Tesco - Monster or Messiah?

[ExigeEvan]

Just so our non-British members can contribute, Tesco is a supermarket chain that is dominant in the UK retail market.

Almost £1 in every £7 spent in retail in the UK goes to Tesco. It has operating profits of nearly £3 Billion annually, and empoys approx 440,000 people. I think I'm right in saying it's the largest employer in the UK, outside of the NHS, civil service and armed forces.

What led me to making this thread was this...
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/s...plication/article-1603292-detail/article.html

Basically, a 5th Tesco store in the space of 2 miles.

Here's a "Store location map" of the Swansea area.

6 and 5 are Extras; 2 is a Superstore; 1, 3 and 4 are metros. The proposed new store is roughly between 1 and 3.

From my home alone there are 13 stores within 9 miles. 2 extras, 4 superstores and the rest metros and express.

Now is this too far? Is my area different to any other?

Personally I think my area is saturated. This is shown by the swing in public opinion from being supportive of having the choice to being force fed Tesco at every corner. I don't support the arguments of local, smaller shops complaining of unfair competition as the stores bring jobs to the area regardless.

However, Tesco is cheap if that's what you're looking for. And I know my area is getting no favours done for it in the current economic climate.

But when there's only single stores from Asda, Sainsburys and Morrisons in the area you have to wonder the competition is coming from.

 

[daan]

They're not the Messiah. They're just a very naughty boy.

 

[Pupik]

Having heard, it's basically the Wal-Mart of Great Britain.

I can only speak of a similar hypermarket in the US called Wal-Mart — It's neither monster nor messiah, but somewhere in between: You get a store that sells a lot of different goods, at low prices/value, a decent return policy, and it brings in new jobs to an area; but you sometimes sacrifice helpful staff (hit-or-miss), quality/durability, and the possibility that they hurt the so-called mom-and-pop stores, who cannot compete solely on prices to stay in business (which means they have to improve on other things to stay competitive...not necessarily a bad thing).

I do like that when faced with the dilemma of buying a low-cost retail item and a food item, I know I can do one-stop shopping. Or, I can go to a Super Target (personal preference). I do not like the crowds (any time before 10 am, generally until 9pm) because I get the feeling of being a "number particle" crunched into a ceaseless consumption engine, mainly because I am waiting at the cashier line too long, while hearing the chatter of their high-mounted TVs reminding me to buy X, try Y, and get more Z, while crowds of loud and rude kids/adults think they're outdoors.

In the end, people can vote with their dollar/euro/pound. If you want more variety, or and you'll have to look into a specialty store. For those who are in a pinch for time and money, and dependent on public transportation, a hypermarket like Tesco/Wal-Mart/et al is quite helpful.

 

[Blitz187]

Hmmmm... Sounds like the Albert Heijn Supermarkets here in Holland... In my neighborhood, I have 3 in a 2km radius... In my street there are two already... one at the beginning and one at the end... There is also another supermarket called Dirk III and its way cheaper but a bit far from my house... So out of laziness I always go to the Albert Heijn which is also the most expensive supermarket in Holland of the 4 or 5 that exist... So in a way I agree with you that this is over saturating your area... I do know Tescos from the numerous times Ive been in the UK and I must also add that they are all over Asia as well... When I go and visit my family in Thailand there are Tescos everywhere as well... but they do have some competition in that market from some other big warehouse type supermarkets... Such as Carrefour which is also there in abundance...

 

[Ardius]

As Pupik said, its sort of become a necessary evil, a product of what the public demands.

You also have to consider some of those shops will most likely have been other brands before Tesco bought them out, so its not necessarily as bad as it sounds there. For example, they bought out One Stop and renamed them Tesco Extra or whatever, so there are easily 5 or 6 Tesco variations quite close to where I live as most small villages had these shops.

Its just the same as GAME buying out Gamestation and Electronics Boutique before them, they end up with those assets and it appears that GAME have lots of shops in very close proximity, but really its just a side effect of buying the competition. In the Trafford Centre, there are two GAME shops barely yards from each other. The same in the Manchester Arndale center (along with a Gamestation there too). Same again with HMV buying out Zavvi.

Its a shame to see the small shops and markets of old die off because of this, but there's little anyone can do about it as long as convenience and more importantly, prices, rule the sales.

 

[magicalgin]

Hmmmm... Sounds like the Albert Heijn Supermarkets here in Holland... In my neighborhood, I have 3 in a 2km radius... In my street there are two already... one at the beginning and one at the end... There is also another supermarket called Dirk III and its way cheaper but a bit far from my house... So out of laziness I always go to the Albert Heijn which is also the most expensive supermarket in Holland of the 4 or 5 that exist... So in a way I agree with you that this is over saturating your area... I do know Tescos from the numerous times Ive been in the UK and I must also add that they are all over Asia as well... When I go and visit my family in Thailand there are Tescos everywhere as well... but they do have some competition in that market from some other big warehouse type supermarkets... Such as Carrefour which is also there in abundance...

Hmm depends on where you live in Holland. In my environment the DEEN has more stores.

 

[Joel]

Well, I guess Wal-Mart compares in North America. I personally think stores like this are a good thing, as they create competition, and do offer a good service. if you have to go christmas shopping, say you want a video game for Billy, a Barbie doll for Sally, a book for your wife, a few pairs of socks for you, and some chicken for dinner. Where are you going to go? A video game store, toy store, book store, clothing store, and a butcher? No, you're going to go to Wal-Mart to get it all at once.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Whilst I spend approximately £100 per week in their emporia, I think they're pretty much "monster".

I really despise their meat packaging practices, where you're almost discouraged from buying higher-welfare products.

