Shopping: Supermarkets tighten grip on sales of CDs and videos

The dominance of supermarkets in every sphere of retailing has been underlined this week when it was revealed that they are the fastest growing sellers of CDs, tapes and videos. The big supermarket chains now account for 11 per cent of the total music and video market, up from just 3 per cent in five years, according to a report by Verdict retail consultants.

The most aggressive player in the market is Asda, which alone accounts for 4 per cent of the market, but Sainsbury, Safeway and Tesco have all expanded into music and videos in the past two years.

The supermarkets have entered the market because they can make profits of up to 30 per cent on CDs and videos, which is much higher than the profits from foods. They have been boosting their share of sales by carrying just the top-selling titles and undercutting the prices of specialist record shops.

Supermarkets now account for more of the market than WH Smith (7.4 per cent) and Britannia (6.5 per cent), but the merged Virgin Megastores and Our Price stores remain the biggest sellers, with 18 per cent of all sales.