BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Skillsmart Retail and the National Skills Academy for Retail have created a a promotion for British independent retailers to be staged annually on 4th July, America’s Independence Day
Dubbed Independents’ Day, the campaign encourages people to "buy at least one item from a local independent retailer and celebrate diversity on the high street."
Supermarkets now dominate the retail scene, and this is bad for independent retailers and, arguably, bad for health, too.
In new book ‘The Energy Glut: The Politics of Fatness in an Overheating World’ authors Ian Roberts and Phil Edwards report that, in 2007, UK supermarkets accounted for 93 percent of food spending and 41 percent of fuel sales. The figures will be higher today.
Three quarters of British households do their main food shopping by car.
From The Energy Glut: "Supermarkets sell energy, either as food or petrol…we could think of supermarkets as simply the retail arm of the petro-nutritional complex. Supermarkets don’t care how they make profits, whether by selling us food or petrol, but either way it makes us fat…
"The heavier our bodies become, the harder and more unpleasant it is to move about in them and the more dependent we become on our cars."
So, people should be encouraged to shun supermarkets, shop local, and buy more from bike stores.
