[Excerpt - see full article here]
More than a century ago Thomas Rodda began to sell his cream at markets in Cornwall, travelling as far from his farm as his horse could manage. Today a tub of Rodda's Cornish clotted cream on sale at Tesco in Redruth, two miles from the creamery in Scorrier, has been driven at least 340 miles to get there.
[Excerpt - see full article here]
The comments from the Supermarkets are correct. This is really a NON-Storey.
ReplyDeleteProtesters complain that Tesco will bring increased traffic then complain about centralised distribution, without which each store would have suppliers vehicles queued around the block all day!
But surely the likes of Bowketts source locally for some food etc [I know they do for various meats]..? I've not seen a queue of lorries out the front of their supermarket..
ReplyDeleteIt's a ridiculous situation to [potentially] have the choice between buying local apples/apple juice at -say- the Barn Shop and also a 'Tesco' round the corner [if their commitment to buying local really means anything]. One will have travelled in a small transit 15mins down the road to the Barn Shop shop and one from the same site up the road down to Bristol/Avonmouth and then all the way back again to Tenbury.. At least a 160 mile round trip - an environmental nightmare..
Oh and ref increased traffic - let's just NOT put Tenbury through that. We've got a Scheduled Ancient Monument of a bridge one end of Tenbury [one of only 2 in the UK with a bend in it apparently] and a tight medieval street layout the other side of the proposed Tenbury Tesco site.
ReplyDeleteAnything larger than a horse box causes a merry dance of cars back and forth on the Teme Bridge [the longest I've witnessed for about 20 mins as traffic and temperatures keep building either side]. Come the other way and the tight squeeze between the Market Tavern/Caldicott's Yard and the 90 deg. bend at the corner by the Crow are very effective lorry traps - especially for foreign artic's who accidentally stray into them.
The net result either way is traffic carnage in this small town. Especially so when Tescos own employees state off the record that: "Tesco will say they'll keep deliveries to non school pickup times - but the reality is that they [the artics] will come at all times - along with other artics from the likes of Wiseman's milk etc".
All we'll need then [if the store is built] is for one of the many inevitable artics to glue up either Teme Street or the Teme Bridge when there's an emergency fire or police or ambulance call out and lives could clearly be put at risk.
All for the sake of 'providing more customer choice' or one of the other spin-heavy phrases such outfits like to use to justify their continual taking over of high streets.
There are often queue's of delivery vans/lorries at Bowketts. They park in front of the store and on the pavement in Cross Street on the opposite side of the road.
ReplyDeleteNot so sure Bowketts still buy their meat locally now all the local abattoirs have closed.
The majority of the Barn Shops stock is collected each morning from Birmingham Market. Even products grown in Worcestershire still arrive via the market.
Delivery vehicles to Bowketts often cause a jam up Cross Street as they try to reverse into the service road, at least the Tesco lorries will be able to pull into their service road forward and also come out forward. A store of the size proposed isn't going to need many "centralised" deliveries a day.
ReplyDeleteI must say that the 'queues of delivery vans' ref Bowketts is news to me. I've lived here a good few years now, travel past there most days at different times but can't recall a logjam like you [Anonymous] are describing..
ReplyDeleteRe potential Tesco and artic loading.. I think there is a reliance on the front [newer] part of the old workhouse being demolished to widen the corner/site entrance. I know that there's been a couple of interpretations of the plans by different groups [and the Town Council too] but I don't think that particular element has been approved - potentially causing any Tesco plan serious spacial challenges/constraints.
Of course all that assumes that the regular Tesco artics can actually get over the Teme bridge or the tight Tenbury main street without causing major tailbacks or hinderance to emergency services' operations [I understand that the local Police made objections along these lines].
I must be really unlucky as I see unloading problems at Bowketts on a regular basis.
ReplyDeleteThe withdrawn plan showed the demolition of an extension to the Old Fire Station not the workhouse.
Regular Tesco artics are no larger and often smaller than many of the artics that come through Tenbury on a regular basis and they are much narrower than much of the Agricultural traffic.
Yep, meant the Old Fire Station bit but it came out as 'newer bit on the workhouse'.
ReplyDeleteI can only tell you my experiences re loading at Bowketts.. I'm not flying a flag for them [and conversely I have no gripes with them] but I've witnessed no problems personally.
