Remember that Tesco on Crown Street?
You might remember that Tesco opened one of its “Metro” stores at the junction of Crown and London Streets around a year ago. We took this photo tonight because we thought you might be interested to see what’s happened to the local corner shop since.
Six months ago this shop - less than a minute’s walk away - occupied the entire area beneath the Londis signs, including the shuttered bits. Today, it’s down to around a third of its previous size.
Now, we don’t want to get all high-and-mighty about supermarket dominance in our town. That would be a bit hypocritical, given that this Reading Roars! writer does tend to shop in Sainsbury’s. In fact, we don’t even know whether this shop’s downsizing is a result of the new Tesco branch. We haven’t spoken to the owner, so we’ll just present the evidence and let you draw your own conclusions.
However, we do know this: there are already seven branches of Tesco within three miles of the town centre. An eighth is slated to open in the next few months, on Market Place. Do we really need it?
Errrrm, so what. What was so brilliant about that londis shop that it needed saving from the might of Tesco.
nice picture and question to ask. Maybe you can ask the person who manages the store if they’ll do one of your podcasts to talk about how business has changed.
I’m lucky enough to live near a Co-op and I’ve never shopped in Tescos in all my 46 years! I’ve no intention of starting.
There’s a nice summary article about the ‘tesco town’ problem in The Independent last March: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/the-big-question-is-tesco-now-too-powerful-in-britain-and-can-its-growth-ever-be-checked-1637575.html
This is unfortunate.
I used to shop frequently at Londis. I enjoyed chatting with the hard-working staff there. It felt a friendly and intimate environment.
I almost don’t want to look at the photo.
Did you see this? It’s in Bristol but relevant to this post I think.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/mar/17/tesco-stores-bristol-protests
It was a challenge to see if it was possible to shop in 17 different branches of Tesco in an hour in Bristol.