Tesco

Which supermarket do you use? Is it Tesco? The chances are it is. We’ve all heard that one pound in every eight of money spent in shops, is spent in their stores. Is this healthy?
Last Friday, Shopping the Supermarkets concluded a week of programmes with a detailed examination of Tesco’s attempts to get a supermarket into the North Norfolk town of Sheringham – somewhere I know very well.
They’ve been trying for years to get into the town, although there’s a great deal of local opposition to the plans, not least because the town fears that many of the plethora of local shops will be forced to close when Tesco opens. The site Tesco has chosen would also mean that local housing, the fire station and the community centre would need moving. The community centre in particular would be moved much further from the town centre meaning that it’s harder for the elderly who use the centre, to reach.
But the really big issue is a secret deal connived between members of a previous council administration and Tesco to ensure that no other supermarket group could use council owned land to build a supermarket. Not only does Tesco want to move into Sheringham, they want to ensure that nobody else is able to. Budgens put a proposal forward for a much smaller development, but it’s been thrown out, as it goes against the seemingly legally binding agreement Tesco already has.
Now tonight, Dispatches took a close look at a number of further Tesco issues. Not least their dealings with local councils, who rarely can afford to fight them, their land-bank of space and even their ownership structure and offshore dealings.
While we wait for the Competition Commission’s Inquiry to report, just think twice before you automatically next go to Tesco…


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