The issue with supermarkets is a simple one. If you are a farmer who has expanded to the extent that you have to shift large volumes of produce every week, be it pigs, lettuces or whatever, you need to know that there will be a buyer waiting when your produce is ready. Up steps Mr Tesco or Asda etc and says I'll take all your pigs, but they must conform to the standard I want, and I'll give you £x amount for them. So Mr Farmer signs the contract. He is now in the enenviable position that he MUST supply Mr Tesco with the specified amount of pigs on the specified timescale. If he doesn't meet his obligations the supermarket will impose financial penalties and they will not give him the agreed price for any pigs that don't meet their specification, in fact they might decline to buy them at all.Trouble is Mr Farmer has set up his pig farm to produce hundreds of finished pigs every week safe in the knowledge that Mr Supermarket will honour their obligations. But Mr Supermarket will use every ruse in the small print to minimise the cost to himself at the expense of Mr Farmer, who now has shitloads of pigs on his hands that he will end up losing money on. Thus the ridiculous situation that we have hundreds of loss making businesses that only exist as a result of the EU subsidies that the poor farmer has to use as his wages. Meanwhile Mr supermarket makes billions and gives himself a pat on the back for giving everyone such a great service. When you see stuff in the supermarket at half price or buy one get one free, who do you think has financed this promotion? Clue, it's not the supermarket.
