Tamba, the twins and multiple births association, has asked utellus to lend its weight to the issue of supermarket trolleys.  Tamba Chief Executive Keith Reed explains "Many members have reported a lack of shopping trolleys that accommodates their family size at supermarkets across the UK.  Unfortunately, this has often resulted in them cancelling their shopping trip.  Clearly this is both inconvenient and unfair for the families concerned."

Tamba has asked each chain to explain:

• Their policy on the number of shopping trolleys each store should have for multiple birth families with children in the new born, toddler and early years age brackets.
• What additional assistance your stores might be able to offer to these families to make their shopping experience more enjoyable. 
• How many of these trolleys you have at each store and where they can be located.

Tamba wants to promote this infomation for its members, as Keith Reed says "We propose making this information publicly available via our website.  As you can appreciate, this information will be useful to multiple birth families and larger families more generally and therefore I look forward to hearing from them."

If this issue has affected you, then Tamba would love to hear from you.  You can lodge your comments either with Tamba directly or by filling in our TAMBA survey.

The Competition Commission has issued its “emerging thinking” document as part of its probe into the UK grocery industry and has immediately split opinion.

The Commission appears to have some concerns about the dominance of the main players, saying ”We are concerned with whether Tesco, or any other supermarket, can get into such a strong position, either nationally or locally, that no other retailer can compete effectively.”

This was supported by James Lowman of the Association of Convenience Stores, which represents 32,000 local shops.  Loman said “They have identified strong indications of anti-competitive practices in the UK grocery market that need further detailed consideration”.

Other commentators were not so certain that the largest four grocers should be concerned.  One of those, Southampton University’s Dr John Marti said the report had offered “not a lot” for those looking to criticise the big four.

Tesco’s CEO Sir Terry Leahy also appeared to agree, saying “I believe passionately that consumers have benefited in so many ways from the intense competitive rivalry in this industry.”

You can read more at http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/