Re artics.. This is where I've see numerous situations [normally] where one gets stuck on the corner of Teme St near the Crow. After 10 mins or so of shimmying [normally accompanied by random car horn use] it reaches an uneasy impasse and some one will have to back up. I've seen similar on the Teme Bridge - often with much smaller vehicles blocking the bridge. I guess my point is - why would we want to commit to a substantial amount more of this - which [one way or another] would have to happen if Tesco were successful in Tenbury.
So Tesco use central distribution centres, as does the Co-Op.
ReplyDeleteIt would seem Bowketts may get their meat from Brum and one would assume it's Nisa stock form a distribution centre.
So how does A.F. Blakemore gets it's stock to its Spar retail outlets, magic pixies ??!?!
Food travels, if the manufacturers of the foodstuffs were so concerned over "food miles" they'd have their own system for locally sited outlets to be supplied directly from source.
Non story of the week.
Funnily enough I was talking to the national marketing manager of a major drinks company yesterday in another guise. This individual said that they were very concerned about 'food miles' - especially so as their resources for their stock came from within a radius of '20 miles' - which they saw as important from both a local business sense and it aligned with both their, and direct competitors'] increasingly important sustainability agenda.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned the Tesco scenario with food miles and the odd example of Rodda's clotted cream etc [out of curiosity]. This individual then said that in recent talks with supermarkets [not Tesco] that 'food miles' was becoming very much a political 'hot potato'. Naturally solutions need to balance effectiveness and costs etc but this individual thought that solutions were being very closely examined at this very moment.
Tesco clearly haven't solved their issues re food miles though and it's still a bonkers scenario to have local produce from Tenbury taken on a 160 mile round trip before they appear on a local Tesco shelf - totally unsustainable. This of course assumes that [if a Tesco is built] they will even bother to stock local produce or see it as relevant to their multi million dollar business.
I thought Bowketts sold local meat from a local source through its Butchers outlet, with the rest of its stock coming from far and wide as per any supermarket in this country,
ReplyDeleteI guess they're not that different from Tesco after all.
"Tesco clearly haven't solved their issues re food miles though "
And neither have any of the retailers in this town, unless it's locally produced it'll travel from somewhere regardless of its final selling place be it chip shop, spar, co-op or bowketts.
Lets not lambast Tesco for a system / process which all employee to a degree.
Mmmnn. I've certainly bought 'locally cured bacon' at Bowketts and I suspect [as per Spar] they get many of their deliveries such as local cheeses, Hobsons beers and other local beers/ciders delivered direct too.
ReplyDeleteI understand too that Tenbury Spar/AF Blakemore use 'Heart of England Fine Foods' [HEFF] as their food distributor/supplier. A quick check of HEFF's website suggests a clear commitment to the local and regional food of Shropshire/Worcs and surrounding counties and they are set up to help distribute from the smaller/local & regional suppliers in particular. Not for them a trip down to a giant Avonmouth storage depot to pick up some Apple juice produced in this area - it's clearly all kept regional. Tesco just don't operate on that regional basis - they're too big and too impersonal. Now they're concentrating on their overseas market expansion it could well mean even less of a focus on stocking local foods and sustainability of procurement/delivery methods as they seek to stuff their pockets with foreign cash.
HEFF won the "Sustainable Distribution Award" at the Institute of Grocery and Distribution (IGD) 2009 food industry awards apparently too. IGD's website has a big section on sustainability and how the food business is getting more and more committed. Guess who HEFF were up against for the awards and who weren't considered sustainable in anything like the same way? Yup - Tesco.
As I say - Tesco are too big, too impersonal and 'economic with the truth' about their real 'commitments' to sustainability and local food. To cap it all have a look at Tristram Stuart's new book 'Waste' - guess who comes out as the worst offender in terms of sustainability, food waste etc, etc? Need I say more?
I know that some of Bowketts meat comes from as far away as South America (& I'm not talking Corned Beef).
ReplyDeleteHEFF might deliver to Spar but they only supply a fraction of the food. The rest comes from a regional distribution centre. Even then the food is delivered into their hub for outward distribution, so same principle but on a smaller scale.
[4 @WR15].. See what your saying but I don't think folks would expect every little thing to come from the region though.
