Making sense of the past seven days
It's hard to resist a wry smile at the behaviour of c-store group Musgrave towards its Londis franchisees.

The self-styled friend of the little guy, Londis, which calls itself 'the number one supporter of independent retailers,' has shown that it is capable of the same sort of behaviour that the big four grocers are often accused of by their most vociferous critics - such as owners of corner shops, for instance.

Londis franchisees have reportedly been told that they must order a minimum of£3,000 worth of Londis products a week - an increase of£1,000 - from the end of February.

What a supreme irony that the demand emerged in the very week that the big supermarket groups - the target of relentless attacks for supposedly crushing the life out of small shopkeepers - were pretty much cleared by the Competition Commission of many of the criticisms levelled at them.

The truth is that retail is a hardscrabble, ferociously competitive business and at every point along the distribution chain, somebody is trying to make a profit.

So changes of supplier payment terms and the like are part of life, no matter how controversial they might be. Musgrave/Londis's action exposes the real complexity of supplier relationships. A complexity that is usually ignored as the supermarket Aunt Sallys are pelted with abuse. There aren't really good guys and bad guys, just a lot of people, probably too many, trying to turn a buck.

What to make of this morning's disclosure that JJB founder Dave Whelan is to unload a big tranche of his shares?

Whelan intends to sell up to 20.5 million shares, representing about 8.6 per cent of the entire issued share capital.

Since that will still leave him with a stake of about 29 per cent and he's not selling any more shares for at least 12 months, it seems unlikely that the oft-mooted sale of JJB is on the cards.

Some think that the share sale indicates that the recovery under way at JJB may already have peaked, but Whelan says the disposal is for personal financial reasons.

Maybe that's not so surprising, given his interest in Wigan FC. As has often been observed, owning a football club usually costs, rather than makes, money.