An organisation representing convenience stores has called on MPs to reform the nation's grocery market.
Small shops are getting swallowed by their large rivals, claim the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) Campaign Champions, which marked its fifth operation on the matter in a recent letter campaign to MPs.
The ACS Campaign Champions are urging their local MPs to consider the impact on small shops of consolidation in the grocery market when they meet for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Small Shops' Inquiry into High Street UK 2015.
"It is essential that independent retailers across the country get together and support this initiative," said Nigel Dowdney, proprietor of the Stalham Shopper in Norfolk and member of the ACS Campaign Champions. "Independent shops of all kinds are declining now at such a fast rate that it is imperative that we take action now."
"I have lobbied my local MP and will continue to again and again until something is done," he added. "The big four supermarkets' domination on the grocery market is an issue affecting local businesses up and down the country, and we need to keep hammering this message home and not let our voices be forgotten."
Recent research from the group found that over 2,000 'unaffiliated' shops, or those trading under their own brand, left the market over the last year, suggesting extinction is becoming more and more a reality for small shops faced with large neighbours with lower prices.
On 31 May, the ACS called on the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to act on evidence it requested of what the ACS believes is growing anti-competitiveness in the UK grocery market.
The ACS claims the evidence highlights the OFT's lack of understanding of the grocery market, its unique nature of competition and the need to look at how people shop. The organisation also called for action to prevent below-cost selling and price fixing measures.
