INSPIRED. This paragraph is beyond the ken and the grasp of the oh-so-predictable Competition Commission (CC), which is happily making its contribution to the ongoing diminishment of communities by cosying up to the multiples.
One Nottinghamshire independent retailer invites children from the nearby school to choose their sweets from the open display and calculate the price for their total purchases themselves before paying at the till. The kids pile into the shop morning and afternoon.
Any thieving or other malpractice is punished by a ban for life from the store. It has never happened - children and parents genuinely appreciate the sense of trust and the opportunity for a little out-of-school arithmetic.
Can you imagine this lesson for life emerging from the distant boardroom of any of the giants? On a visit Vigilante noted the sense of community and goodwill in the shop - so noticeably absent from supermarkets.
MISSED. Whoever set down the terms of reference for the CC market probe avoided the core argument that multiple power, in parallel with the shameful closure of local post offices and the demise of local pubs is hurting the nation.
Local shops, post offices and pubs are all businesses supplied by wholesalers and they all play their part - with the church or chapel - in binding together the fabric that holds communities together.
By failing to recognise the lobby which demonstrated the pivotal nature of the wholesaler, the CC failed not only small shops but our communities.
Which leads us to the Son Of The Manse.
SUBLIMINAL. Did the heavy, albeit currently shaking, hand of No 10, have its influence on the manner in which the CC "let the supermarkets off the hook" as the Guardian so pointedly put it?
Vigilante can hear the cries of "shame on you for such a scandalous implication". But as soaraway food and fuel prices bring the pain which the Prime Minister says he shares with us, could the CC possibly curb supermarket excesses which might increases prices further?
And what's this? Respected by and close to No 10, The Observer (May 4) front paged a story that "Gordon Brown will highlight the CC investigation into supermarkets as protecting families from high prices at the checkout".
Strewth! Vigilante naively believed the CC spent two years probing for evidence of multiple abuse of their overwhelming buying power - and not spending taxes extracted from hard-working-families to bolster Mr Brown in his hour of need.
PREPARE. Based on the recent frequency of CC market investigations, Vigilante predicts that the next one will take place in 2013, giving the wholesale/independent anti-Tesco lobby a clear five years in which to prepare its case.
As Peter Freeman watches from his seat in the House of Lords, the future incumbent of the chair of the CC will need the approval of David Cameron so he could be, shall we say, a cool, street-wise and tie-less John Fingleton type who wants to "get stuck in" as we say on the terraces.
By a rotten streak of fortune when the two regulators were looking for work, we got Mr Freeman at the CC when, with a little more luck we could have had Mr Fingleton, who is now crowned as Vigilante's Ram Raider of the Month. The latter has got stuck in as the former surrendered.
DOSSIER. What will the anti-Tesco lobby need as evidence in 2013 when its presents its new dossier of more small shop closures and more "coincidental" ranging of prices of some big brands in the Big Four.
By 2013 we will, of course, see increases in multiple market share caused by one or two giant supermarket newcomers, having taken up Mr Freeman's invite to come in and take a reserved seat on the gravy train.
For starters, the dossier might contain a factual case history profile of every independent c-store, newsagent and rural shop that goes out of business. Would it work?
Expert economists and researchers have failed to persuade the CC that wholesalers and therefore independents are not enjoying fair trading terms. Will the reality of the human stories of failed small businesses - unable to compete on prices emanating from a flawed market structure - bring home to the regulator (the Ombudsman perhaps?) the truth, which escapes Mr Freeman?
WRONG. The aforementioned Mr Fingleton, whose OFT has exposed the weaknesses of his predecessors (they ignored the FWD call to halt Tesco's acquisition of Adminstore which has now produced the current free-for-all) has raided Big Four buying offices and suppliers' sales departments.
He is accused of running a "vendetta" against the Big Four. But he is wrong-footed when he blames consumers for small shop closures.
"It's not our problem if small shops are closing because people don't go and shop in them," he tells Zoe Wood (again in The Observer, May 4).
He probably regretted this line as soon as he uttered it. Our Regulator-of-the-month knows full well that people slowly but surely go off small shops where the owner has one hand tied behind his back with cord labelled "discrimination".
There are thousands of independents running thriving businesses despite this discrimination. They need increased profitability, and the same rock-solid guarantees of stability that the CC has just delivered to the mults.
CORRECTNESS. It was on a recent press trip that a well-known trade journalist posed the question "How long can Bargain Booze sustain its name as the nation sinks under an ocean of political correctness and a ferocious anti-alcohol lobby?"
How dare any do-gooder, however well intentioned, think about bringing any pressure to bear on an extremely well-run commercial organisation.
Independent stores are not the obvious or natural source of binge drinking, full stop.
CELEBRATE. The Rochester newsagent who complained that he had read about National Independents' Week (June 2) in the trade press but "had not been contacted about it" has got the wrong end of the stick.
Thousands of his fellow community-minded independents have read about NIW and decided on their own to do something about it - that's the bottom line.
They have phoned in to order a free 'Local And Proud Of It' T-shirt kit, and created their own fun days and in-store happenings inspired by My Shop Is Your Shop activists publicised in the very supportive trade press.
It's about initiative. And it works. Try it, Mr Rochester.
Will Government proposals to ban the display of tobacco in retail premises damage the wholesale sector?
