Page 6 - Phonebox Magazine April 2009

HAVE YOUR SAY
Letters

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Dear Editor
I read with interest the various letters in a recent Phonebox that discussed the arrival of a new supermarket in Olney. I believe snobbery was the word used to describe the reasons that many people are against Tesco (not that we can do anything about it...) but there’s far more to it than that.
Tesco is a massive company and was being reported in the media a couple of years ago as accounting for £1 in every £7.50 spent on the high street (and I've sure they have grown since then – Retail Week recently wrote that this year Tesco looks likely to break the £3bn profit barrier). It is partly (although not entirely) the size and power wielded by giants like Tesco that has led to the demise of once- familiar high street names like Woolworths and they have a track record of ignoring planning restrictions to do whatever they like in order to increase their dominance (there is a Tesco Store in Stockport for which part of the store cannot be used – after Tesco constructed a larger building than they were given permission for the local authorities were left with a choice: put several hundred people out of work by not allowing Tesco to open; or limit them to using the floorspace for which permission was granted).
I also believe that Tesco, as owner of T&S stores, is already in Olney (they own the One Stop). So, having taken over one end of the high street, they’re now setting their ambitions a little closer to the heart of our community.
Meanwhile the Co-op, which I’ll agree has some high prices (as well as some low ones), for all its faults, is a company for whom communities are part of their culture. I may question some of the benefits of Fairtrade, renewable energy (in the form of wind) and some of the other policies that they embrace but I admire their employment policies, for example, which allow those who may otherwise find it difficult to gain employment (e.g., through learning
6 Phonebox Magazine