I don't like their utter disregard for seasonality: they just ship in food from wherever, leaving the customer with no real idea of what's local, what's in season, and what's right to eat at a given time of year. It's just that one month you're paying £2 for a pack of gorgeous strawberries grown 40 miles away, and the next you're paying £4 for tasteless crap flown in from the other side of the world.

Their own-brand products are often quite disingenuously labelled, so they're trying to trick you into buying their product when you meant to buy a competitor's.

And I've heard (although cannot be sure for myself, if any lawyers are listening) that their negotiation practices are forcing a lot of farmers to really consider whether they can sell to Tesco and make an honest living.

But, you know, life has its realities. With regard to Tesco, it's pretty much always open when I need it, their reward scheme is actually usable, their online service is excellent, and I can usually get everything I need in the one visit. I have a wife and three children, and whilst I'd like to go from shop to shop picking up the very best of produce, I can't spend an entire Saturday (50% of my weekend) doing the family shop. Frankly, if I can't get it done in an hour, there's a knock-on issue in that something else won't get done that weekend.

So, yeah, I'd rather not shop there, but their convenience is something upon which I've come to depend.

 

[Joel]

I really despise their meat packaging practices, where you're almost discouraged from buying higher-welfare products.

I don't like their utter disregard for seasonality: they just ship in food from wherever, leaving the customer with no real idea of what's local, what's in season, and what's right to eat at a given time of year. It's just that one month you're paying £2 for a pack of gorgeous strawberries grown 40 miles away, and the next you're paying £4 for tasteless crap flown in from the other side of the world.

This. I know i mentioned chicken in my last post, but we never buy chicken there. Local butchers FTW.

 

[mafia_boy]

We have two of these monsters in Australia.....Woolworths, and Coles (who are owned by Wesfarmers). Between the two of them, you have almost 80% of the country covered in them. Anytime there's a new shopping complex being built, you can almost guarantee that one of the two (or both) will wind up having their stores in that complex.

Now, we have the same problems as you guys get at Tesco or Wal-Mart. In most areas they are open longer than the local mum/dad shops, and do it for a cheaper price...and if the mum/dad shop does a special, then they will perform "predatory pricing" to either match OR go lower than the mum/dad shop on those particular items. This then forces the mum/dad shops out of business.

It's then continues with our petrol stations here because those same two companies have gone into agreements with the petrol companies (Woolworths deals with Caltex, and Coles with Shell) so THOUSANDS of petrol stations became instant mini-marts and they performed special deals to try and fool the consumer into thinking those service stations are giving cheaper petrol via the way of petrol dockets, where if you spend $30 or more in either the Woolworths or Coles supermarkets, you're then given a little barcode on your receipt that you can take to the petrol station to get scanned, and you then get 4c/litre off your petrol. Even if you get 80L of petrol, all you will save is $3.20. But the problem here is that the servo's prices are usually 2-3c/litre MORE expensive than the independent servo's but because of the dockets it makes them 1-2c/litre cheaper than the independents.

This form of "discounting" is what's killing off the independents over here in Australia, so much so that the ACCC (Australian Consumer & Competition Commission) had to step in to stop Caltex purchasing 100's of Mobil stations that they were planning to take over because it was killing off Mobil (amazing I know!).

And having worked for Coles in the past, I can tell you, the lengths that they will go to knock eachother (and everyone else) out is astounding, and quite disgusting to the normal consumer, but the problem is the consumers don't see this happening, and the consumers don't say "THAT'S IT" and take their business back to the independents, they stick with the big 2. So the cycle continues and Woolworths and Coles continue to grab an even larger share of the marketplace, day after day.

Thank god, my local butcher and fruit shop deal DIRECTLY with the farmers and orchard growers of the area, so they can't be beaten on price....yet.

So, bottom line....they are monsters here in Australia.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I don't like their utter disregard for seasonality: they just ship in food from wherever, leaving the customer with no real idea of what's local, what's in season, and what's right to eat at a given time of year. It's just that one month you're paying £2 for a pack of gorgeous strawberries grown 40 miles away, and the next you're paying £4 for tasteless crap flown in from the other side of the world.

That seems like almost all the stores here, except you get crap 70% of the time.

 

[Blitz187]

Hmm depends on where you live in Holland. In my environment the DEEN has more stores.

Thats true... The Albert Heijn usually tends to stay in "de Randstad." (For the people who dont know, Randstad= a string of main cities here in holland, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Amsterdam) Outside of this you have others like C1000 or Deen as you mentioned... which I wish we had here in Amsterdam too, because its one of the cheaper ones to shop at...

 

[homeforsummer]

So, yeah, I'd rather not shop there, but their convenience is something upon which I've come to depend.

That's pretty much how I feel. I have a Tesco Extra about two minutes walk from where I live, and although I don't do my main shop there (I use Morrisons as they have the biggest store nearest to me), I do regularly buy odds and sods from it as it's incredibly convenient.

I'd much prefer to get stuff like that from local shops, butchers, greengrocers etc but it's a convenience thing. It's a fifteen minute walk to the indoor market which isn't a lot but it's significantly less convenient - not to mention that I'm a fairly disorganised person so I often end up needing things that I've not planned for when I'm cooking, so a five-minute round trip to Tesco is perfect!

At the end of the day though it's just another business. It's a cut-throat industry and everyone has started somewhere - Tesco have just made the right business moves and rightly become successful. Whether they're putting small businesses out of business or not, their benefit far outweighs the negatives, simply because they're such a massive employer which is good for the economy as a whole. For every one local shop that goes out of business because of them and two or three jobs are lost, they've probably hired a hundred people...