To think that Tescos mission is to put all small business' out of business

[notnagging]

Got an email from tescos today stating that they are now delivering organic boxes. Another of their ideas with prices that no-one will be able to compete with. They have closed down our local garage because they wanted to build another Tesco metro( the third one within walking distance) even though they did not get the locals support they don't seem to care.They make billions & just seem to be on a mission to take over the high street regardless of customers needs.

No not all can't change, some won't. Why do half of the shops in my village have half day closing on a wednesday? I was walking doen my high street on friday morning and someone was standing outside the card shop looking at their watch saying 'well the sign says 10am', it was 10.20 and they were closed. A card shop, near christmas. This is very common in my village. My friend owns the electrical shop, he opens it when he gets up and if he's having a night out he closes early.

I don't particuarly like Tesco, but they do meet the needs of busy customers. I think its a real shame because we do have some great shops but if they won't adapt they'll die.

If people stopped shopping there, they would close the shops. Every time this comes up, people say no locals wanted the store, but they then use it. boycott them and they will go away (unless, of course, people like the convenience, service, range, long opening hours etc)

I honestly thought early closing day was a thing of the past - where on earth do you live englishgirl?

Their aim is to collect as many of the retail pounds spent as possible. Small businesses are just collateral damage.

I live in a commuter town and we suffered a lot of rapid unemployment for the last few years. People were really struggling and I'm sure those without transport were balking at the high prices in the local independent shops. Tesco opening here last year I'm sure has been a relief for many,not just for prices but also employment.

goralks it is in most of the world. I live in a former mining town in the East Midlands.

I agree they shouldn't be able to get some of the planning permission that they do but thats down to local councils. Where I live its going into an industrial area that hasn't been used in about 15 years. It would have heen preferrable for another use to have been found for the site hut it wasn't, and a Tesco is preferrable to the broken windows and rat infestation currently sitting in the middle if the village.

I suppose what I'm saying in a round about way is that while I would like my village to be populated by independent shops, if they are all closed when people are coming home from work they can't be surprised that people will shop elsewhere. Interestingly we have one grocety store which is thriving and has recently expanded. They open 7-10, keep prices competitive and are well staffed. I know the owner and he isn't too worried about Tesco because he knows that his business is geared up to compete. Likewise the butcher who still sends a van out to do deliveries (large OAP population).

I was just about to post that we also have early closing on Wednesday's still, I'm also in an East Midlands former mining town.

It is annoying that Tesco seem to be everywhere but the fact is people shop there so they aren't going anywhere. They aren't particularly cheap though. If I did a weekly shop at Tesco it woul cost me three times as much as when I do it elsewhere.

it came as a shock when I moved back here after living in Birmingham for years.

I personally haven't been in a Tesco in 7 years - I decided there was no point just whinging about them, if I didn't like it I just shouldn't go there. I cannot stand how many of there are - 6 within a mile or so of me, with another 2 due to open soon. They're not even that cheap!

I have also been affected as family own a garage which has just had a Tesco express open very close to (Tesco already has 2 superstores and 3/4 expresses within 2 miles). Neither shop is doing well now as there just isn;t the customer base. But Tesco will never close a store.

They certainly are out to make money, but at the moment they seem to be a bit lost so I'm not sure they're even doing the best for their shareholders at present.

Here you go.....

YANBU. Tesco use a small design /print place near their head office, and they haven't settled their bill in over a YEAR. The cash-flow of the small company is about to finally break and Tesco's response? Grind them down further on price. The company can't refuse further credit be ause they're so far into them in the first place they're terrified to upset them. It's likely they'll fold - 20 people will be out of a job, and tesco will take their business elsewhere, having not paid.

Utter bastards.

I dislike Tesco. I've seen a lot about how they get planning permission- they effectively tell the Council that if they don't approve it they will go to appeal. They have very expensive barristers, solicitors and planning consultants who work for them a lot. The local council will have to spend close to £1 million to oppose it and will probably lose because of the resources Tesco has. When they lose in a town, they immediately start again.

All the supermarket chains are ruthless but Tescos is worst.

Why do half of the shops in my village have half day closing on a wednesday?

So that the owners can go shopping in the supermarket!
(that's not a joke, it's what happens)

Fourandstillcounting - the shop should start legal proceedings not lower the price!!!

Tesco paid our council £1.5 million to put the planning through. It worked.

