Is Tesco a monopoly or oligopoly?

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Tesco's market structure described by the media is believed to be a monopoly, Tesco has also been through the legal proceedings to prove their innocence, Tesco has accused of being manipulative and gaining monopoly by building stores across towns and cities through the country and Europe but realistically Tesco is an



Regarding this, is Tesco a monopoly?

Britain's largest supermarket has become a monopoly, argues economist Andrew Simms in his new book. Not so, replies Tesco. "Every little helps," boasts Tesco. The company told Channel 4 News online that, with an overall 13 per cent share of the UK retail market, it could never be described as a monopoly.

Additionally, what type of industry is Tesco? Tesco PLC (Tesco) is a retail company. The Company is engaged in the business of Retailing and associated activities (Retail) and Retail banking and insurance services.

Keeping this in view, are supermarkets an oligopoly?

The supermarket sector is oligopolistic and the pricing strategy of supermarkets can be understood using game theory approach. It is also accepted that many farmers and growers are suffering as a result of the increasing monopsony power of the major supermarkets.

What type of market structure is a grocery store?

Grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants are all examples of firms in markets which approximate monopolistic competition.

38 Related Question Answers Found

Is Nike a monopoly?

Nike is an example of monopolistic competition because they have the aspects that a perfect competition has, except their products are not exactly like their competitors such as Adidas and Under Armour. Product differentiation is the real or perceived differences between competing products in the same industry.

Is the Royal Mail a monopoly?

BBC NEWS | Business | Royal Mail loses postal monopoly. The Royal Mail's 350-year monopoly is to end at the start of 2006, 15 months earlier than previously planned. The UK's postal service market will be fully liberalised from 1 January 2006, regulator Postcomm announced, following three months of consultation.

What are examples of monopolies?

A monopoly is a firm who is the sole seller of its product, and where there are no close substitutes. An unregulated monopoly has market power and can influence prices. Examples: Microsoft and Windows, DeBeers and diamonds, your local natural gas company.

Which supermarket has the highest market share?

As of KANTAR data published on 24 March 2019, the market share is dominated by Tesco, with Asda being second and Sainsbury's third.

List of current UK supermarket chains.
Supermarket Aldi
2015 Market share 5.3
2007 Market share 2.6
2000 Market share 1.5
Number of stores 830

Is Aldi an oligopoly?


An oligopoly is a type of market structure. A good example to think about would be the supermarket industry, where we can see our main suppliers of this industry are the likes of Tesco, Asda, Aldi etc. In an oligopoly there are only a few dominant suppliers in the market who hold the majority of the market share.

What are the 4 types of monopoly?

There are four basic types of market structures in traditional economic analysis: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and monopoly. A monopoly is a structure in which a single supplier produces and sells a given product or service.

What is a monopoly in the UK?

By technical definition a monopoly is a firm which holds 100% of a market, however in the UK the competition authorities define a legal Monopoly as a firm holding over 25% power within a market. Monopolies are often price setters, but can be quantity setters (never both simultaneously).

How do supermarkets compete with each other?

Supermarkets use a full range of price and non-price competition strategies to grow and protect their market share: Price discounting on selected ranges. Price matching schemes offering coupon discounts for customers on their next shop based on price comparisons of the baskets that flow through the checkouts.

Is McDonalds an oligopoly?

McDonald's is not considered a monopoly since it is not a single seller of a good or one that is unique. These facts show how McDonald's is considered an oligopoly, as it is one of the few firms dominating the industry it is in. McDonald's is one of the many firms that are under the economies of scale.

Is Coca Cola an oligopoly?


Coca-Cola Company is in an oligopoly market structure due to the dominance of a limited number of companies in the industry. The company has set various competitive strategies against its main competitor, Pepsi.

Are supermarkets monopolistic?

Our bottom line: Called monopolistic competition, the market structure in which supermarkets compete shapes how they maximize profits. A supermarket could have monopoly power that lets it price and place products however it wants because its unique identity generates consumer loyalty.

Is Apple a monopoly or oligopoly?

Apple Inc. is considered an Oligopoly and Monopolistic Competition because of there being more competitors and also with the company maintaining its position in the market because its too costly or difficult for other rivals to enter, thus meaning there are entry barriers.

Is Asda an oligopoly?

Oligopoly is a type of imperfect competition which can be applied to U.K. supermarket industry. Its market structure comprises few firms which dominate whole market which is in case of U.K. supermarkets where 'big Four' namely Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrison's are the dominate ones and indulged in oligopoly.

Is oligopoly elastic or inelastic?

Oligopolistic market: Kinked demand curve model
The firm's marginal revenue curve is discontinuous (or rather, not differentiable), and has a gap at the kink. For prices above the prevailing price the curve is relatively elastic. For prices below the point the curve is relatively inelastic.

Is Tesco a oligopoly?


Tesco's market structure described by the media is believed to be a monopoly, Tesco has also been through the legal proceedings to prove their innocence, Tesco has accused of being manipulative and gaining monopoly by building stores across towns and cities through the country and Europe but realistically Tesco is an

What is an example of an oligopoly?

Automobile manufacturing another example of an oligopoly, with the leading auto manufacturers in the United States being Ford (F), GMC, and Chrysler. While there are smaller cell phone service providers, the providers that tend to dominate the industry are Verizon (VZ), Sprint (S), AT&T (T), and T-Mobile (TMUS).

What are the characteristics of oligopoly?

The three most important characteristics of oligopoly are: (1) an industry dominated by a small number of large firms, (2) firms sell either identical or differentiated products, and (3) the industry has significant barriers to entry.