Tesco

[ramtops]

there's been some buzz in the news this week about Tesco expanding into non-food stores. To me, that's a bit like hearing that Hitler wanted to expand into neighbouring countries.

Tesco are a vile and greedy corporate; yes, I know all corporates are thus, but Tesco are worst than most. They have a hugely unhealthy share of the UK retail market already, which *cannot* be good for consumers.

I don't want to buy my groceries and do my banking and buy my insurance and rent my DVDs all from the same company - I want competition in the high street and in the marketplace, if only to give us something other than the boring retail chains we have now. For some time, I've made a point of avoiding Tesco wherever possible; how much longer will I be able to do that, I wonder ...

here's a *very* interesting read from CorporateWatch.

I don't know if anything can be done to stop them, but if so, please tell me where I can sign up.

Comments

Strangely ...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... Tesco used to have a "Tesco Home" near me in Feltham which did almost no food (no more than a good sized Tesco petrol station) but obviously that doesn't count in their brave new world.

I buy a lot of stuff at Tesco ... they are convenient, the prices are good, and they are open when I want to do my shopping.

I have theorhetical objections to monopolies, and in particular I don't like what supermarkets do to diversity and to allowing small farmers to survive ... but, by observing my actual actions, I find that those objections are not enough for me to *not* shop at Tescos.

I buy my magazines, storage boxes, a lot of my stationery, some gardening tools, some electricals etc. already from Tesco so this "expansion" is not going to affect me much.

I remember the forlorn cry years ago about how the supermarkets with their prepacked food was going to kill grocers that cut you a block of cheese from the wheel using a cheese wire ... but if I go into Tescos or Sainsburys now, I find a greater selection of cheeses, and they still have the cheesewire to cut of sections from the wheel.

The world is changing, and not necessarily for the better, but I'm not sure what the correct course forward is ...

They have a hugely unhealthy share of the UK retail market already, which *cannot* be good for consumers
...and thus is the curse of freedom of choice and capitalism summarised.

[pixiejuice.livejournal.com]

Just curious, and not having a go at all - but if Tesco, Asda and Sainsburies are all dodgy, where are people who aren't able to get to local butchers/green grocers/bakeries/etc meant to go to get food and not harm other industries and the environment ?

If I had transport, and the local shops stayed open past the time I finish work I would much rather patronise them, but when there's a Sainsburies at the end of the street and it's open til 11pm, it makes it far too easy.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

and the local shops stayed open past the time I finish work

...so you work Monday through Sunday?

[pixiejuice.livejournal.com]

I work Monday to Friday and altenate Saturday and Sundays, and the local food shops don't open before I start work and shut before I finish, and are not open on sundays, and the butcher/fishmongers isn't open on Saturdays, and all of them are a bus and a 20 minute walk away.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Ah. Sorry.

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky in that I buy my meat in bulk from organic producers, and have a veggie box every week. I do use supermarkets (Sainsburys or Waitrose), but I won't use Tesco.

[pixiejuice.livejournal.com]

Although we do only buy food, toiletries and household good such as foil from supermarkets. I don't buy stationery, books or cds from them, and the only magazine I get there is nursing times cos the local newsagents don't often stock it.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I actively try not to shop at supermarkets, but even so...

1. I buy fruit'n'veg from the local food cooperative, or from the not-quite-so-local Tattie Shaws. Both are cheaper than buying from any supermarket, and Tattie Shaws has more variety and better quality.

2. I buy flour, lentils, beans, spices, herbs, and other staples from Real Foods.

3. I buy washing-up liquid, cat food, newspapers, and a few other items at the local shop.

4. I buy cat litter at Scotmid, because they sell "clumping cat litter" that I have been unable to find anywhere else, and it simplifies the cleanup problem enormously.

5. ...I buy virtually everything else at the supermarket.

[lovingboth]

At what point do they get big enough for the competition authorities to say "Oi, stop those cross subsidies!"?

If they can sell insurance cheaper than Company B without using the profits from elsewhere in the business, then fine.

[gmul.livejournal.com]

And, from the next entry on my friends page, coming soon to a Tesco near you... (http://www.livejournal.com/users/toddandpenguin/70511.html?#cutid1)