Big chain shops

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Is anyone else here appalled by the environmental and social affront that is the spread of big ubiquitous chain shops like Tesco and Asda (Closest American equivalents being Walmart, K-Mart etc)?

I remember from my early child hood that my hometown was populated by smaller businesses which added to the charm and character of my town. These days its invaded by these faceless and soul-less companies. I have fond memories of the Wednesday market in the town centre where small traders would come and haggle. These days it is an Asda car park.

How much longer before we are living in Tesco land? The reactionary right would have you believe that immigration poses the worst cultural threat to a community's indigenous character. I believe it is actually companies such as these.

As an American, I will tell you that big outlet companies kill small business, and can destroy a small towns special "air". Sure, they're convenient but there's no uniqueness and everything is plastic. In America the equation is always the same from coast to coast, Walmart, Homedepot, Lowes, Stripmall filled with name brand stores. If you live in Europe, don't go adopting the American way. It's always about down with the old and up with the new. Surprisingly, enough the new always seems to be more of the same. Rock on consumerism? You stay european and we'll stay american and our opposite ideas will make for a much more diverse world. Both in ideas and execution.

You have the option of not doing business with them.

Funny thing actually regarding Tesco in America. A store chain opened up in my area of California called Fresh & Easy. They generally pay really well, have a good mix of a variety of foods, and are relatively cheap. Tesco had to pull out recently due to lack of profits in the U.S.

Coming from a town that has like 3 Wal-Mart stores and several other big box stores though, I actually think I am already living in the American equivalent of Tesco land sometimes.

Eh, it's efficient. I mean, national chains are probably better for developing efficient supply chains, and a lot of the major store brands are known innovators in developing efficient supply chains. Wal-mart is often a business case study for supply chains.

We can sort of agree on this.

My old high street, used to be completely independent shop now it is all chains.

I now live in Tooting., It is the South Indian independent traders/importers, as well as other ethnicities, as to why we have a thriving independent high street here still, thankfully. It is even got plenty of white businesses, too. not just polish, but including those that are English in origin. So if anything the environment and culture is keeping these businesses alive. Good example my 1900's butcher. It is not one of those fancy posh butchers with exorbitant prices (which is the only way these normally stay alive), but those old fashioned no nonsense butchers with the red and white striped ornings (remember those?), with saw dust on the floor, and a chopping block for a counter. They take the meat out an cut in in front of you. They even want to save you money too.

I shop in Sainsbury's too, and their fruit an veg is often more expensive than these traders.

Personally I'm a pure competitionist. The more of it the better. There is a role for supermarkets, but we need more of them, as in more companies. More voluntary chains, franchises, etc.

So yes we need to stop blaming enterprising people for our own cultural failings.

Sometimes it's pretty hard or impossible not to do so, though, as more small businesses close and options dwindle. There isn't really any independent book stores in my area for example, so I have to go to Books A Million (the only brick and mortar book store that carries pen and paper gaming stuff in my area)
Some small book, toy or music stores do have online presence which I support, and I buy a lot of my groceries through small family owned stores, but if you need hardware or an appliance you're usually out of luck and have to go to a big box store.

In fact, ASDA is the British arm of Wal-Mart.

People want these businesses for a number of reasons, none of which you'll be particularly interested in hearing. Most people haven't got the time or the will to drive into town, spend all afternoon shopping, go to ten different shops to buy their goods, drag everything back to their car multiple times where they pay £5 each time.

The out of town places are basically far more convenient for people to use on a regular basis. They can go, get their shopping and leave.

There are little villages and small towns in England where they still have their chocolate box exterior full of loads of little shops, but they're mostly intolerably expensive and pretentious these days.

I fear you're romanticising the past a little bit. And I don't particularly like large supermarkets either.

That said, I'm not keen myself on the corporatism that these large firms represent, because they can easily keep out the competition between themselves. I'd rather have a free-market system where anyone and everyone can open a supermarket or whatever else on a level playing field.

If you have a good idea thomas81 that is a stable economic alternative to the supermarkets, let us know. But remember this: people are shopping with their heads, not with their hearts. That's why the town centres are being wiped out.

UKIP is party for big business...

We do have (I think) 3 full-size walmarts throughout the Portland area... and they largely target immigrants and rednecks.

The companies aren't really the problem. The local culture, and more importantly, how it influences the purchasing behaviors of the middle and upper-middle class, however, is. In the Portland area, we've really spearheaded and nationalized the "buy local" movement. In addition to our many farmers market, which we support religiously, we have a chain store that sells most everything in it, from farms in the area, most of which are within a 100 mile radius of the Portland Metropolitan. And it's become a statement of both character and class, as well as wealth, to be seen shopping at these businesses, that supports the livelihoods of so many within the community. Your battle should be for the hearts and minds of people, to change the culture and consumer behavior... not against companies.

