Tesco's Profits of £2.55 Billion

That's £291 000 an hour.

The Today programme's Greg Wood had a barbed 4-minute interview with Terry Leahy, the chief exec of Tesco, this morning.

Wood pointed out that Tesco had objected to the Competition Commission's definition of a "local store." The Commission had defined "local" as a 15 minute drive away, whilst Tesco wanted a definition of 30 minutes. Wood said that you can drive from Liverpool to Manchester in 30 minutes, and that if his local pub was 30 minutes away, people would think he was barmy.

I'd probably respond that stores should be compared within a 10 minute bicycle ride. Driving a half-hour from your house or flat in Coventry to shop at Tesco?

It's a simple choice.

Do we want to patronise mammoth stores like Tesco, which now controls just over 30% of the UK market, or Saino's or Asda or Morrisons? It's a model that is dependent upon cheap petrol to keep their distribution centres linked to their hundreds of stores, with just-in-time deliveries. It's a model that prides itself on providing out-of-season fruit shipped from across the world year-round.

Or should we support locally-owned green grocers and butchers with locally-sourced and seasonal food, and independent health food and organic food shops?