Ripping off our Local Community in Maldon, Essex.

Ripping off our Local Community in Maldon....I know it’s been said for years that we all live in rip of Britain, taxed too much and pay too much for some services etc. However I now have proof how some of our major supermarkets price fix to kill off the competition and then proceed to rip of the local community by taking advantage.

In my local town Maldon in the county of Essex a few years ago like a lot of other towns up and down the country we never had a ring road around our town, but now we do and with it at one end we have gained a Morrisons supermarket and small retail park, at the other end a Tesco Extra Superstore and a McDonalds which is the expected norm across the country nowadays and enjoyed by most families.

Personally my family shop in the Tesco store at Maldon for all our food and groceries, we feel across the pricing structure that their food and grocery prices are fair priced against their competition Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons etc.

Now on to the main important part and the reason for this blog. The price fixing and ripping off the local community in the Maldon area.  Along with the two superstores and large car parking areas both stores have fuel stations. When the stores first opened in and around the area there was a lot of small local petrol stations from St Chad’s, Bates Motors, The Causeway and Holdings of Heybridge and over the years these have disappeared through competitive competition on pricing and the convenience to shop and fill up with fuel at the same time.

Now that the competition has disappeared the price fixing part starts, that the cost of fuel is always the same at both the Tesco and Morrisons fuel stations. The rip off part by Tesco’s to the local community of Maldon area is “Why is the fuel sold at the Maldon Tesco always more expensive than the fuel sold at the Tesco stores in the Chelmsford and Colchester areas,” it can be as much as 2 / 3p a litre.

My conclusion is in the Chelmsford and Colchester area there must still be a lot of competition, but in the Maldon Store due to no competition they now can charge what they like. How many other rural areas is this happening in?

Wayne

www.waynecollier.co.uk