Editorial ….
The public fights back
Multi-National Supermarket chains are at last being seen for what they are – money making machines that are only interested in profit and taking more and more money off their now ‘captive’ clientèle, the general public.
This magazine and it’s sister publications have run article after article for many years supporting the small and medium sized traders, pointing out the dangers of the ever expanding multi-national chains and their dubious sales techniques, misleading packaging and pricing tricks.
We have always suspected low quality contents in high quality packaging but the revelations now coming to light have even surprised us. Horse meat sold as beef, pork sold as beef, what will come next, rabbit, dog and cat? The blame is being poured on the suppliers but what about trades descriptions? Surely the retailers are responsible that items on their shelves are labelled to inform the purchaser of what is inside!
The Trade Descriptions 1968 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which prevented manufacturers, retailers or service industry providers from misleading consumers as to what they are spending their money on. This law empowered the judiciary to punish companies or individuals who made false claims about the products or services that they sold. Applying a false trade description to goods was a strict liability offence.
It seems that the Act was in conflict with the much less effective EU Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which was adopted by the UK and implemented from April 2008. Another ‘benefit’ of our membership of the European Union. If the Trades Description Act was still in operation fraudulent selling of mislabelled packages would not have been subjected to severe punishments..
Now, at last, the public are seeing the light. They are flocking back to surviving butchers, farm shops and butcher’s counters in smaller self service stores, where they can speak to a professional man who takes pride in his work. He will not sell you twice as much as you need for half the price but advise on the cuts and even explain how it will cook best. He will not sell you a horse steak as a beef steak and think of you as another ‘sucker’. He will buy his meat from local farms and spend his profit locally, not use it to swell his shareholders bank balances. He will employ full time staff and not introduce ‘serve yourself cash-outs’ that make for more unemployment.
Look after the small man, he may be a bit more expensive but the meat you buy will taste better and there will be no waste.
Support the small businesses of Hastings & St Leonards and you will be supporting the town and protecting jobs.
“Hastings Town” March 2013
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