Tesco isn't doing so well recently, it is the Asia market that is saving them. They have lost ground in Europe and US.

The reality is if you say one company is the bad guy, you can completely miss the ball on some other bad practices, because you are not expecting to come from that sort of company.

That said I still don't shop in Tesco. They are the dregs in more ways than one. I do use supermarkets however.

The current trend in the UK is the opening of small local shops by the big chains.

These tend to hurt the small, independent foodshops as they are usually a bit larger (since the large chains can afford to pay a higher rent) and have a better range of stock (particularly of fresh food).

Despite being owned by the large chains they do not offer particularly good value (prices are often higher than the large stores and they don't stock the value ranges).

This may be the only thing I've ever agreed with you on.

Here in the US, the big chain stores wipe out the small guys by means of pricing, quantity and all-in-one-location schemes. Where I live there used to be three small bakeries...each produced its own unique set of breads and were absolute masters in their craft. The breads were delicious and many of us would go to each of them every week to pick up bread (one had the best breakfast bread, the other had the best pastries, the third could not be beat when it came to specialty/whole grain breads).

Then came walmart.

They sell the cheapest most low quality bread you can imagine...at 1/10th the cost of the small bakery's high quality breads. They even sold whole grain/specialty breads in name (not quality) to compete with the small bakeries. In less than 3 years the small bakeries vanished because the local residents begun to buy the crappy bread as they bought their other groceries and the small bakeries were diminished to being the places people bought 'tasty' bread once a month.

When the small bakeries vanished, that walmart ceased to offer their own versions of the specialty/whole grain breads and pastries and switched to the generic crap-tasting bread selection you find at any other walmart.

This happened around the time walmart was just expanding all over the city about 9 years ago. Now its the norm. You only find bakeries, butcher shops, etc in the fringes of the city and usually they are low quality since they cater to lower income communities.

I can't tell you the last time I was at Wal-Mart, probably several years ago. I tend to do any "holiday" shopping in the smaller stores, because they have a much better selection. Problem is that there aren't all that many around here anymore.

From an economic and cultural POV, I understand why the "Big Box" stores have the edge. I'm not always happy about it.

They have the edge on pricing (from their stuff coming from slave labor like countries like China) and convenience of all-in-one location.

One small city I stopped in on a road trip to North Carolina had an interesting solution to walmart... the local shops and markets were all located together and people could just go there and shop. It was like a super-mall and flea market like place all in one. Beat the heck out of walmart shopping and the prices were not that different. I wish all cities would do this.

I dont know. Does Walmart supply me with daily self-made fresh products? I can only compare with what I see in television and documentations, but can I go to Walmart and tell them, that I will have a grillparty next week, that I need about 300g flesh for each person, shared upon different kinds of sausages, steaks, and already marinated and spiced products? Can they tell me from what of the local farms, the flesh comes from? Can I ask them, when they will have their butcher day, so that its bests, to buy organs that day? Can I tell them what I want to cook with the flesh I want to buy, so they can choose the propper piece of meat and then cut the pieces out of it, as I need it best? I mean for roulades, I need it thinner, for grilling I need a mamorized fat, ...Can they tell me, when I want to try something new, how to do that best? Do they have different sorts of local fruits and veggies, and can they tell me from which farm of the surrounding it is? Is there someone, that can tell me how to handle certain vegetables, and give me idea for recipes? Is organic food for them the normal stuff that they offer me as well for every product beside the stuff with the hormones and medications and DNA-changed food is in some lonely corner, or do I have to buy the last mentioned, beside some rare organic products, that I find in some lonely corner?

Do they supply my neighbors, their workers, fair, including rent, health insurance, unemployment insurance...? Do they support my neighbors, the farmers by offering them fair prices? Are they interested in our local community, or do they only want to drain the money of my community somewhere into a foreign place 2000 km away?

How can they have a so called good supply chain, if they dont supply anything useful?


Lots of that shops started to open during the last years, and now suddenly they get into bankruptcy and whine around, as example drug-shop dayli, that were proud on being so cheap because of them being absolute minimum, and trying to force their workers to work on sunday. What do that bastards think? That I need more shampoo, if they open as well on sunday? If they enlargen their opening times, in the end they get the same amount of money, but need to pay more workers. So comparing to logic, they must pay them lesser again. Stupid capitalistic s**theads.