Village stores have sounded the alarm over what they claim is a battle for survival, accusing the supermarket group Tesco of using its cash-and-carry arm to “squeeze” them out of business by restricting supplies and deliveries of groceries.
Independent retailers, many of them also running the local post office, have told the Guardian that a series of changes recently introduced by Tesco’s wholesale arm, Booker, were adding to pressures at a time when some villages had been left with just one small shop – or none at all.
