Wacky and Weird Surveys Get Weirder

The Adroit e-Research survey of 2 weeks ago, which Tesco used to try to spin the fact that two-thirds of people were against its planned store into a 'silent majority' in favour, has now been followed up by a further one from the bizarrely named research start-up.

The company now claims (via thisishertfordshire) that 'only 18 per cent of local people are opposed [to the Tesco store], and nearly half are positively in favour' (without specifying what 'nearly half' means, of course). Adroit Director Johnathon Brill tells the website 'The improvement is statistically significant, while admitting that 'responses such as "I don't care" or "They should just get on with it" were not included in the results, even as neutral responses'.

The fact is that this 'shift' reveals that the survey is in no way representative of public opinion. During the period between the two surveys, Tesco has taken no positive action to promote its store, and in fact is currently infuriating local people even more by wasting more time with its incomplete application. Yet we're expected to believe that a 'significant' number of people have changed their mind! Just to reiterate our other points from last time - we know that people want something to happen to the Eversheds site, and we know that shoppers might initially be in favour, because they like the Tesco brand, but once they look at the impact on local people and the community, and consider the alternatives, they rapidly become opposed. Our petition of almost 6,000 people is evidence of this.

We'd also like to suggest that Tesco's Michael Kissman stops wasting his time with these desperate surveys and spends some time getting the Tesco application in, so that it can be rejected and we can start doing something better with the land.


UPDATE: We've just heard on the grapevine that Tesco paid for the second survey, but not for the first one. Now you can all draw your conclusions about the results. Congrats of course to Mr Brill, who has snared perhaps his first blue-chip client.