ReplyDeleteI think the point being that even with their different levels of local stocks even Bowketts [with their main Bham hub mentioned previously in the thread] and Spar [via HEFF] are still likely to stock more local/regional goods than any Tesco built here. Add to this that neither of them use as their main distribution centre a site 80+ miles away and I'd still bank on both of them being lighter in food miles and carbon footprint than any potential Tenbury Tesco [even with it's supposed 'eco store' credentials - which as I recall, have already been debunked as PR spin on a previous thread].
In Spar's case I did a bit of homework and found out that they have 2x substantial deliveries from HEFF per week apparently.
[4 @WR15].. Does this mean WR15 is coming on here as 'Anonymous'?
ReplyDelete(I remembered to sign on this time)
ReplyDeleteSpar only buy a fraction of their products through HEFF. Most does come from a distribution centre which is only about 50 miles away, and serves around 200 Spar shops of which Tenbury is one of the nearer one. Nisa who supply the bulk of Bowketts products also use regional distribution centres. (Ambient - Scunthorpe (165 Miles), Chill/Frozen - Stoke(82 miles)) I think Tesco's nearest is 57 miles.
Be careful what you wish for.
ReplyDeleteThere has been much comment elsewhere on this blog about whether Tenbury Wells needs a new Supermarket.
I recently read the following observations which I thought I would share.
£10 spent in a Local shop is worth £25 to the local economy.
£10 spent in a Supermarket is worth £14 to the local economy,
as supermarkets tend to syphon money away to Head Office and shareholders.
On average the local economy losses 276 jobs following the opening of a large supermarket.
Local shops experience on average a 30% loss in trade.
The loss of just 15% would cause many shops to close, this then causes a ripple effect as the more shops that close, the fewer people come into town and this reduces trade further in the remaining shops, leaving no choice but to use the large supermarket.
Whether you love them or hate them, small shops and small businesses are vital to the economy of a small town
Posted by @WR15
Are you having second thoughts now WR15?
@WR15 said...
ReplyDeleteI can't vouch for the figures as they are not mine. However, at the moment people have a choice, shop hear, or go elsewhere if they feel it's cheaper (including the fuel). Once a big supermarket arrives and all the small shops close, then you have no choice and the remaining supermarket will raise its prices as it has no competition. There will also be fewer jobs, as the big supermarket is unlikely to be using local businesses as suppliers, or having their vans serviced locally or using local builders or electricians or even local window cleaners. I believe at Tesco's in Worcester the gardeners that come to prune the shrubs in the car park travel down from Manchester. Complete madness. The list just goes on.
15 January 2008 19:25
It's still gratifying to hear that places like Tenbury Spar do stock local & regional produce though, some of which is delivered direct by local producers [Tesco seem to have a track record of stocking little as such and often beating local/regional farmers down on price so they eventually sell at a near loss].
ReplyDeleteInterestingly Tesco acknowledges their poor standing with food miles. A 2006 Guardian Article ["Tesco Opens Doors to Local Growers"] has a response from Friends of the Earth's Supermarket Campaigner Sandra Bell on Tesco's pledge at the time to try to source more locally: "Tesco's track record on local produce did not bode well for this latest pledge... It's hard to see how this is going to be anything other than a tokenistic gesture".
Having said all that I'm no mouthpiece for Spar or Bowketts. I do still think a Tesco in Tenbury would adversely affect the highstreet's existing fragile trading position though.
The figures I quoted related to a large supermarket. The one Tesco is proposing for Tenbury isn't large (by national standards) so will only compete with a few local shops. If we drive them to build a large out of town supermarket then the figures will be more correct.
ReplyDeleteThe prices in our local supermarket were more competitive in early 2008, but have since risen (perhaps because they have no real competition)
Where as Tesco's have implemented a notational pricing policy so the same prices are charged everywhere (with few exceptions).
I have changed my view over the last two years, perhaps it's time for others to as well and look at the facts, not the rhetoric.
It's probably for the best that Tesco doesn't sell too much food produced by local artisan producers. This will leave a good market for the specialist shops to sell to people who can afford the higher priced better quality food.
ReplyDeleteThe facts as I see them in respect of Tesco include them being found out to be playing a near constant game of 'dirty tricks' on the UK public to try and get their way with developments. They're not tactics that I personally could lend my own support to though.
