Supermarket Wars

On 9 October Lady Clark issued her decision in an application for judicial review by Sainsbury's in relation to a decision of Perth & Kinross Council. The facts are complicated but the judge made some interesting observations of general relevance.

Before dealing with the case it is probably worth just commenting on the background. It appears that one area of the Scottish economy that remains buoyant is supermarket development, possibly reflecting the fact that in the economic climate we currently face supermarket profitability has held up well. The "battle ground" between supermarkets appears to be focused however on some of the smaller towns in Scotland – the dispute in Kelso that is ongoing being a notable example of that. This decision involves Crieff and reflects that trend.