THE Co-op Movement has pledged to continue working with the Government to eliminate sales of alcohol to young people under 18 after figures released by the Home Office put the Co-op third from bottom of a table of offending retailers. However the fact that the ratio of "successful" secret test purchases in Co-op supermarkets across the UK has fallen from 48 per cent last summer to 17 per cent this month is being seen as welcome progress and proof that the Movement's responsible ...

WEST Midlands Co-op has acquired a former Safeway supermarket in Sedgley from Morrisons. When Morrisons bought Safeway for £ 3 billion it agreed to sell off 52 Safeway stores ? out of the total 480 outlets ? to satisfy competition rules. One store has been sold to the society, five are expected to be sold to Asda, 14 to Sainsbury's and a further 14 to Waitrose, which had already bought five other stores from Morrisons that were not on the Competition Commission's list.