Snap! Tesco's Cookie Cutter Public Statements on "Consultation"

Ever wondered what Tesco has told other Towns and Cities where they're hoping to build developments?

We decided to investigate and it seems that Tesco spends a lot of it's time telling communities along it's development roadshow that it wants feedback directly from local people. It would appear that Tesco spends SO much time getting this particular message across that sometimes they've not had enough time left over to actually change the wording of their press releases:

In October 2006, the town of Hadleigh was told that Tesco would be holding a public consultation with the community and would hold a public exhibition to show their planned development. Tesco spokesperson Michael Kissman said in a press release that,

"By holding a consultation programme in advance of the submission of the application, we can listen to the community’s views before we finalise the plans...Individuals will have their chance to speak to us at the exhibition. But we are also particularly interested in hearing from groups that represent different aspects of community life in the Hadleigh area, groups who ordinarily would not be consulted, but nevertheless have an important contribution to make to the discussions.”

Sound familiar? It should.

Four months later, on 14 January 2007 the St. Albans Observer quoted the same Tesco spokesperson, Michael Kissman, as saying:

"By holding an extensive consultation programme in advance of the submission of the application, we can listen to the community's views before we finalise the plans...Individuals will have their chance to speak to us at the exhibition... But we are also particularly interested in hearing from groups that represent different aspects of community life in the St Albans area, groups who ordinarily would not be consulted, but nevertheless have an important contribution to make to the discussions."

SNAP!

Tesco, it would seem, has a habit of reusing the above and other messages in a number of towns and cities where it is hoping to build new stores:

In November 2006, Kissman told the people of Haverhill that Tesco wanted to ensure the future vitality of the town centre. People consulted, with local businesses and the local council both suggesting that a different access road should be included in the plans to avoid the store being cut off from the town centre.

At the end of January 2006, Tesco told the Cambridge News that, with regards to the Havershill store, "We will be investing millions, and we want to work with you to make sure that investment works for the benefit of Haverhill. A lot of people seem to be shopping elsewhere at the moment, and we think we can fill that gap and keep them in the town centre."

Snap! What did he say in St. Albans? According to the Observer :

"Tesco spokesman Michael Kissman said: "We want to have a constructive debate with local people. It's about regenerating the area and bringing business back to the area. We know that people aren't shopping in the town centre and this proposal is in line with Government policy to bring supermarkets back into town centres."

One has to wonder how Kissman came to the conclusion that people "aren't shopping in the town centre" when any local person could tell you that it's almost impossible, for all the shoppers, to easily navigate the pavements of the city centre on market day. Perhaps we are to believe that all towns, Havershill and St. Albans included, have problems - largely invisible to the naked eye of local people - drawing shoppers to their town centres? One size can, we suppose, fit all if you really try hard enough - but let's hope that approach doesn't extend as far as Tesco's ability to change their plans in light of local "consultations":

On 04 February 2007, Mr. Kissman returned to Haverhill to give a talk about Tesco's history and new improved environmental credentials, skirting local concern about the positioning of an access road and Tesco's plans to sell a significant amount of non-food items which local businesses felt threatened their livelihood. Kissman, according to the Haverhill News, "ended his presentation reaffirming how keen Tesco is to become involved with the local community and local organisations to facilitate 'working together to support Haverhill”.

Five days later, on 09 February Haverhill found out that although Tesco planners had gone as far as to consider putting the store "on stilts", changing the plans to incorporate the access road would cost Tesco, a company that made £2 billion in profits last year, too much. The local paper conveyed the disappointment of those who had "consulted" extensively with Tesco in an effort to "work together to support Haverhill":

"Proposals for an access road to the north of Tesco’s new store in Haverhill have been turned down irrevocably after months of campaigning and negotiation."

Tesco's plans for the Evershed site may very well have been "Designed for St. Albans" but their current approach to the debate their plans have stirred locally does, thus far, look pretty familar. Let's hope, for the sake of St. Albans, that the similarities end here.