What will a supermarket mean for Llangollen?
- Less choice – As local shops close, there will be no choice but to use the supermarket.
Between 1997 and 2002 more than 13,000 specialist stores aroundthe UK – including newsagents, Post Offices, grocers, bakers, butchers – closed. The loss of local, independent shops can have serious impacts in terms of access to food, particularly for people on lower incomes or those who don’t have use of a car
- Job losses – Supermarkets destroy as many jobs as they create. Llangollen will lose its friendly appeal and knowledgeable specialist staff.
Supermarket claims that new stores bring in jobs fail to consider the wider picture of independent retailer bankruptcies. A 1998 study by the National Retailer Planning Forum (NRPF) examining the employment impacts of 93 superstore openings between 1991 and 1994 found that they resulted in a net loss of more than 25,000 jobs or 276 per store opened
- Leaching of money from the local economy – Supermarkets use distant suppliers who contribute nothing to the local economy. Supermarket profits go to their shareholders, contributing little to the local economy.
A Friends of the Earth study of local food schemes found that on average just over half of business turnover was returned to the local economy – compared to as little as five per cent for supermarkets.
- Additional traffic – Traffic problems on the A5 will be compounded by the addition of a supermarket.
The distribution systems used by supermarkets and the location of out of town stores generate large amounts of traffic. Recent work for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) suggests that car use for shopping results in costs to society of more than £3.5 billion per year, fromtraffic emissions, noise, accidents, congestion and accident
- Loss of character – Llangollen is a unique, thriving, market town. The addition of a supermarket could be the start of a decline towards being just another clone town.
- Increased carbon emissions – A new supermarket would actually produce more CO2 than if every family in Llangollen drove to and from Wrexham every week.
- Exploitation – Supermarkets use their market dominance to exploit suppliers and farmers in the UK and overseas.
- Food and packaging waste is generated. Packaging now makes up nearly a quarter of household waste. A shocking 35-40 per cent of all household waste which ends up in landfill begins life as a purchase from one of the big fivesupermarkets.