MDF doors warping.

[Matt Green]

My local village shop is lovely. No-one gripes, they are just fearful for their future. As am I. Without the PO part of it, it can't keep going.

Still, that's life. Bit like all those old buildings past their sell by date. Pathfinder the lot of them, and then B*llway etc can build new.

Clearly people are not going to start sending more mail just to keep their local postoffice in business. But it is just that: a business. The onus is for them to continue to make a profit rather than for me to charitably provide them with one. There has to be some responsibility taken by local shops when they are threatened with closure. They have, at least in part, failed as a business.

Just as buildings change their purpose, why can't small businesses?

It's a very British way of looking at things: Oh look company X has done so well they've made loads of money, but their business practices are not quite morally pure. Shall I start up a different company, educate the masses and make an ethically successful venture to take custum away from them, or at the very least promote a change in their business practices? No, that's far too much effort, I'll just whine about them and mutter about how things used to be....

It annoys me because it's lazy thinking.

Anyway. That's enough. Have your last post Nem and then we can shake hands, break out the beers and sing songs around the camp fire.

 

[Nemesis]

I think the PO and village shops issue is a wide and important one in rural areas though. But I am sure you know that. Bit like public transport.

I'm just concerned for a future when we all wake up and find that our villages and small towns are full of empty shops, but Tesco out of town (in my case twelve plus miles away) will provide. The wider costs of Tesco providing are not something I like to dwell on either.

Maybe the bubble will burst. Home and Colonial may yet make a come back.

(Odd, I used to manage a very busy career and a bloody big mortgage and not feel the need to shop at two am, but maybe I was missing one of life's great experiences.)

I refuse totally to sing around the camp fire. I left the Brownies cos I thought it was soft.

The beer is another matter.

 

[Penners]

It's a very British way of looking at things: Oh look company X has done so well they've made loads of money, but their business practices are not quite morally pure. Shall I start up a different company, educate the masses and make an ethically successful venture to take custum away from them, or at the very least promote a change in their business practices? No, that's far too much effort, I'll just whine about them and mutter about how things used to be....

Hear hear! Well said.

I have no great love for Tesco, but they have succeeded in a free market by giving the average consumer what he/she wants. That's it - top, bottom and sides.

Like Flyfisher, we quite often use their home delivery service. It's convenient. I could also make a case for its environmental credentials (although I don't pretend that's our main reason for using it). 20 or 30 orders doing the rounds on one van has to be better than 20 or 30 cars driving to Tesco.

 

[biffvernon]

There are lots of things that are convenient. Hoizontal floors, flat walls, doors with square corners, plumbing that works, roofs that don't leak...Oh the dullness of convenience.

 

[Penners]

Oh, the perversity of masochism. :wink:

 

[Nemesis]

Does Tesco deliver everywhere then?

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/online-shops/tesco-com/1060611/


Has FoE changed its stance now about Tesco?

http://community.foe.co.uk/resource/marketing_material/tesco_takeover_leaflet.pdf

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/business.cfm?id=754012007

Of course some will agree with Mr O'Neil, although some don't (as the comments under show).

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brendan_oneill/2007/05/in_defence_of_tesco.html

 

[Flyfisher]

Oh the dullness of convenience.

Oh the dullness of grocery shopping, more like.

 

[Nemesis]

And the rest of your life is spent in wild abandon then?

 

[Moo]

Oh the dullness of grocery shopping, more like.

Only beaten into second place by the dullness of housework.

 

[Nemesis]

So - no shopping, no housework? Life must be exciting - maybe you can share some of it with us here?

 

[Flyfisher]

Sorry, too busy.

 

[Penners]

Only beaten into second place by the dullness of housework.

Sorry - housework? Must remember to look that word up.

 

[Nemesis]

Not too busy to post inanities here though?

 

[Moo]

Please don't imagine that I do any. It's just that so many people seem to spend such a lot of time doing it. And something they call 'Ironing'.

 

[Flyfisher]

Not too busy to post inanities here though?

. . . . says the author of the 'Bah Humbug' thread :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Nemesis]

So you read it?

But maybe a sense of irony isn't your style.

 

[biffvernon]

We have used Tesco home delivery a few times when they first started but now we get our bulk groceries from Suma. Happen we had a delivery just yesterday. You have to buy quite a lot at a time (I think it's £250 worth) but we do an order share with some friends and neighbours which is all very sociable. And the lorry driver is not just a lorry driver but someone who is committed to the business of organic/fairtrade/wholefood ethics. When we've finished helping him unload he has time to stop for a cuppa and discuss the politics and economics of the global food situation. You just don't get that sort of intellectual spinoff at Tesco.

My local market town, Louth, does not have a Tesco or Asda or Morrison or Sainsbury but it does have several butchers, bakers, greengrocers, delicatessens, a street market on three days a week and a farmers market twice a month. It is a vibrant prosperous place where shopping inevitably involves stopping to chat with folk one knows.

It's the difference between mdf and the real wood.

 

[Nemesis]

Aye, our tiny local shop and PO gets bulk from Suma and then we can buy stuff there. Along with the Guardian and Private Eye.


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=EuBGju0Lvug

They don't sell live turtles though. Tesco - world domination (apart from Louth - thankfully - but it will happen...)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lCwyojDoYOw

 

[Nemesis]

Actually Tesco is arriving at Belper - stuff in the last SAVE News about the problems that's causing. More historic buildings bite the dust.

But here's something about it anyhow:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hiDdM0ge6VU

http://www.bats.fusiveweb.co.uk/

 

[Juju]

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. I use local independent stores when I can but I also stock up at Sainsburys or Waitrose once a week. Living just 5-10 mins walk from the town centre means I can walk to the shops and I like to buy from the independent stores when I can (especially local hardware/paint shop, health food, card & gift shops) and farmers' market. So in terms of the environment, it's better that I walk rather than drive.

In the supermarkets I look at food miles when making choices. I rarely buy fresh food from outside Europe. I make an exception for Fairtrade bananas though. Oh and Fairtrade chocolate. I like Waitrose's 'local' section too - I bought curly kale in there the other day. Despite being a vegetarian for 20 years, I'd never had that before! Him indoors made a lovely spicy sauce to accompany it with some wheat-free pasta. Very nice.

Anyway, I could do more but many people do less. My stepchildren were used to being driven everywhere and yes they moan, but it's good for them to walk back from town carrying a few bags of shopping. They also understand now that other shops exist - not just Sainsburys. :lol: