Open warfare
I MAY be an unrepresentative shopper (though an accurate monitor of fishcakes) but, if there is a cosy conspiracy in the High Street, I have missed it. All I can see is ferocious competition, with the losers in pain, and heads rolling. Sainsburys has been knocked off its perch, and even Marks & Spencer, for so long Britain's most respected company, has fallen from grace. (I am not convinced that its new fishcake recipe is an improvement.) Now here comes Wal-Mart of America to turn the pressure up, with a welcome from Down- ing Street and an unbankable assurance about planning permissions. The most obvious sign of competition is that all these shops now find it necessary to stay open at all hours of each and every day. With a lit- tle help from New Labour by way of direc- tives and harmonisations, we could always revert to the European model, where the shops are kept shut to protect the staff from the customers.
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