The No Mill Road Tesco Campaign
Posted by robbiebow on 16 December, 2007 under cambridge, politics, stuff | 
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The No Mill Road Tesco campaign has brought out conflicting opinions in me. On one hand, sticking it to The Man is always fun, and healthy, and a sign that people are awake. On the other hand, the rainbow Nazi streak running through the no campaign is The Man in dungarees. Having played devil’s advocate in my local, only to be stonewalled by a fen troll hence onwards (even when I met him in the soulless Sainsburys supermarket) I am naturally inclined towards bringing Tesco to Mill Road myself. Political differences over minor matters shouldn’t become personal. Big things like racism, sure, but the little things shouldn’t come between friends. Oh well.
But then I agree that Tesco are bloody everywhere and their insatiable appetite for squeezing the grocery trade pips is dulling high streets and village centres up and down the country. But they succeed, in spite of people feeling this way because they literally deliver the goods. So far the NTOMR campaign has focussed on the negative: stop it before it gets there. That’s legitimate: despite it being anti-capitalist and illegal, big companies like Tesco can and do practice dumping to drive their competition into the ground. The Competition Commission will not stop this happening and without the financial clout of another big corporation to back them up the competition can be wiped out by these anti-competitive practices.
However, what about the worst case scenario, i.e. that Tesco do get their planning permission? This ties in with another fundamental reason why Tesco succeed: local, independent shops need to provide the services and goods people want: specifically, they need to open later so that people can actually use them after work. There’s no need for a butchers to open at 9am. Open at 12noon and stay open until 9pm. That way they can increase trade. In case no-one has noticed, housewives are thin on the ground and households with all adults working full time are the norm these days. Next, there is nowhere on Mill Road where you can buy high quality, fresh vegetables. Co-op veg is always limp; and even people I know who are part of the NTOMR campaign say the veg shop next door to the Co-op sells poor quality vegetables (one even experienced off veg from there). We’re in the middle of Britain’s bread basket so why can’t we get great, locally produced, fresh, veg?
For me, and many others in affluent Romsey, price is not the major factor. Ability to buy at a time when I’m not at work and good quality goods are major factors. A couple fewer beers a week for the sake of good quality food sounds a good deal to me. Time the independent shops capitalized on the massive good will they have in their customer base and provided stuff we want when we can buy it. Else you’ll find even the most ardent anti-Tesco campaigners still shopping in Asda and Sainsburys and, no doubt, the third part of the holy trinity of grocers, Tesco.
Clive Mitchell said,
At last an open and honest opinion about the opening of Tesco on Mill Road. I have come to the conclusion that if Mill Road is such a diverse and and open minded community then where are all the objections coming from. If the road is an area of small independent traders then it will still be so after Tesco opens, and it will be up to the local individual to excercise their right to shop independently and not go into Tesco. If you don’t go into a shop it will not survive, so if you want to keep the independent trader use them and stop blaming Tesco when they close as it will be your fault. Don’t forget the onslaught of the internet and it’s ease of online shopping was going to bring down the major retailers’ the only casualty that I am I aware of was Woolworths and that was s basically unsound business plan that caused there demise. As for the objections to the traffic problem, perhaps the local community would like to raise a petition against all the illegally parked vehicles in Mill Road, from council vehicles watering plants to the CoOp delivery vehicles which turn up 3 at a time and block off the entrance to Catherine Street, to vehicles that exceed the weight and time limits. If these campaigners took the time to talk too “local people” they would realize that Mill Road no longer has the facilities that it once had, where has the milliners gone, the wet fish shop, the wool shop and countless other local businesses. The sign of the times is change, how many hairdressers, fast food outlets, off license premises, cycle shops and estate agents does Mill Road need, or is it just a case of lower rents and rates that attract these types of businesses. We are in a period of recession, however house prices in Romsey still remain high and buck the national trend. So will Tesco opening change my lifestyle, NO, I will still shop where I want to and buy the things that I require to carry out my daily life, and yes I do live in Romsey and I am proud to say so. As an afterthought check out Hilary’s greengrocers as it has a wholesale business that supplies to most of the colleges in Cambridge, hardly an independent local shop?.
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