It’s notoriously difficult for producers to get their product onto the supermarket shelves, and it isn’t easy to keep it there. Many supermarkets demand that suppliers pay them for the privilege of being stocked, effectively freezing out smaller producers.
In today’s Irish Times, consumer affairs correspondent Paul Cullen reports that Tesco has been demanding sums of up to €500,000 from individual suppliers in order to have a presence in its 119 Irish stores.
Suppliers, none of whom were willing to go on the record for fear of retaliation from Tesco, said they were being “bullied” by the UK giant. Cullen points out that demands for so-called “pay to play” money are not illegal, but push up prices for consumers.
Besides driving companies out of business – and driving up the cost of your grocery bill – Tesco’s actions are contributing to what economist Jim Power of the Love Irish Food campaign calls the “Tescoisation” of society. If small businesses are frozen out, we’ll all end up with less choice and with everything we eat controlled by big supermarkets and big food manufacturers. It’s a sinister thought and further reason to resist Tesco’s bully-boy practices.