Every Little...Hurts the Environment

Tesco is making a lot of its environmental credentials in promoting the London Road store - they rate a page of their own, 'A Greener Future', on the company's tescostalbans.co.uk site. However, you may be more skeptical about how green the company is once you read this article in the Telegraph today. In order to save paying VAT on CDs and DVDs Tesco is packaging them in London and sending them to UK addresses via Switzerland - clocking up a 1,400 mile journey releasing a lot of greenhouse gases and other pollution in the process!

This sort of practice also provides another example of how Tesco makes the playing field less level for smaller firms - the UK's small and dwindling number of independent record shops don't have the scale, the resources, or frankly the nerve to do this sort of activity. MP Jim Dowd, who is chairman of the All-Party parliamentary group for small shops, told the Telegraph,

"Small retailers just don't have a chance. This is not in the public interest and it is not fair competition. If Tesco thought it was cheaper to ship CDs to Tanzania and back I'm pretty sure it would."

If you would like to ask Tesco about this policy, you can use the tescostalbans site itself! Please send us a copy of any reply you get!