Tesco are building a big new supermarket in Streatham, London. They made promises to push the development through against local opposition. When they started to build they broke the promises and the council were powerless to do anything about it. It looks as if they never intended to do what they promised. From what I have read this is the way they usually operate.

yep, I buy meat from a local butcher because the quality is so much better, but for everything else it's Tescos or Sainsburys (or Waitrose if I'm close to them). Even then with the butcher, we were just discussing dinner, we fancy ribs, the ribs from the butcher would be better quality than Sainburys or Tescos, but it's after 1pm, so they'll be shut.

I can put DS down for the night (assuming DH is in!) I can then do my shopping as both Tescos and Sainburys are 24 hour round here. I can get stuff delivered from both as well.

Local shops need to either be easy to pop too without the car (the little mini-market next to the station does a roaring trade, even though the prices are very high compared to tescos and the quality of the veg isn't anywhere near as good, but if you're walking past anyway, it's just easy, and they open late) or they need to be 'artisan' - so the butchers near us competes on quality and experience. Local shops that sell a small range of poor quality foods at prices higher than the supermarket won't survive, but that's not tescos fault, that's the consumer's fault.

I loathe Tesco's . Loathe them with a passion .

I live in the midst of the fens , which supplies all the major supermarkets with potatoes , carrots , peas, you name it , we grow it . Agriculture is our biggest industry by miles . So I admit I am very fortunate indeed, because I get my carrots , and most veg from our local farmers , who sell direct ( trailer load of carrots for a fiver anyone ? ! )

But they're not the ones who sell to major supermarkets, because they're not allowed. Last year I had a conversation with a woman working on a green grocers stall . Her husband grows soft fruit and had a contract with Tesco's to supply strawberries . He grew last years crop, and because of the weather last year , the strawberries came up slightly smaller than usual . Taste was fine. Tesco's turned the lot down and didn't pay him. But because of the clause in his contract which prevents him from selling it elsewhere , even at the gate , he couldn't do anything with it . He can't even give it away , not to schools, charity, prisons, hospitals . Can't sell it to another supermarket , can't sell it at farmers markets . 150 tonnes of strawberries he destroyed last year .For NOTHING.

They came back this year and asked him to supply them again. He told them to poke it and has started selling directly via other outlets . And people wonder why they have Spanish strawberries being sold in stores in June .

Tesco's like to think they have everyone over a barrel . Suppliers , staff , councils , customers . Well not me they don't . And judging by how much money they lost in our local Tesco's when they revamped Morrisons and reopened it , not many of our locals love them either.

That is really shocking plomino but unfortunately not surprising. My dad worked in tescos after he retired early for nearly 20yrs. He was 3 months short to keep his discount card & they refused. He went on holiday & they told him his job was no longer available. He tried to fight it but is in his 70s and has given up. They don't care how they treat anyone.

Tesco only think they have everyone over a barrel, what they don't seem to grasp is that people can say NO!!!! After all NO is a complete sentence and if many people said no to Tesco, then they'd have to eventually fight to get the customers back again.

I used to get my meat from Tesco, but I stopped and I am willing to travel 7 mile on the bus to get my meat from my favourite butcher. I would rather spend £60-70 on good quality meat (that's before I spend on the groceries) than the rubbish that I used to get from the supermarket.

I emailed Tesco and told them straight that I wouldn't be buying their meat beause it was rubbish. I told my friend about it and she has also stopped going to Tesco for her meat (the butcher I use has an on-the-farm shop and a high street shop). My friend has also persuaded a good lot of her friends about the farm shop and they have also decided to get their meat from the butcher. My friend has Sainsburys across the road from her house so she shops there. Tesco is our nearest supermarket, but I spend very little there in the way of groceries there as we get a good lot of our fruit and veg from the wednesday market in our town.

Tesco used to be a small business. They became a big business by being good at what they do.

True . Screwing people over .

YANBU. I'd add other supermarkets want to do the same. In the area of SE London where I study, a 2nd Sainsburys has opened within 400 metres of another one. Plans for a 3rd are on the cards.

In my small town we have a Sainsburys, and Coop are opening. Asda and Tescos are planning to open, and the Sainsburys store size will double. It is going to absolutely kill the small amount of shops that we do have - apart from betting shops, charity shops and pawn shops...

Cheap food means more than most people think. It means suppliers screwed and 3rd world countries exploited. It means rivals and suppliers ruthlessly put out of business.
In the long term, it does not mean cheaper food or employment opportunities.

If you want to read about the story behind the supermarkets, try "Shopped" by Joanna Blythman.

To paraphase from her book, "more money in your pocket, but who put it there and what did it cost them?"

I found the chapter on suppliers from developing countries particularly shocking.