to be furious that tesco want to open a store in looe, cornwall?

[morecoffeepleaseholdthecake]

Just seen this on the news. There are currently no big supermarkets in this lovely cornish town, so Tesco want to build one on the outskirts.

They say, people already do their weekly shop in big supermarkets in other towns, so there is a demand for it.

If this goes ahead, that means this beautiful place will end up with countless empty shops when the local businesses close. They will then be filled with cash converter shops, crappy take aways and endless charity shops.

I think this is absolutely tragic. If somewhere is lucky enough to have got to 2012 without a big supermarket killing taking over the town it should be celebrated!

Looe isnt 'special' at all IMO! Can't understand the fuss

( just looked round it on streetview)

Ah Ilfracombe. Another jewel amongst seaside towns.

Looe....Looe........um, well it has a nice river. Actually I was speaking to some tourists last summer and they were really disappointed in the place. When I asked why, they explained that it was because there were some empty shops "just like any other town" and that they had had a mediocre meal in a pub. Honestly , do they expect Cornwall to be recession-proof just because they come on holiday during July and August?

It is rather gutting when you grow up in a seaside town and tourists visit, are disappointed, and call the place a dump.

Apart from small pockets of affluence, quite a lot of the west country is poverty stricken. If you are skint you have no loyalty to the local butcher or grocer. You just want to buy stuff as cheaply as possible.

There is actually a lot of objection to a Waitrose being mooted for Truro - locals are furious that Prince Charles has backed plans for some sort of shopping village ( I think) on greenbelt land. Truro already has a large Tesco and Sainsbos very close together.

It's tough down here really, we need the large supermarkets but I do wish our village still had the butcher and greengrocer. We are down to a bakery and small convenience store. It's made this past month without a car bloody inconvenient.

I do get a bit at some tourists that come down and say things like 'oh I didn't drive all the way down here to see a large Next and Boots. I think we are all supposed to be going about in a horse and cart, barefoot, to preserve the quaint nonsense.

Can't see the problem myself. Those who want to shop in the new Tesco's will do so, and those who prefer the local shops will shop there.

Choice doesn't seem a bad thing to me.

Re: your first sentence, I KNOW!!! I want to punch tourists when I hear them moaning about my town having litter on a Sunday morning (er...which town doesn't have beer cans and chip wrappers blowing around on a Sunday morning?), and saying they will go over to St Ives because "it's nicer" (no prizes for guessing where I am then). It's as though they want an army of workers to leap to attention and beaver away all night, buffing and polishing for their arrival every morning, including Sundays. Yes I know there are weeds everywhere! It's because the Council has abolished the flowerbed budget and the town is relying on "volunteers from the Big Society" who don't have the time to weed! This is a real town, just like any other, not some picture on a fudge packet.

(that was in reply to GetOrf)

You get a lot of that "oh it's the same as everywhere else" shite in Ireland. Tourists seem to forget that people actually live there and want to buy sweaters and jeans not aran jumpers and kilts!

Berry, Truro actually has every single big supermarket now, does it not? For somewhere which is really quite modest sized, this does seem a little excessive. And Penzance is about to get a Sainsbury's which will mean a Morrison's, Sainsbo's and Tesco's within half a mile of each other. It also has three Co-Ops and a Lidl. I'm all for convenience, but that's insane. Towns are being used as a battleground by supermarkets, who just want oneupmanship. Puts the OP's moaning about a single supermarket in Looe into perspective.

Just wondering if the OP and posters who think their local small shops will close due to tesco ever jump in thier cars and drive to a big supermarket? Or do an online shop with a big supermarket?

Also, do the local small businesses pay more per hour than tesco, and have contracts with better terms? I doubt it.

Well, if the locals don't want the Tesco, they won't use it, and it will have to close.

If they do want it, then what's the problem?

Oh god I so agree with that ariel.

It may be a tourist place, but it is also a town where people live their lives and want to get on. It is not some cutesy little place where people walk round in fishermen's smocks.

There was an article in the Telegraph last year where some grockle holidaymaker complained to Ilfracombe harbour master because all the crates of fish stank and looked unhygienic. It is a working harbour!

And Ilfracombe is incredibly run down - the people who live there do actually know that, and don't need to be told. It is also a great shame that the majority of young people leave in their 20s and never come back, because there are NO jobs. The sad fact is that most of these tourist towns had their heyday in 1880, and not every town can do an amazing volte face and become the next Padstow or Rock thankfully. So they cannot be preserved in aspic for the edification of tourists - they need to modernise.

YABU

People that fight supermarkets are usually those that have bags of money and can shop anywhere

It's a supermarket, not a brothel

Ha ha! I remember that nobber. He said his children were upset by seeing dead fish in crates. Stupid thing is, as a boat user, Ilfracombe harbour has the best facilities of any comparable town in the south west. But that's by the by.

