[notgoingtouni]

I know it's been going on for a while now but I have to say I am actually quite pleased...we've never had a Co-Op locally, although we do have a Somerfield...looking forward to the (hopeful) change!

[Jon Hills]

I hope they don't just shut down these old Somerfield stores. Really useful one down the road....!

[Jon Hills]

Somerfield were pretty good. Shame they got bought out, but could be improved

[OnlyFair]

Originally Posted by Jon Hills

I hope they don't just shut down these old Somerfield stores. Really useful one down the road....!

I hope they change ours! Would much rather shop in Co-op than Somerfield!

[Jon Hills]

I would certainly rather shop at Co-Op too. Great fair trade stuff in there. Much more than most places. But if they sell the stores to Iceland or Morrisons it isn't much of an improvement in my opinion. Let's hope it stays Co-Op

[notgoingtouni]

...sounds to me like the Morrison's/Safeway takeover...

[boxby]

North of the border, The co-op have a strong presence, and the only other supermarket in the town would have been Safeway. These were all the smaller stores that morrisons left behind. So it kind of makes sense that they're selling off the stores as it would be two stores in the same street, pretty close to eachother, round here.

THing is - who wants an old supermarket? In every town where the safeway store got shut down after the morrisons take over its still there - big and empty and boarded up.

[Jeewhizz]

I have one of each in the next village. Co-op wins hands down as it's nicer (the've just refurbished) and generaly cheaper. No idea what they'll do to the somerfield store now they've bought them!

[fee]

co-op is going to be massive.........

[Martin-Subbynet]

Well personally, near me I have two small supermarkets, one is an independent, and next door is a Co-Op. The Co-Op store is done out better, but the staff move like snails. The queues in that shop put me off all the time, and its not just one member of staff, its the lot, slow as hell.

Anyways, putting that aside for one minute, I don't believe this is great for us (us being UK PLC), because now we've just lost a competitor, a company which before forced the Co-Op to compete on price and service - and now doesn't.

What we have is an Oligopoly, which means prices don't become competitive, but stabilise as all competitors can see what eachother are doing - which is very easy if there is only a few players in the market.

And its not just in supermarkets, but loads of markets. All over we need more competition, not less.