Small independent shops face a bleak holiday period - and Christmas shoppers should look to use them more if they want to stop them disappearing, according to the Forum of Private Businesses.
It says that the huge marketing schemes that swing into place for major retailers mean small businesses are struggling to survive.
And it says that if small shops are forced out of the market, shoppers will miss out on the quality and diversity offered by local independent retailers as town and city centres are turned into "clone high streets".
"Consumers can help support the campaign to halt the demise of the high street," said the FPB's national chairman Len Collinson. "Due to their buying power, which includes predatory pricing and other unfair strategies, the big supermarkets often take advantage of their size and scale and undermine smaller shops by drawing people away from them.
"Despite expensive Christmas advertising campaigns to convince us that larger retailers, such as supermarkets, provide the best range of food, drink and gifts, the FPB believes it is high street shops that offer unrivalled levels of service, choice and quality."
The FPB says it is is urging shoppers to step in where the Competition Commission has so far failed, and snub the supermarkets.
Last month the commission published the provisional findings of its inquiry into the groceries market.
The inquiry registered concerns that larger retailers were able to transfer unexpected costs onto their suppliers, but the FPB said it believes that it has not gone far enough to prevent the abuse, or protect the anonymity of suppliers giving evidence.
The FPB is also supporting the Conservative Party's commission into small shops in the high street. The Parliamentary Enterprise Group, which is conducting the investigation, is being chaired by Northampton South MP Brian Binley.
