So the weekly big food shop in a large supermarket is still shrinking, in a prolonged way that is almost without precedent.

BBC: Sainsbury's tells shoppers�� story

This, in turn, allowed international buyers such as large supermarket chains and conglomerate beverage companies to put extra downward price pressure on growers.

FORBES: New Zealand Whine

This is worrying, for almost a quarter of all large supermarket stores have either no large competitor or just one within a 15-minute drive.

ECONOMIST: Competition in retailing

People living in the tower block, who describe the flats as an "eyesore", do not want such a large supermarket, which they say will be detrimental to Margate.

BBC: Margate seafront Tesco to be decided by Eric Pickles

So far, no large Indian supermarket chain has managed to replicate the convenience-store format successfully, because it's tough to offer goods on credit, personalize the service and stay profitable.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The scandal started in Ireland last month, when authorities there found horse meat in some beef burgers sold in large U.K. supermarket chains, but it has now swept across Europe.

WSJ: U.K. Arrests Men in Horse-Meat Probe

Shares in Ahold, a Dutch supermarket operator with large American operations, recently tumbled after investors took fright at the company's attempt to gloss over an unflattering American accounting treatment in favour of the European one.

ECONOMIST: European companies

This humanization works, because someone wrote each sign by hand, and it makes consumers think about the supermarket more in terms of its employees than its large corporate size.

FORBES: Back to the Future: Longing for That Personal Mom-and-Pop Touch

It often insists that foods already on supermarket shelves be treated like drugs and run through a gauntlet of preliminary studies before large-scale human studies can begin.

FORBES: Magazine Article