There was also a war between local fishermen and second home owners on the Helford. The fishermen needed a permanent jetty to land their fish. The second home owners said it would spoil their view and reduce the value of their second homes . They should be ashamed of themselves. See here.

It's a nice thing about Ilfracombe that it is a working harbour as well as a place for yachters.

So agree cumbria, the people in the protest group in my small town (which they call a village, it's not), are the ones who have more money (and a car).

What's ironic is they cite problems of traffic build up which will happen near the new tesco. But they think it's ok driving miles to a supermarket which means cars on the road anyway.

Ariel, I don't think there's a Morrisons in Truro (yet) :)

And second home owners - they are actually what's caused the death of some of our village businesses, rather than supermarkets. When you haven't got year round residents there just isn't enough cash being spent.

Snob my arse.

And thats where you can shove your assumption.

"And second home owners - they are actually what's caused the death of some of our village businesses, rather than supermarkets."

Hear, hear.

Can I ask if you are a resident of Looe Morecoffee? It's up to the residents to decide if they wnt a Tesco. If they feel strongly they will organise some sort of protest and maybe see off Tescos like they did in Hadleigh, Suffolk. It could be that a lot of residents actually want a proper supermarket.
If you like Looe as a tourist town, well the Tesco store would be outside the town centre so wouldn't spoil the look of the place.
All I am saying is you have to live in a town to know whether tescos would benefit it. Maybe there aren't many places to buy everyday goods at reasonable prices?
I do agree with you about tescos' greed though. Round here there are 4 Teco Express stores within 1.5 miles or so, plus the One Stop which is actually a Tescos in disguise (but with higher prices) plus a huuuuge superstore. I wonder how many Tescos this area can support?!
If you feel strongly, start or join a pressure group but consider the needs of local residents, who live there all year round.

Look at Tavi - Macdonalds pulled out and it got Lidls. The supermarkets there are Morrisons and Somerfield (Coop), and it needs a Waitrose/Sainsbury really. However, there are three or four local butchers, a new fishmonger, two greengrocers and two or three of what are supposed to be bakers (but Warrens doesn't count). There is also a great deli. You can have a mix of both. My meat always came from the butchers in Tavi, despite working opposite the stonking great Tesco at Launceston.

I love Tavistock

can i ask the OP if you live in or near Looe?
if you do, where do you shop, i bet you shop at morrisons in liskeard or shop online.
because it is nigh on impossible to do a proper weekly shop in looe,
we have one very very small "supermarket", a coop, get 4 people in there and you can't move, prices are sky high, and rise in the summer.
as for the other shops, well if tesco's are going to be selling beach tat, pasties and cream teas then indeed, the shops of looe will suffer, because that is all there is in looe,
looe has 2 or 3 very small bakeries, a couple of small veg and fruit shops, and, eerr, a spar and a coop newsagents, no butchers shop, no proper greengrocers.
the rest of the shops are cafes,fish and chip shops, tat shops, clothes shops and charity shops.

OP, if indeed you do live in the area you will know that around 90% of the population of Looe do thier main shop outside the town, you will also know that the morrisons in liskeard is over crowded, with long queues at the tills and in the garage all day every day, prices are also higher there because they have no competition at all, if you don't beleive me pop to the big morries in plymstock and compare prices, it will shock you.

looe in summer is a nightmare for locals, parking is impossible, moving around the town is difficult, yes, thats the price we pay for living in such a lovely part of the country.
but in the winter the town is dead, why, because most of the shops only cater for the holiday trade, around 95% of the houses in the main part of the town are holiday lets or second homes, so remain empty for the whole winter.

around 400 new homes are being built in looe at the moment, so, possibly over 1000 new people will be living there by next year, are they all meant to shop in the town, or drive to the bigger towns miles away, or shop online?

the town of Looe has so much to offer the visitor, if you are willing to look for it, skip the main part of the town, head to the hannafore, or kilmanorth woods, there you will find beauty, but please remember, looe is a working, living town, and we as its residents have a right to be able to shop at affordable stores.

what qualifies me to say all this, i have lived in and near the town for 40 years, and yes, when tesco comes, which it will because most of the people of looe want it, i for one will be shopping there.

Tesco recently opened another superstore near me. The gripe I have is that the actual structure is bloody awful, a complete eyesore. It looks like some thrown up shack of corrugated metal. I wouldn't mind if they were inkeeping with the area.

On the same note, I'm happy to see McDonalds have rebranded and are toning things down. They've recently refurbed two branched near me and I have to say they look so much better. No more giant orange Ronald McDonalds in your face !!