "own-brand" products, sold side by side with much more expensive brand names, so spending 17p or 70p for bread was a choice available to the consumer. The contrast with this country couldn't be more marked, where legislation and cartels combine to ensure that prices are high and consumers have little real choice.
I've heard that the logic behind the prohibition on "below-cost" selling is that smaller local shops would be undercut and put out of business by the big players. If my local shop (Centra) is anything to go by, the smaller retailers could do with a bit of pressure. The best Centra can manage for "own-brand" bread is 69p, while a two-litre carton of milk comes in at a whopping £1.36. In fact the retail mark-up on milk must be enormous; best price at Tesco in Balbriggan is £1.16, yet a grocery adjacent to Tesco can sell it for £1.09 and still presumably make a profit. I realise the smaller retailers have to be somewhat dearer to compensate for longer opening longer hours and so on, but naked profiteering is now the order of the day.
As ever, it is least advantaged, forced for the lack of a car to shop locally, who suffer most. I'm with Fergal Quinn on this one: let's have some real competition in the retail trade. - Yours, etc.,
John Power, The Maples, Bettystown, Co Meath.