Tesco riding roughshod

[deemaitch]

Tesco are proposing to buils an hypermarket in the town centre of Bridgwater with the backing of a Tory council.
They want 24/7 opening and delivery's without restrictions.
These developments have been stopped in other towns.
As anyone got any ideas how we could stop this

[joeluke]

Why don't you want Tesco there?

[237SJ]

Lobby the opposition MP or start a petition. I doubt you`ll stop it though.

[jackthehat]

You'll have a helluva job..........
They will promise to provide 'municipal' facilities that the Local Authority are unwilling/unable to finance; libraries, health centres, sports facilities as well as building a feeder road-system straight to their store, which may also produce some traffic-calming measures to Bridgwater town centre.
The fact that the council will probably be unable to find the budget to run these expensive white elephants in a couple of years will not occur to the vain-glorious local councillors at the forefront of making the decision.
I don't know quite 'who'you ought to contact but don't delay............

[boxtops]

Why don't you want it? We have a 24-7 Tesco here, it closes 10pm-10am on Saturday night and 4pm-8am Sunday night to comply with Sunday trading laws, but it's a great asset - I can shop at 2 am if I want to, and avoid all the crowds. No parking problems either!

[jackthehat]

The main answer is that they suck the life-force out of independent shops, leaving town-centres like ghost-towns and high streets full of charity shops, pound emporiums and Estate Agents.

Once a town centre dies..........that's it.

[joeluke]

Who gives a toss about independent shops in town centres when you can go to Tesco and get virtually everything you need under one roof?

[237SJ]

I agree with JTH. Superstores are convenient for consumers but they put everyone else out of business. I wouldn`t know where to go around here to find a butcher. all the traditional shops are disappearing because everyone goes to supermarkets. Not just for food either. Pharmacies, key cutting, dry cleaning. It`s all at the supermarket.

[jackthehat]

Because once you have no competition...........you have no competition and can charge what you like for a range of products for which you have fashioned demand.

[B00]

I know this is getting slightly off topic, but some of us HAVE to shop at places like Asda and Tesco.

I'd dearly love to potter into my town centre to do my shopping, ambling from the bread shop, to the butchers and then greengrocers but my purse tells me otherwise. I understand that they can't compete with the giants, but regrettably, my priority is to feed my family with as much as i can, for as little as i can, and this simply can't be done in local shops- they're too expensive.

[seadogg]

90% of people polled by the local paper didn't want our town de-gutted, traffic congestion
and good specialist shops ruined. Can you tell the difference between Tesco meat and what is available from a craft butcher ? Ditto fish and other products. By the way we already have more than one.

[B00]

to answer Seadogg, no I wouldn't want that to happen to my local town, but as i said, i have to shop where my money dictates. If they were as competative as Tesco et al, then id happily shop in them instead.

And no, i may be a philistine, but I genuinely can't tell the difference betweeen Tesco's meat and my local butchers, apart from the prices as ive stated.

[seadogg]

Fair enough Boo. The new one seems to be for more non food products in addition to the fair sized food shop we have already.

[237SJ]

My mother moved up from Devon a couple of years ago and she had never shopped at a supermarket for meat until then. She hates supermarket meat. There is no comparison. People managed before supermarkets were around. The problem is that the supermarkets dictate to farmers and the meat industry what the price of animals will be. A fair few farmers have lost out due to supermarkets.

[joeluke]

A lot of working people don't have the time to traipse around town centre shops to get everything they need. When you can get food, newspapers/magazines, electrical goods, pharmacy, opticians etc all under one roof and don't have to pay for parking like you do when shopping in town it's a no brainer

[B00]

Yeah, joe's raised a vailid point.

All very well ambling round your local town centre, but doing that in the pi44ing down rain, with kids in tow- the novelty soon wears off!

[B00]

And (i'm on a roll) i refuse to be served by half a dozen surley staff, when i can be served by just the one.

[joeluke]

.....plus you can fill up with petrol after doing your shopping

[B00]

Viva La Tesco!!!

;-)

[jd_here]

And it brings with it, Employment