Almost a year ago, Guaridan Columnist Simon Hoggart wrote the following piece which still rings true today:
It's heartening to see the wave of antipathy billowing out towards Tesco. And it's producing results too. Near where my parents live in Norwich, a persistent local campaign has stopped Tesco getting permission for a store that would wipe out a street of local shops, including two terrific butchers, a greengrocer, a fishmonger, an old-fashioned pharmacist who delivers, and two fine bakeries. Money spent with local people goes back into the community, to the plumbers, hairdressers, solicitors and dentists, whereas money given to Tesco winds up hundreds of miles away in Tescoland, wherever that is.
Oh, and we also hate the so-called "Tesco's Finest", which seems to translate as "Tesco's More Or Less Adequate". But Tesco will be back. They always are. Do they never have a board meeting at which someone says: "Look guys, we're all making a fortune. We don't need any more money. Why don't we just stop expanding?" Of course not. It isn't in the nature of the beast. Which is why all these anti-Tesco websites (Tescopoly, Every Little Hurts, etc) are springing up.
Where we live there's a new, smallish Tesco store and we all complain like mad about the way their vast delivery trucks clog up narrow streets when we're trying to get to work, or people are collecting their kids from school. What are we going to do? Clamp them? Enforce a citizen's arrest on the driver? But there is an answer. We have to stop going there.
In spite of all the strong local feeling, our Tesco has long queues. Why? Given that the lorries are so vast, why do they never deliver anything we want? Why are there yards of fizzy drinks and nasty snacks, and little you'd actually want to put in your stomach?
If we truly hate Tesco we have to plan our shopping so we get to the small butcher and the greengrocer and the baker while they're open. And if Tesco is the only choice, we have to do without for the time being. Not selling stuff is the only language they understand. Otherwise they will carry on, getting bigger and bigger, destroying our country, our towns and our cities, even faster than John Prescott."
One of my neighbours told me just the other day that they, like our family, had stopped doing their shopping at Tesco. None of us had really known or thought much about Tesco's market dominance, business practices, etc before Tesco revealed plans to build a totally inappropriate development in St. Albans. Now, it would seem, Tesco finds themselves on the wrong side of the news almost everyday. If anything, this growing understanding of some of the issues we're facing locally in St. Albans will help us to defeat this development.
Can you help us spread the word even further? Do you work in advertising or public relations? Perhaps you're a journalist or work for a media company? Can you write press releases, take photos, research stories, email friends who can help us get noticed? If so, St. Albans needs you - get in touch: tescocampaign@yahoo.co.uk
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1 comment:
You know, I am confused, what is it about us Brits? Is there another nation on earth that utterly detests success the way that we do (unless of course it is our own success)and why is it that although we bemoan the passing of independent neighbourhood shopping and urge the masses to boycott Tesco we still flock to their stores and gobble up BOGOF offers and "two for £3" giveaways.
Now, I realise that I am flying in the face of popular opinion, and, no doubt, risk being lynched for saying it, but tesco is a company that this country should be proud of. It is an unweildy beast for sure, but it is also one which is frighteningly well managed, and which understands better than almost any other, how to capitalise on the bumbling ineptitude of both local and national government.
Let me explain, in tesco and Government we have two entities which on the face of it look like unweildy lumbering dinosaurs, however one of them moves with the ease and grace of a Gazelle, whereas the other is more like a drunken Hippo with its hind legs tied together trying to haul itself out of a swamp. I will leave you to guess which one is the hippo.
I can also relate from a position of some understanding, as in my professional life I am a supplier to Tesco. It is simply not the case that tesco exists to "screw its suppliers", it exists to trade in the most profitable way it can (not an uncommon concept in business !) and to develop value for and commitment and loyalty from its major stakeholders (Customers, employees & suppliers). If you want to deal with Tesco, thats fine, just make sure you understand the rules of engagement beforee you start, and generally speaking you can rely on them to tell it like it is.
I certainly dont live in fear of Tesco, you have to be as robust with them as they are with you and you will develop healthy mutual respect and with a fair wind a very successful and sustainable business.
Finally although I feel a certain compulsion to defend what is after all a colossal business and a significant employer (over 250,000), i do not shop in Tesco, or for that matter any of the major supermarkets, preferring to use my local Greengrocer, Butcher etc... that is my choice Sure, if there is something only they sell i will go in but I really think its abou time we stopped carping on and practising what we preach. I suspect that five years from today we won't be living in Tescoland (whatever that means) and that tesco will be bigger bolder and even more successful than it is today, and the vast majority of people who pay lip service to curbing its expansion will still have a carrier bag full of BOGOF frozen peas.
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