Should supermarket chains have the monopoly on our food supply, including fruit and veg? A recent survey of the British public said they would prefer to buy from cooperatives, as well as enterprises owned and run by members, rather than large corporations. If this is the case, how can we reimagine retail so that it’s more beneficial to the growers, supply chain and shoppers?
Back in 1900s Britain, things used to be different – 80 percent of our food was purchased in independent grocery stores. Now in the 2020s, many of our local greengrocers, butchers, and bakers have shut up shop. Supermarket chains have annihilated them all, they’ve even taken over most of the corner shops, once occupied by independents.
“The big supermarkets have a stranglehold over the whole grocery market in Britain. They now have a near monopoly over food retail. People talk about supermarkets in a romanticised way and they are often perceived as being part of the community, contributing and giving back to society, as well as caring about farmers,” explains Sunita Ramani, Campaign Manager at Foodrise.
She adds: “But our research shows that this is a public veneer. The majority of them are beholden to very large, often multinational, distant shareholders such as BlackRock and Vanguard. These massive globalised, asset management firms and investment companies are the ones making decisions in the boardroom, controlling what these supermarkets are able to do.”
Today 96 per cent of all food in the UK passes through just ten or so dominant supermarket chains. More than 80 per cent of our calorie intake comes from these businesses. Yet these vast corporations are razor-focused on profits and offering up healthy return to shareholders, according to the Foodrise charity. Today, less than 4 per cent of our food in Britain comes through independent retailers.
Calculations by Wicked Leeks found that the collective annual operating profits of the top ten supermarkets amounted to over £7 billion for 2024-2025. To put this in perspective, the total income from farming for the whole of the UK is less than this, at just over £5 billion, not to mention profit.
Ramani points out: “The retail giants give the impression that they care about providing healthy food, making climate commitments, and supporting growers. But the hard reality is that they are predominantly focused on the bottom line and they always will be about profits, at the expense of communities, affordability, health, and sustainability.”
Big retail will scupper Food Strategy
The upcoming National Food Strategy will fail because of the current ownership of UK supermarkets, according to Foodrise’s recent report ‘Profit over Purpose’, which says that the ‘profit-first logic creates systemic barriers to the Food Strategy’s objectives including unhealthy food environments, unsustainable supply chains, insecure domestic production, and erosion of local food cultures.’
The same report says that whilst supermarkets hold enormous potential to transform the country’s food system, ‘they are instead delaying and derailing progress through a combination of greenwashing, greedflation, farmwashing, and leanwashing,’ which involves misleading people due to the actions retailers take to supposedly improve health outcomes.
“This is why we need to reclaim food retail back from the private sector, back from big business and put it into the hands of real people. We need to turn the tide into something that truly serves our society. Our research shows there is now a public mandate for community-owned retail,” details Foodrise’s Ramani.
According to a poll of over 2,000 people commissioned by Foodrise, 54 per cent said that supermarkets should operate as co-operatives not private enterprises.
She continues: “Yet political leaders are unwilling to step in and regulate the market. This has been going on for decades. There’s a disconnect in Westminster between the issues, actual implementation, and action. The government needs to enforce transparency from the retailers in terms of their climate and health commitments and affordability, including the way they deal with farmers. Without stronger regulation, we won’t get anywhere.”
Ramani and others are inspired by the recently elected New York mayor, Zohran Mamdani who won on a ticket to create municipal grocery stores, which will sell affordable healthy food, including fruit and veg, in one of the world’s most expensive cities. State-run supermarkets will not turn a profit and be exempt from rent and taxes. The savings will be passed on to hard up consumers.
“In the UK we are starting to see change with the privatisation of the rail companies and we’re now starting a conversation around how water is managed. So why can’t we start discussions about how food is delivered? We’re living through a national food and farming crisis, providing food should be a public service and the government should be stepping in to make sure that people have access to affordable, healthy, and sustainable food.”
New regulations needed
There have been calls for mandatory reporting for all food businesses, including supermarket chains, on their healthy food sales in the belief that those chains that peddle more processed and unhealthy goods will be penalised and those that sell more healthy produce, such as fruit and veg will be rewarded. New legislation is expected on this by the end of this Parliament.
This cannot come soon enough for Foodrise and many others, who instead want more government support for an alternative system of food retail. One that is more economically inclusive and consists of small organisations including cooperatives, employee-owned enterprises, as well as fruit & veg delivery vans and farm shops meeting the needs of their locality.
“We also need further salt and sugar taxes on unhealthy and ultra-processed food, which could then finance subsidies for healthy produce and sustainable goods. The UK Government should also facilitate the public procurement of healthier produce through local, small enterprises,” states Sunita Ramani.
The small business sector for food is showing green shoots of growth. For instance, the Farm Retail Association has said that the footfall and revenue is now increasing at more than 1,500 of its farm shops across the UK. This shows that there is greater appetite for a closer connection with growers and putting money directly into the pockets of those that produce our food rather than a system that extracts value.
“These alternative, independent retailers do exist. They’re already doing amazing work in their communities, and the benefits are very clear. But most are not able to sustain themselves over time. They’re also not able to grow. They need support to reach their full potential. There is so much promise and potential, they just need help,” points out Ramani.
She adds: “Over the longer term, the systemic transformation of the food system will require dismantling the corporate structure of these big supermarket models, because we genuinely do not believe that the food system can be transformed unless this happens.”
Other suggestions that could boost alternative retail include a pilot for a national voucher scheme, along similar lines to the Alexandra Rose vouchers, according to the Foodrise report. These can be exchanged by lower income households for fresh produce from greengrocers and independent retailers. Another recommendation involves the use of planning powers to prioritise space for independent and community-based retail.
The UK Government in the Budget has now imposed a tax on large retail outlets, the proceeds of which will go to smaller, independent enterprises on the high street including those selling fresh produce. The Labour government has also committed to a public procurement target of 50 percent of food to be sourced locally and more sustainably.
The consensus is that if the food system is to really evolve it needs public sector investment. “It certainly requires money from central or regionalised governments, as well as local authorities to actually support food infrastructure. Start-up capital is also needed to get food hubs up and running,” concludes Julia Kirby-Smith, Executive Director at Better Food Traders.
I would love to shop independent or small chain shops, but most are nit open after I leave work. And I dont do ally shopping at the weekend. Maybe if some farmshops opened late theg could tap into those of us who work full time+