A vitriolic attack has been launched at the newly formed Rural Shops Alliance by cash and carry boss Steve Parfett. In a letter to The Grocer, the managing director of AG Parfett & Sons and chairman of Landmark Cash and Carry slammed the Village Retail Services Association (ViRSA) charity which is driving the formation of the alliance (Grocer, October 21). He accused the charity of harming the independent sector with its support for Sainsbury's SAVE scheme which allows independent stores to buy products from Sainsbury's stores. But Sean Carter, who is project manager for the formation of the alliance, responded with a robust defence of ViRSA. He said: "I am not going to criticise Steve Parfett, he runs a good operation, but he is extremely ill-informed. Parfett accused ViRSA of "knowing less than zero about the reality of shopkeeping", but Carter pointed out that all ViRSA's field force had extensive retail experience. One was still running his own shop, several other were retired retailers, while the rest had worked for wholesalers. Carter worked for both Nurdin & Peacock and Booker. He also said that Parfett was wrong to talk about ViRSA using taxpayers money because it received no money from the government. Carter defended the SAVE scheme saying it was for very small shops which could not afford to buy cases from cash and carries. He said it allowed them to buy small quantities so cash was not tied up in stock holdings, but ViRSA advised stores to use wholesalers when buying cases of stock. Carter said that Parfett obviously strongly supported independent stores, and urged him to join the alliance. - See Letters page 18 {{NEWS }}