Gladys

Evidence? Not the cost of transportation of raw materials and finished goods, or the labour involved in every stage of the process?

No, you were complaining that prices haven't come down. On your lemonade question, at what point from the originating of the raw materials to you leaving the store with your bottle do you think labour is not involved?

Of course, Shoprite would have dropped prices. My comments above are about prices in general, not just retail and not specifically Tesco.

Labour is a very large component of the price for many things. Hence the sweatshops of the Far East.

And wages go down too?

They don’t fall back after an inflationary period, just don't rise so much. Otherwise, it is deflation.

Yes, I hoped HiVibes would read the whole dictionary entry.

And homed any number of refugees.

Don't mess with me, Kopek!

Found safe yesterday, I think.

Well, you see it wrong.

I do not want to close the thread, and I want to see discussion and new issues raised and debated. You can keep on expressing your opinion, as I will keep expressing mine, but do not accuse me of wanting to close matters (or you) down just because I don't agree with all you say. Discussion is a two-way street.

This has been discussed before. There is no anti-competition law that could have been used to assess whether or not the transaction should proceed. I do not know if there was such legislation, whether it would have prevented the transaction. I do not know, for sure, whether the transaction would have been refused if it took place in the UK. Even if there was the legislation and the transaction was deemed to fall within it and refused, what would happen next? Empty Shoprite stores across the island? Several independents taking on some of the stores? Aldi or Lidl stepping in? The fact is it has happened. No doubt Tesco are monitoring performance of all stores and will probably make adjustments to maximise the performance of each. As we keep on saying, it all has to settle so we know exactly what we have.

Not sure anyone had the power to prevent or allow the acquisition.