Supermarket CEOs, hand back the cash!

Back in March the government introduced a 12-month break on business rates to help struggling retailers, fearing that the effects of the Covid crisis could hamper their ability to feed us. In total, nearly £2 billion in public funds have been handed to the ‘big six’ – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrison, Lidl and Aldi – while at the same time they’ve made major pay-outs to their shareholders.

Supermarkets are one of the few businesses who have done well during the lockdowns. In fact, their sales have boomed while local cafés, pubs and restaurants have gone bust. The result has led to supermarkets paying dividends to shareholders even while receiving state aid. Earlier this year Sainsbury’s disclosed business rates relief of £230 million – suspiciously, this is the same figure that they’ve paid out to their shareholders. If public funds are going directly into the pockets of supermarket shareholders instead of the thousands of hungry people and small businesses that need it the most, we must question whether there is any integrity to this financial aid at all. We’re demanding that supermarket CEOs do the right thing and hand back the cash.

Take action

Sign the petition and demand that supermarkets hand back the cash!

Supermarkets will inevitably claim that the money they’ve received is compensation for all their hard work “feeding the nation”, but when we clapped for careers and other essential workers, we weren’t thinking of supermarket CEOs or shareholders. We were thinking of the thousands of people working tirelessly to look after and feed our communities, including those working on shop floors around the country who took the greatest risks to keep the rest of us safe and well-supplied.

Food growers, packers, and those who work in the hospitality industry (including those who support them, such as beauticians and cab drivers) have been systematically undervalued for the work that they do. Many of these workers, many of whom are migrants, have endured poor working conditions, little to no sick pay, insufficient salaries, leaving some of them turning to food banks themselves. These people are the backbone of our food system, our communities, and our support networks.

Now, more than ever, small, independent and struggling businesses need the support to get them through the crisis. 72% of pubs and restaurants predict that they won’t survive the impacts of Covid – but isn’t this inevitable when the money that’s supposed to help them is going to wealthy shareholders instead of the small businesses who are being left behind?

In a time of crisis, £2 billion could be put to far better use than to simply line the pockets of the wealthy. This could be spent protecting jobs at our local cafés and pubs, supporting small-scale producers who are keeping our communities fed. It would even pay for free school meals for kids ten times over.

Take action

Sign the petition and demand that supermarkets hand back the cash!