ReplyDeleteThese [to pick but a few examples] could include:
• The other recent article on this blog relating to them buying-up town centre land, then letting it fall derelict so that they could elicit a good response to their own new plans to 're develop'.
Ref: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=513326&in_page_id=2
• The recent discovery that Tesco crafted and then sent themselves /promoted letters of support from non-existant locals on a site where they wanted to build a new Superstore.
Ref: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tesco-dirty-tricks-and-the-battle-over-a-new-store-in-rural-norfolk-2023130.html
• The 2008 blog article that [anonymous] refers to above also links to the story about Ludlow Tesco blanket vouchering the town just before the recent Tuffins opened to try and make sure that trade [via discounts] went their way and not Tuffins' way. Ref: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/jan/24/supermarkets.uknews1
• Using faux small companies to buy up land/propose development/ be accepted for their purposes [only to find that it's Tesco that's putting up the money for it all behind the scenes]. Ref: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23383157-tesco-accused-of-dirty-tricks-email.do
This just the tip of the iceberg, the list is huge.
If figures are correct that 2/3rds of shopping is done out of town what's the big worry.
ReplyDeleteA bit of competion is a good thing, sure it'll hurt local business but it will be good for local shoppers, and if Tesco increase their prices at a later date this that used to shop out of town can go back to doing so.
And personally I don't care if my food has been on a whistle stop tour of the country, if it's what I want and or cheaper I'll buy it from who ever sells or supplies it.
I think the figures from 2008 [above] still stand in part - especially when it comes to money spent in local shops vs money spent in a superstore built in a Market Town.
ReplyDelete"£10 spent in a Local shop is worth £25 to the local economy.
£10 spent in a Supermarket is worth £14 to the local economy,
as supermarkets tend to syphon money away to Head Office and shareholders."
And
"Whether you love them or hate them, small shops and small businesses are vital to the economy of a small town".
It doesn't matter what way you look at it or try and justify it, a medium-sized Tesco superstore in Tenbury would on balance have a negative effect on the fragile local economy.
So anonymous. What your saying is you want tesco to come in and close every shop in town and kill Tenbury as long as you can get your bread for around 2p cheaper. Don't you care about the community and peoples jobs and livelyhoods?
ReplyDeleteI never said that and I wouldn't wish it on any business.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do recognise the right to free business and competition that we have.
It'll be tough for a few of the local busnesses not the majority and not all by a long chalk.
They will have the opportunity to diversify or offer extra value that Tesco can not, some will fail some will succeed through hard work and determination, but as we operate in a free market denying competition just because it's big bad Tesco is no better than some of the methods Tesco have employed elsewhere to get planning permission.
I don't understand why some folk knowingly want to put the little shops in Tenbury through this. They're so fragile anyway - by encouraging the might of Tesco you're wishing on some of the little shops a swift death sentence.
ReplyDeleteTo me it seems like saying to the massive Greek army banging at the gates: "Nah - don't go to all the the trouble of making a horse and hiding in it to sneak in.. We'll just open the gates for you - we're sure you'll respect our wishes won't you?.."
The triumph of the faceless corporates over the little guys. It doesn't sit well at all with me.
You did anonymous when tesco is involved it's not healthy competition. They make sure they close everything so then they can up their prices.
ReplyDeleteSupermarkets also generate vast amounts of delivery traffic, particularly heavy lorries. They have centralised distribution systems and 'just in time delivery', so that very little stock is held in the stores and they must be topped up daily, by a fleet of delivery lorries, from a regional distribution centre.
ReplyDeleteTesco Express in Kew, London occupies a former Europa outlet in a parade of shops in a residential area. Since Tesco moved in, deliveries have increased from twice a day to up to 10 times a day, beween 6am and 11 at night, using a local school bus stop as their loading bay. Pallets, metal trolleys and unloading ramps crash down on to the pavements. Truck engines are kept running. After complaints by local residents and councillors Tesco was told to limit its deliveries to just three a day, between 7am and 8pm. But locals say nothing has changed and there are still back-to-back deliveries until 12pm. The Kew experience is not unique. Local residents in nearby St Margaret's, Twickenham, are protesting at an almost identical set of problems, including delivery lorries blocking school buses.
Tesco say "only" nine lorries per week in Tenbury for a 20,000 sq ft store .This store in Kew London is only 3,000 sq ft with up to nine lorries per DAY
Come on Tesco start telling the truth .