Llandrindod Tesco Kills Highstreet Within a Couple of Months of Opening

Like so many other towns in the UK - the market town of Llandrindod Wells was unfortunate enough to have a Tesco store foisted upon it on July 19th 2010. There would have been local people who raised concerns at the time but the juggernaut that is Tesco won out eventually. 'Bringing new jobs', 'enhancing the town' and adding 'variety' - all buzzwords used in the usual Tesco sales pitch and charm offensives before it was built. So local people waited to see just how it was going to help 'enhance' the little border town as Tesco had promised.

Well, adding a Tesco certainly promoted change in the town. Unfortunately it wasn't one for the better though.. In fact in just a few short months of trading, Tesco Llandindod Wells has caused a massive drop in profits for local highstreet businesses in the town - so much so that local traders have had to host 'crisis talks' recently to try and figure out just what they can do to stop a potential high street melt-down.

[These quotes from the Rhyl Journal, 15th Oct, 2010 from the article "Traders Hold Crisis Talks as Tesco Hit Sales"].

Since the superstore’s opening week of trading, shops have recorded an average loss of earnings of 25 per cent, with some specific businesses having lost up to 60 per cent in revenue.

The supermarket has definitely brought shoppers from further away, said County Councillor Mike Hodges, owner of Hodges Food and Wine Store on Tremont Road, but many of them do not visit the town centre after they’ve finished their shop.

“Roughly 60 per cent of customers who do their major weekly shop at a big supermarket will then go straight home,” said Cllr Hodges, who attended the traders’ meeting on Thursday.

“We’re losing 25 per cent, week on week, which has surprised a lot of people because they thought our business wouldn’t be affected.”

The Llandindod store isn't directly in the centre of town but rather just across the railway tracks that divide the town in half. The loss of trade they've seen however tallies all to closely with a 1998 Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions report: “The Impact of Large Foodstores on Market Towns” which finds that adding a large supermarket [specifically to a market town] will result in the loss of between 13 and 50% of existing trade for highstreet food stores.

Many are aware that the highstreet in Tenbury offers a good cross section of such food stores but is presently experiencing depressed trading as a result of the economic slowdown.. A potential further loss of trading like the Llandindod example coupled with the Govt’s own clearly-documented research findings could potentially cripple the fragile economy of Tenbury’s highstreet.

Let's do all we can to avoid this happening in Tenbury and make it clear to Tesco and Malvern Hills' planners that we want a solution for the Cattle Market site that benefits the whole community. One that answers some of the real needs of local people, helps develop a thriving local economy [as opposed to a superstore that siphons local money off to the home counties] and one that provides new amenities for Tenbury into the next decade.