Andrew Marr, BBC Radio 4, Start the Week

'Very passionately, very well written, very well researched.'

John Bird, founder of the Big Issue and local-shop loyalty scheme the Wedge Card

`Simms shows the creeping, invading unsustainable world of the

supershop, its tentacles strangling the life out of our communities. Read

it.'

With a well crafted argument, supported by many references and illustrations, Andrew Simms explains that the supermarkets - and in the UK especially Tesco - are now a corrosive feature within our society. He tells of how their actions undermine our food culture and wider aspects of culture and society, how they destroy local and regional economies, and how they are endangering the environment and the planet in their quest for continuous growth in sales. He explains how the supermarkets and particularly Tesco have been able to achieve their frightening level of power within our society and, consequently, how our individual freedoms as consumers and citizens are being erroded. He also explains how Tesco (and others) have been able to get what they want for business growth by manipulating planning laws, bullying local councils, threatening farmers and suppliers, and eliminating competitors - the independent food stores - through unfair and anti-competitive practices. Amazingly, this has occurred with the full support of the Government. Essentially, Tescopoly tells of of the failure of the market economy and of how the supermarkets are being allowed to achieve monopoly status in the UK food marketplace and in many other countries.

Tescopoly is essential reading for students of marketing, business, management and retail management, and anyone with an interest in the workings of the food marketplace and the oppressive and destructive power of big business.

By Trevor T. Hickman "Trevor Hickman