Supermarkets have become dominant players in the globalised marketplace and as a result have revolutionised British shopping habits. The `Big Four' bring the world's food (and increasingly most other high street products and services) to large, bright, clean one-stop stores at affordable prices.
But while they satisfy every `need' and `want' of consumers, there are other impacts on society and the environment. For the first time in one place, William Young explores the wider cost of customer satisfaction to the local community, other retailers, the environment and farmers in the UK and worldwide.
Interviewing supermarkets and producers, MPs and counsellors, shoppers and campaigners, this thoroughly researched book is a timely and sometimes disturbing investigation that explores whether supermarkets are a force for good in the UK.