Published by The New Angle on Feb 28, 2026
February 28th, 2026
The other day I walked in to my local Tesco Express to find a great glass barrier had been constructed around the tills since my last visit. This is not acceptable in the country of England.
There were days when a shop was kept by a local shopkeeper. In the post-war period in Britain, and before it, you would walk up to the counter and ask the shopkeeper for however many ounces of sugar, a loaf of bread, and some milk. Then came the age of the supermarket, and suddenly food and drink was stacked on shelves. This was something like a market, except you don't interact with the seller, you don't haggle with him over the price, and he is not an expert in his produce. The produce is less likely to be locally sourced, less likely to be completely natural, more likely to have been transported thousands of miles in great chilled containers.
Then, in mockery, the large London Stock Exchange listed 'super-markets' bought a complete monopoly on groceries. Gone is the local grocery shop run by the local shopkeeper, a Mr Evans, or a Mr Gibbs. Now are the days of long isle after isle of industrial scale produce.
This is not to say there aren't advantages, of course, to the supermarket. Food is cheaper, more readily available, and there is a much wider range. And one can argue that free market capitalism should grant these monopolies free reign.
The 'supermarket' then decided, after sucking all their customers to their massive industrial warehouses, conveniently putting everything people needed in one place (it is convenient), to next monopolise the local shop as well. Local shops run by your local guy with better quality food; first he lost all his customers to the massive supermarket down the road. Then to the 'mini version' of these supermarkets locally - your 'Sainsbury's Local' or 'Tesco Express', say.
Now these local shops are protecting their profit margins. Against theft. In our grandparents day, the teachings of the church, especially 'thou shalt not steal', were so much part of the fabric of the society and the customs of the country that there was fear in people's hearts at the prospect of theft. The polite and friendly local old man, the new young families, of our countrymen and women, could be trusted to engage in the customs and propriety of the community. Compare that dream world to now, where plastic barriers have to be put in front of the chocolate gift boxes, and sirloin steak has to be placed in a comically large plastic cage, and it is clear that the society is rotting. Rotting to the core.