Post Tesco World

I recall that when Tesco was at its height and in its pomp, new stores whether mini or Super were greeted by howls of protests by 'locals' (usually bused in from the nearest left wing or anarchist anti-capitalist grouping), who apparently wanted to carry on paying premium prices to shop on the high street.

No parking, five or six different stores, less variety (try getting a mango in the local green grocers), and every chance that you won't be able to catch them open until the following weekend if you worked.

But apparently this was what locals 'really wanted' .....

These Are Happy Now?

.... until Tesco built the store anyway, and suddenly there were no locals protesting (presumably the activists from the SWP had got bored and gone 'home'), and everyone was actually quite happy at the 'convenience' of having a 'convenience store' on the high-street.

They provided points of retail stability on an often fragile high street, which was under threat of encroachment by the real enemy, the 'charity store' ....

But now, the high water mark of Tesco's presence on the high street has apparently been reached, and the retail giant (still with 29% market share), is retreating as the great king Canute of tidal events, hubris, has brought it low. It has now announced the biggest loss in its history as it writes down its property portfolio, and as well as cancelling plans for new stores, is now closing a large number of its less profitable stores, most of which are those opened in places where 'locals' apparently didn't want them in the first place.

Cue peals of bells and proclamations of freedom! ... hardly. The real locals are aghast .... the 'activist locals' are nowhere to be seen ....

So now, somewhat ironically we are being treated to wails of despair by those same locals (but the real ones this time we suspect), as jobs go, money is taken out of the high street, small councils lose business rates money, and the 'high streets' are put at risk of 'tumble weed' rolling down them .... just a sea of charity shops with under-age teen single parents pushing a rolling wall of baby buggies along them.

Undoubtedly we will see the discounters (Aldi, Lidl and Netto), take up some of the slack and even occupy some of the buildings, but there will be some local communities that will find their lives negatively impacted.

There is a lesson in all this ... never let activists from outside, hijack your communities interests. If they don't represent your views, then let them know ... get at them, because they don't care a toss about you, just their own political agendas. Most communities were actually served well by the retail revolution led by Tesco ... local jobs, clean well displayed products, with a wide variety of goods and services, usually with parking.

Now their removal isn't being met by angry and violent protests, just sad resignation as those the 'activists' claimed to represent, are abandoned as last years news. Tesco are Damned if They do and Damned if they don't .... but there will be many who wish that they had.