records on employment, outsourcing and the other allegations that had been made against it. Could Britain's Tesco suffer the same fate as Wal-Mart? In 2006 Wal-Mart had 8 per cent of all retail sales in the USA, but even the mighty Wal-Mart seemed insignificant in its market share compared to Tesco's share of the UK market. In 2006, it was estimated by Verdict Research that Tesco accounted for almost 12 per cent of all consumer spending in the UK, derived not just from its core supermarkets, but also through sales of insurance, personal finance, telephone and energy services. Like most large and successful organizations, Tesco started small, being founded shortly after the First World War when Jack Cohen left the Flying Corps with just £30 of capital available to him. He invested most of this in the bulk purchase of tins of surplus war rations, which he then sold from a bar- row in the street markets of London. The Tesco brand name became particularly important to Cohen when he expanded beyond his single market barrow. He initially acted as a wholesaler to other traders, then opened his first shop in Tooting, London, before going on to open further shops. In December 1947, Tesco became a public company, and the money provided by the sale of shares was used to develop larger stores, in ticular the new style of self-service store, which was modelled on the American example and proved increasingly successful for Tesco. In the 1950s, the power of a retailer to influence the decision of customers was being reduced with the development of mass media, particularly following the intro- duction of commercial television. Retailers became dispensers of manufacturers' branded goods, and buyers came to rely on the manufacturers' advertising, rather than the retailers' persuasion, when making purchase decisions. However, the abolition of Resale Price Maintenance in 1964 was to be extremely beneficial to Tesco's business strategy in which low prices were a key element of its marketing. It was only from the 1980s that the power of UK retailer brands really came to match the power of manufacturers, with the emergence of five very large retailers in the grocery sector. It became more important to manufacturers