Supermarkets take over high street

Supermarkets are a menace and are destroying local communities. This is the overwhelming view of Financial Mail readers in a survey into the power of the retail giants. The poll results back the findings of a Parliamentary inquiry last week called for radical steps to stop the destruction of family firms, corner shops, butchers and newsagents.

The all-party Small Shops Group said that 40 per cent of Britain's 50,000 small stores could be lost by 2015 because of the relentless march of the supermarkets. These fears were echoed by a huge response from readers who said how they had been hit by the growth of the biggest chains - Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's.