TESCO
Tesco store at Gaywood, King's Lynn. Picture by Mister P
New MILL ROAD TESCO section (for AS Geography Field Trip)
Tesco are the biggest retailer in the UK, and in 2005 announced profits of over £2 billion, and even more in 2006. About £1 in every £8 (or is it getting closer to £7 now) is spent in a Tesco store. There are 4 in King's Lynn alone ! 2007 will no doubt see another bumper profit.
Tesco opened a store in Hunstanton, a town which has a population of just over 6 000, but considerably more during the summer months. The queue for the cafe is out of the door in the mornings during the summer. This is a good example of how threshold populations are reduced by the impact of tourism.
In June 2005, the BBC's MONEY PROGRAMME showed a special programme all about the growing influence of TESCO: predictably I went out and missed it... There are details about the programme on the MONEY PROGRAMME website of the BBC.
A search of the BBC NEWS archive throws up a large number of stories.
Another site from 2006 is TESCOPOLY or Tesco + Monopoly. It is a site which looks at the effect of TESCO on local communities and small businesses. They say that Tesco controls 30% of the UK grocery market. It has the tagline "Every little hurts"... Useful for looking at the changes in retailing in areas. A good interactive map showing Tesco activity in countries other than the UK.
There is also a great deal of freight carried on the roads of the UK destined for Tesco stores, and they also hand out around 20% of all the single use carrier bags that are handed out in shops.
TESCO COMMUNITY PLAN
Tesco has announced a community plan, aimed at reducing the impact of the average Tesco store on the local community.
For example, GREEN Clubcard points... More on this soon...
DISPATCHES: The Supermarket that ate Britain
Shown in February 2007
Andrew Simms : From New Economics Forum and campaigner for Local shops - "we're going to wake up and find we're living in Tescoland..."
Tesco has 2000 stores & 250 000 employees - largest public sector employer in the UK
13 million people in Clubcard loyalty scheme - customers earn points turned into vouchers - world leading loyalty programme, but in return Tesco gets information about you and your shopping habits which is very valuable, as they can know a lot about you and can build up a picture about you. A subsidiary company produces a database called CRUCIBLE: this gives information on a range of other information such as: Race, Religion, Political Opinion
Checked out the LOCAL produce: and only one that they found in the Stratford on Avon store was some beans from Warwickshire : What is Tesco's version of 'local' ? - this fits in with the idea of My Place for the pilot... Is Local from the UK ? How many miles away from the store is still 'local' ?
Terry Leahy: introduced the 'Every little helps' slogan
Now over 700 'Tesco Local' stores which are providing competition to the local shops, also petrol stations.
Has half the retail space in Britain and has also been accused of buying land in order to block other supermarkets Data obtained on land that Tesco owns: owns land enough to build as many supermarkets as all of its competitors put together.
Tesco: Computers for Schools scheme - runs for 10 weeks a year - textbook example of "cause related marketing" - advertising encouraging people to get the vouchers - in the last 15 years has provided 30 000 schools worth £100 million - schools gain but so does Tesco - 1 computer = about £250 000. Point was made that with billions of profit made, if community improvement was really such a concern they could afford to hand over the equipment, or reduce the amount that is needed to be spent.
Obesity on Political agenda - Sports Vouchers - Tesco Sport - 1 football = £2200 spend, trampoline = nearly £1 million - another successful campaign.
Tesco statement said the programme recycled a series of myths about the company...
A new book I bought in March 2007 was Andrew Simms' TESCOPOLY - also a good article in The Guardian on 3rd of April 2007 giving a rebuttal to an earlier article...
Interesting stuff !
http://www.tescotown.co.uk/index.php - report on the campaigns in Inverness, where a large part of every £1 spent in the town is spent in Tesco
http://www.supermarket-sweep-up.com/ - interesting details on the actions of supermarkets
http://www.fielgarvie.co.uk/sut/sofar.html - a campaign on Unthank Road in Norwich
http://www.tescno.co.uk/ - imaginatively named site - again, this would be useful to balance against the views of the stores expressed below...
TESCO COMPETITION COMMISSION
Tesco had a report given to this commission in April 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/newsid_4780000/newsid_4789300/bb_wm_4789398.stm - BBC VIDEO on this report
http://www.tesco.com/talkingtesco/ - the very useful TALKING TESCO page - download the EMERGING THINKING document (PDF)
Report in EDP on alleged effect on the town of Stalham in Norfolk.
Also a recent news report on increases to payments made to dairy farmers
Make sure that you can talk about PP6: planning area which demands that town centres are "vital and viable"...
Tesco are now apparently 'Richer than Peru' according to a 2007 in The Observer.
New article on Tesco now available on Geography in the News site (as of May 2007), from which the above image is taken.
http://www.geographyinthenews.rgs.org/news/article/?id=661
Written by Dr Simon Oakes.
The site of the NO TESCO ON MILL ROAD campaign has some useful materials, and also the latest planning outcome...
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/11/386372.html - details on a march of protest along Mill Road
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/cambridge/2007/11/386468.html - another report with images
http://new.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn%5Fnews%5Fhome/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=262363 - Cambridge Evening News
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/displayarticle.asp?id=262129 - more CEN...
http://adjb.net/sab/index.php?entry=entry071007-092401 - interesting blog post