Sir; Amid all your magazine's ramblings about the Competition Commission's inquiry into the supermarket sector, I think you have lost sight of the fact it is right and proper the industry is investigated from time to time. Supermarkets are such a powerful force in modern life ­ as we in Northern Ireland are finding out ­ that we should be confident they are not abusing their position. And the only way of getting those assurances is by having some independent experts take a very detailed look at how the industry operates to judge whether it is always acting in the best interests of the consumer. I think the inquiry has forced supermarkets to make some changes for the better. If the Commission and the government order further changes to boost competition that can only be in our best interests too. Patrick Scott Belfast And it may help improve the image of the industry in the long term. So you and the supermarkets should stop whingeing about the £20m that has been spent on this investigation ­ because it may prove to be money well spent in the long run. Sure, there's a bit of a price war going on at the moment. But when this inquiry was first started by the OFT, there were real concerns that the supermarkets were charging more than they should for goods. And then there's all the issues surrounding the way the biggest chains deal with their suppliers ­ if there wasn't a historical problem, why did the IGD have to draw up a code of practice? {{LETTERS }}