OXFORD is certainly one of the battlegrounds in the supermarket war at the moment.

The announcement of Sainsbury’s plans for Tyndale House in Cowley Road, almost directly opposite Tesco, comes hard on the heels of their plans to have a store just a short distance away on The Plain roundabout.

Tesco itself has hardly been lazy lately, with its failed planning applications for two derelict pub sites in South Oxford and Marston as well as opening up the St Aldate’s store.

A new Sainsbury’s store will only add to the worries of businesses in Cowley Road and you can understand that.

Where once they had Tesco for competition, now they will seemingly have two other supermarket tanks parked on their lawns. But that is the way of this commercial world.

The real question is whether having two Sainsbury’s so close to a large Tesco makes commercial sense. Presumably it does because the people running these chains are not that stupid.

Whatever happens, hopefully it will not impact on the local and independent traders because a Cowley Road of closed down shops and just two supermarket giants would be terrible. But customers can play their part by choosing whether to support local stores or not.