I recently switched (temporarily I hope) to Iceland where we get free deliveries and save lots on unwanted shopping stress.
Asda is closer but too crowdy and I hate the weekly shop experience to the supermarket. This arrangement is working great. Tesco is great but I do think the company has now turned into a playground bully, branching out with Tesco Local stores and killing off longstanding local businesses.
I understand the predicament of local companies. From the mid Nineties through to the millennium we owned Rahmania Grocers on Bethnal Green Road, next door to the Bohola Public House and opposite Woolworths, which as it happens is now a branch of Iceland. Our neighbours shop on the right was where firemen Bill Faust & Adam Meere were tragically killed whilst tackling a blaze in 2004.
We ran a small store and competition was rife. Tesco Bethnal Green was 200 hundred yards on the right and they trampled every grocery. So desperate were we that Dad ordered us to remain open till six at least on Sundays so that we could benefit from a steady (non existent in my analysis) trickle of shoppers who would have gone to Tesco had the juggernaut not had to close at four pm due to Sunday trading law.
Tesco Local now ensures a monopoly that is lowering prices and strangling local trade. In my vicinity the immediate victims are Brothers (pictured) and Best Food on Longbridge Road.
It will get worse. One in every eight pounds in Britain goes to Tesco, and with the sheer bulk that they purchase and shift in goods on a daily basis, it is a given that Tesco would negotiate super low prices on goods purchasing. This will lead to greater grocery discounts for the consumer, taking them away from Tesco's competitors. In a recession this is a directed strategy, and there'll be plenty of high street victims. I'm not preaching about boycotting Tesco here, but hoping to provoke discussion and debate.
Supermarkets even serve Halal meat now and before long we will be able to conveniently purchase everything under one roof. It will being about the end if the friendly local grocers.
1 comment:
This article makes so much sense. As a consumer I rarely think about the business and just look at my convenience. But lately I have been ignoring Tesco on this particular road and turning towards other local shops that sell better halal meat and fresher vegetables. Earning customer loyalty is tough in this day and age. Greed surrounds us.
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