Who’s to blame over town’s trade?
Monday 2nd November 2009, 7:46AM GMT.
LETTER: So now the shop keepers in Ellesmere are complaining that the arrival of Tesco has damaged their businesses and caused job losses. This is not true.
The workers at Tesco do not stand in the high street and kidnap customers and force them to buy Tesco products.
The free choice of the public allows them to shop where they want to shop. They obviously choose to shop in Tesco. So it is the public that are damaging the small businesses because they do not want or need them.
We live in a world of free markets. The consumer is king, and if they choose to shop in the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury then so be it.
They have decided that they no longer want to tramp from the greengrocer to the butcher, then on to the grocer and newsagent hauling more and more packages with them as they go from warm to cold to warm moving from one shop to the next.
They want the convenience of everything in one place, so they go to a supermarket.
Same with the post office. Who cares if they are closing? I don’t. I buy my car tax on-line. I do not need postal orders — you know, those funny things the post office sells that cost more than the object that they are used to pay for.
If I need other currency I get it from a hole in the wall in the country that I am visiting, it is cheaper and I get it as I need it.
I do not write letters on bits of paper, then shove them into other bits of paper, and then stick other bits of paper, that I would have to purchase, on to them only to have to tramp to a red box on the street corner, shove all these bits of paper into this box and hope that a man in uniform will come and collect my bits of paper and deliver them to the address that I have written on the front.
He will not come, of course, because he has decided not to work as a way of protesting against progress, just like those whingers complaining about Tesco.
I send emails like this letter to the Star. I pay all my bills by direct debit or online banking. I buy all my clothes in online shops.
If my shopping habits cause the demise of small over expensive shops, then so be it. Turn them all into bistros, resaurants, pubs and housing. Turn the high streets into pedestrian zones with tables and chairs, trees, and roundabouts for the kids to play on. Move with the times and enjoy life, stop harking on about how things used to be and look to how they will be.
That is what Tesco did.
When I did a Saturday job in Tesco as a schoolboy over 40 years ago it was a little corner shop with all its goods still in boxes stacked on the floor.
Look at it now.
I would say it is doing something right, probably giving the public what it wants.
Alwyn Cox
Oswestry
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Remember the old nursery rhyme?
Don’t care didn’t care,
Don’t care was wild:
Don’t care stole plum and pear
Like any beggar’s child.
Don’t care was made to care,
Don’t care was hung:
Don’t care was put in a pot
And boiled till he was done.
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Hear,hear! I love Shrewsbury and moved here 14 years ago. I had never before come across such single minded fuddy-duddy’s who have nothing better to do than to whinge about progress and change. The new football stadium being the chosen topic at the time of my buying local papers to look for a property.
We don’t use the river to it’s full potential. Dining by the riverbank would be lovely in the summer months, but no, it’s not allowed so bars and cafe’s close down.I’ve been to the Flower Show once and never again, how can they charge local people to enter a puplic space that we pay for through tax? And why couldn’t people see past their noses when it came to the college relocating to purpose built premises which could only benefit our childrens’ education and well being? (Those who campaigned against were mostly parents of present students, was it any of their business?) but no, the town centre would die!! It’s dying anyway because certain people don’t want things to change, they want things to remain as they were 50 years ago.
We need to embrace all progress and change, do these people take advantage of medical progress or stick with the treatments of time gone by?
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Well … where DOES one begin with this??
OK Alwyn – you obviously LOVE the hi-tech ways of doing things.
You love direct debits, on-line banking, buying car tax on line, buying clothes on line, and (the list isn’t exhaustive) getting your cash from a hole in the wall.
I must say I’m impressed by your blind faith in technology!
Clearly you’ve never had a problem with any of this “service at a distance” hiearchy yet !!
At least in a shop there’s someone to talk to – if (and when) things go wrong!
And you go on to say that if “more expensive shops can;t compete – then let them all close and turn them into pubs and bistros”
So we can all walk round like zombies doing everything on line except eating and drinking (maybe we’ll even find a way of getting food and drink down an ethernet cable?)
NOW – as far as loss of trade is concerned -
(My business is an internet service provider) -
One of my customers has just closed his shop becuase the footfall dropped DRAMATICALLY once the new store opened
NOW Alwyn The point is THIS:
THEY sold Hi-tech products – both IN the shop, and ONLINE.
THEY gave expert one-one advice to customers –
And now – people can buy the same product from Tesco – But, (unlike a buying can of beans or a loaf of bread)- what do you do for expert advice? Ask the checkout operator?
So as a result – I’ve lost a Broadband customer, Web-design and Web hosting Customer –
THANKS a BUNCH TESCO !!
I know what I’m going to do this christmas –
I’m going to offer an oven ready turkey with every broadband sale in December – that is
“BUY one- Get one FREE” !
Oh, but about the Turkey ….I give EXPERT ADVICE on internet services backed up by over 40 years experience….
BUT – if you have a problem with your turkey – don’t bother calling me – it’s not my main area of operation.!
Seems to me that’s what TESCO are doing.
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Askeric, surely it goes to show now that people don’t need/want that expert advice. Im not a fan of Tesco, but even Iknow that they must be selling lots of Hi Tec products or they wouldn’t bother stocking them ! The world is changing, I had a small shop, I realized that market force meant I wasn’t going to surive so I changed my career.. These people have to adapt or move on. Simple
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Here is an interesting counter-argument to this letter: http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/08/13/letter-tesco-plans-and-democracy/
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Hi Confused.
So we are all sleepwalking into a brave new world where only big hypermakets sell anything.
And as the complexitiy of products increases relentlessly – less and less (sales) people will understand them – until in the end we’ll have infinite technology – and no-one understanding it.
We are probably already there.
I really don’t think people go to large supermarkets to discuss the finer points of a TV or Audio system for example – and in any case who in the average supermarket would be able to give REAL advice anyhow?
Honestly – people don’t WANT(NEED)advice – becuase they wouldn’t know what to ask anyway!!
How many people honestly have a clue about the finer points Mobile phones, HDTV, sattelite systems, etc etc? – And ..
Do they really care ?? No it must be alright becuase the big supermarket sold it !!
Of COURSE Tesco et al will sell hi-tech products! becuase they can!!
But by contrast …
Are we going to see them selling “other professions” products?
Are we going to see supermarket versions of Accountancy services. Legal services etc ?
Buy one get one free ivorce/probate/conveyancing !!
(I somehow doubt that these “established” professions / markets will let that happen so easily!)
It’s a sad sad world we are entering.
Sad: that you had to give up what sounded like a perfectly good enterprise – simply becuase the “market” forced you to.
Sad: That no-one cares any more. (read post #1)
And no –
It’s not that simple.
The supermarkets are behaving like a black hole – as their “mass” increases – the force dragging us “in” becomes more difficult to resist – until in the end it all disappears!
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On the London Underground there are a series of posters that follow much the same line,
Go into the nice department store, speak to the knowledgeable staff about the latest TV, DVD, Plasma etc that you’re interested in, then go home and buy it on-line cheaper from xxxxx i will not repeat the name of the store.
The on line retailers recognise the need for the high street store to assist the consumer in a purchase choice. They just then undercut that retailer and blatantly advertise the fact that they do so.
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i blame all the local councils for not investing in proper local markets over the years
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