Warning over 'Tesco threat'
Shrewsbury's new £15 million Tesco Extra could kill off scores of small shops in the town centre, a leading business chief claimed today. Shrewsbury's new £15 million Tesco Extra could kill off scores of small shops in the town centre, a leading business chief claimed today. Fay Easton, boss of Shropshire Enterprise Partnership, said the "Tesco-isation of Shrewsbury" was the biggest threat to the town's retail future for a decade. And she warned drastic measures were needed to ensure the town's independent traders continue to flourish. Former town centre manager Ms Easton said the huge range of goods now on offer at Tesco would undoubtedly damage smaller stores and lure thousands of shoppers out of town. The giant supermarket, on the town's former livestock market, opened on April 23. Read the full story in the Shropshire Star
Shrewsbury's new £15 million Tesco Extra could kill off scores of small shops in the town centre, a leading business chief claimed today.
Fay Easton, boss of Shropshire Enterprise Partnership, said the "Tesco-isation of Shrewsbury" was the biggest threat to the town's retail future for a decade.
And she warned drastic measures were needed to ensure the town's independent traders continue to flourish.
Former town centre manager Ms Easton said the huge range of goods now on offer at Tesco would undoubtedly damage smaller stores and lure thousands of shoppers out of town.
The giant supermarket, on the town's former livestock market, opened on April 23.
"Shrewsbury, like many other English town and city centres, faces a precarious future with vulnerable dependence upon retail-led regeneration," she said.
"Businesses are presently facing the prospect of losing valuable trade to the vast Tesco and this massive increase in comparable goods on offer out of town will surely have a detrimental impact on the economic vitality of the town centre.
"Serious and urgent interventions are needed to deflect the damaging effects of the 'Tesco-isation' of Shrewsbury."
She added: "The opening of that store presents the biggest threat to Shrewsbury's survival as a retail centre of anything in the last 10 years."
Ms Easton said a number of studies showed that jobs were lost and shops closed following the opening of giant supermarkets, including Tesco Extra stores.
A new website promoting dozens of Shrewsbury's independent businesses is currently being created.
The best products from each shop will be available to buy online in one place. The partnership chief said new ideas like this were needed to safeguard their future.
A Tesco spokesman said: "Many factors have altered the way people shop for food and supermarkets have developed over time to reflect these changes.
"However, that doesn't mean there isn't room on our high streets for a wide variety of shops and services selling goods that people need."
