THE Office of Fair Trading's inquiry into the behaviour of our big four supermarkets is welcome.

They are so large that increasingly they dictate to shoppers what food they are allowed to buy, and they dictate to producers - most notably farmers - what prices they are allowed to sell at.

Out-of-town supermarkets have undoubtedly damaged the viability of small, distinctive family-run shops in town centres. They have undoubtedly soaked up all the trade so successfully that there are fewer and fewer village shops.

Their policy of central bulk-buying does nothing to promote local jobs or the distinctiveness of local products.

And their attitude to the environment must also be questioned. How can it be right to fly a little green bean half-way around the world in a chilled aeroplane hold and then present it on a polystyrene tray with a plastic lid wrapped tight in clingfilm and finally placed in a carrier bag? The landfill sites don't need the packaging, the air doesn't need the pollution and we don't need the little green bean when we've got a huge variety of vegetables grown fresh on our doorstep.

The Women's Institute in Cornwall is urging its members to boycott out-of-town supermarkets because of the damage they are doing to traditional town centres. Here in the North-East, we've seen butchers vanish from most shopping centres and we are seeing markets struggle as the number of stalls dwindles by the week.

If we were as brave as the WI we would do the same. We'd turn our backs on the supermarkets and patronise the village shop or go into town and come home laden with produce bought on the market.

But we don't. We go to the supermarkets.

They are convenient, open all hours, easy to find (if you have a car), offer reliable quality at cheap prices and have a huge selection of goods, many of which you don't need but you buy just in case.

The OFT inquiry will only be able to tinker around the edges of the supermarket monopoly because of one simple fact. Although we all moan about supermarkets as if they were the weather, we are all addicted to them.