´óÏó´«Ã½

Monday 22 January at 6.03pm
(repeated Sunday 28 January at 6.31am)

Retail industry watchdog the Competition Commission is about to publish the early findings of its ongoing inquiry into the UK grocery market.

The inquiry - initiated by the Office of Fair Trading amid growing complaints and concern about the power of the larger supermarket chains - is focusing on whether they have an unfair upper hand over smaller, independent retailers who struggle to compete, and farmers, who claim supermarket chains call the tune when it comes to setting prices for produce.

As superstores continue to proliferate in Welsh towns and cities, in the face of staunch opposition from local traders and communities, the first in a new series of ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Wales' Eye on Wales programme looks at the impact they're having on fellow traders, wholesalers and farmers - whose efforts keep their shelves stocked, but who claim their own living is being slowly but surely eroded by the supermarkets' purchasing power. And with appeals pending in Wales by both Asda and Tesco after proposals to extend the range of non-food items they sell were rejected by Welsh councils, the battle lines are being drawn in an ever more crowded marketplace.

But are supermarkets an inherently damaging thing, as some claim, or an opportunity to rejuvenate failing towns and draw shoppers back, with beneficial spin-off for other businesses as a result? And are the realities of 21st century life, working parents, hectic timetables and ever greater demands on our time, where cost and convenience rule, dictating our shopping habits regardless of personal preferences about where and how we shop? We join two families on shopping trips to find out.