All comment & opinion articles – Page 551
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Comment & Opinion
Our man from DRIP
Don Pumsey at the Department of Retail Infrastructure and Pricing
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Comment & Opinion
Get ready for the busiest trading period of the year
More staff, more consumers... and more theft. Retailers need to be prepared on all frontsDespite recent reports that footfall numbers and high street spending are down, Christmas is still Christmas and there are considerable sales to be...
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Comment & Opinion
GM crops remain commercial folly
Why are arguments still being made in favour of GM crops when the public and - thankfully - the industry are so opposed to them?As his parting shot before retiring from his post, the government's chief scientist, Sir David King, treated...
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Comment & Opinion
Letter of the week - Data 'inadequate for requirement'
It is misleading to suggest that the Competition Commission has failed to understand properly the Experian/Goad data used in our inquiry or that we rejected more suitable data ('Experian advice ignored', The Grocer, 1 December, p4). We chose not to...
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Comment & Opinion
Sugar is sugar - stick to the scientific facts
Sugar is sugar - stick to the scientific facts
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Comment & Opinion
our man from drip Don Pumsey - 1st December 2007
Readers whose critical faculties are still undamaged by supermarket booze that is - praise be! - cheaper than mineral water may recall I received two dud CDs from a sweet young thing I'm cultivating at HM Revenue & Customs. When I couldn't find...
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Comment & Opinion
Stop vilifying the drinks industry for alcohol abuse
Most Britons drink responsibly. It is time for the media to stop blaming the drinks industry for the behaviour of a reckless minorityAm I alone in thinking the attack on the UK drinks industry has gone too far? It is almost impossible to...
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Comment & Opinion
Letter of the week - we're addressing the labour issues
The Grocer is right to highlight the issues raised in its article on migrant labour ('Sleeping Soundly, The Grocer, 24 November, p30). We should make clear, however, that many companies are working hard to combat these issues, despite pressures to...
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Comment & Opinion
Don't leave policy bereft of evidence
If food policy is to do its job, it has to be based on hard evidence, not merely reflect vested interests. And politicians must take charge of itThe real world of food policy has a sometimes tortuous relationship with evidence. Cynics...
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Comment & Opinion
our man from drip Don Pumsey - 24th November 2007
Ginger Bond would struggle to look suave in a £5k whistle from Savile Row, let alone a £35 plastic tux from George. But you've got to admire his daring. Timing his intimate tête-à-tête with half the retail hacks in London to clash with King Justin's...
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Comment & Opinion
Letter of the week - How can this 13% not be a barrier?
Is it only me who finds the provisional findings on pricing in the Competition Commission's groceries inquiry incomprehensible ('The beginning of the end?', The Grocer, 3 November, p4)? For the second time in seven years it has concluded that a...
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Comment & Opinion
Have the retailers been vindicated?
The provisional findings of the Competition Commission inquiry have not found any evidence of the abuse of buyer powerNow that the kneejerk cries of "whitewash", "sell out" and the like have subsided, we can take a more dispassionate...
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Comment & Opinion
One Stop's shock supermarket call
Bogof was pleased to receive, through his letterbox, a flyer for his local convenience chain, One Stop, this week. In the run-up to the festive season it promised visitors a range of bogofs and other offers. "Would you believe it!"...
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Comment & Opinion
Forget inquiries, it's time to move on and collaborate
The industry may be divided over the Competition Commission's findings but it's clear the food supply chain needs to changeWhen the Competition Commission announced its provisional findings on grocery practices, coincidentally on the...
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Comment & Opinion
our man from drip Don Pumsey
The symptoms were obvious from the outset. The sound of clucking and gobbling ceased abruptly down the road at Defra, and all of Mr Benn's merry men were shovelled into sealed trucks and taken up to East Anglia to run round like headless...
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Comment & Opinion
our man from drip Don Pumsey - 3rd November 2007
Well, foul vassals, my accumulator bet was an unmitigated disaster. Not only did Andorra not win the Rugby World Cup, and not only did that asteroid fail to collide with Abbots Langley, but Freeman did manage to deliver his provisional findings...
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Comment & Opinion
Commission's findings are somewhat of a curate's egg
The interim report on the grocery market is a mix of encouraging statements, frustrating oversights and worrying conclusions I hope you have all enjoyed the 270 pages, plus appendices, offered as provisional findings by the Competition...
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Comment & Opinion
our man from drip Don Pumsey - 27th October 2007
Ihave had an idea that must rank as genius even by the standards of the man who first saw the potential for Microwave Angel Delight Smoothies under the Pumsey's Price Palace "PPP" label back in 1989. Let's have an inquiry into supermarket inquiries,...
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Comment & Opinion
Opinion - "The packaging issue is as much about shortfalls in recycling infrastructure as shortfalls in supermarket policies"
So the supermarkets are not as green as they claim to be and need to do more to reduce "excessive" packaging? Sounds like pots and kettles to me. It's all very well Joan Ruddock pledging vaguely in the Commons this week that she wants to "push the...