The new inquiry would be the third in little over five years. If nothing else, it is tribute to the skilful lobbying of the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), which has proved itself just as competitive as the giant supermarket groups when it comes to making the voice of corner shop owners heard.
When OFT boss John Fingleton said recently that his remit was to preserve competition, not competitors, his comment was widely taken as an indication that a referral was unlikely, despite seismic changes in convenience retailing as a result of Tesco and Sainsbury's charge into that market.
Few would doubt that competition between the grocers is red in tooth and claw. Only this week, the latest TNS market share data showed that Asda and Sainsbury's are now level-pegging - something that was almost impossible to envisage just a year or so ago.
Despite Tesco's c-store acquisitions spree, it's widely accepted that the convenience sector as a whole is booming. Owners of independent convenience chains such as Bells and Jacksons have not been shy in selling up to the big boys and realising in cash their business-building efforts over many years.
For all the lobbying by the ACS, Friends of the Earth and even the Women's Institute, there is very little indication that ordinary shoppers - the ultimate arbiters of retail success or failure - feel that choice has been diminished. They have welcomed the raising of standards that big grocers have brought to the small stores sector in the same way as they welcomed their push into general merchandise categories.
However, all the carping by pressure groups threatens to undermine retailers that have built their success by giving the great British public what they want. In the process they have rewarded shareholders, created hundreds of thousands of jobs and served as model corporate citizens.
Those characteristics may fall outside the remit of the OFT and the Competition Commission, but perhaps the one good thing about the spotlight being turned on the grocers once again is that it provides an opportunity for all those benefits to be highlighted. Alongside cooperating with the inquiry, the big grocers need to run effective corporate PR campaigns of their own and of, course, carry on satisfying shoppers.
Talking of competition, John Lewis showed yesterday that it can make the running. In particular its grocery division, Waitrose, is motoring and shows that a distinctive offer and emphasis on service and quality pays dividends - or in JLP's case partners' bonuses. Much of Waitrose's growth is coming from acquisitions - it was a big beneficiary of Morrisons' takeover of Safeway. Does the importance of such deals support the need for the Competition Commission to examine the big grocers' landbanks, or is it merely coincidental?
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