The Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) has asked the government to adopt restrictions on the ownership of pharmacies similar to regulations in place in most European countries.

The IPU favors restricting pharmacy ownership to pharmacists, and capping the number of pharmacies any pharmacist can own at five. Eleven of the fifteen European Union countries, including France and Germany, have similar laws prohibiting corporate chains from operating drugstores.

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Ireland’s Environment Minister Martin Cullen has announced that the government may lift a five-year-old nationwide policy banning superstores.

The policy, adopted as a temporary measure in 1998 and made permanent in 2001, prohibits stores over 3,500 square meters (38,000 square feet) in Dublin and 3,000 square meters (32,000 square feet) in the rest of the country.

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The Thai government has issued a new directive designed to control the expansion of superstores. The measure requires provinces to establish committees to draft new planning rules that stipulate where large-scale stores may locate.

The directive covers all of Thailand’s 76 provinces, except Bangkok and three other major cities, which already have zoning in place. The government estimates it will take three years to implement land use planning nationwide.

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In a move that could derail big box development projects throughout England, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has rejected a bid by the furniture chain Ikea to build a 300,000-square-foot store (seven times the size of a football field) outside the city of Stockport.

In a letter explaining his decision, Deputy Prime Minister Prescott said the proposed store violated several provisions of both national and local planning policy.

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Officials of Oaxaca, Mexico, have turned down an application by McDonald’s to open an outlet in a 500-year-old plaza at the center of town. "There are values that we have to preserve, such as our traditions and culture," city leader Gabino Cue Monteagudo said. A local ordinance allows local officials to reject development projects that endanger the city’s cultural heritage. Continue reading

Citizens and community organizations in New Zealand are beginning to take action to curb the spread of chain stores and big box retailers. "The big box phenomena has had a huge impact," says Warren Snow of Envision New Zealand, a community development company. "In the same way that Wal-Mart has decimated the main streets of America, New Zealand towns and suburbs are also buckling under the might of big box retailers."

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British farmers and environmentalists are irate over the government’s new regulations governing the way major supermarket chains deal with their suppliers. The binding Code of Practice was issued in November after an extensive study found that the major supermarket chains routinely use their market power to squeeze farmers, undermine competition, and harm the public interest.

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