ConsumerismEconomics

Tesco-opted

The fight against the superstores is a struggle for democracy

by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom


Machynlleth’s high street

I have been writing about it for years. But it’s only now, when I’m caught in the middle of it, that the full force of this injustice hits me. Like everyone else here I feel powerless, unstrung as I watch disaster unfold in slow motion.

I live in the last small corner of Gaul still holding out against the Romans. In other words, a small market town (Machynlleth in mid-Wales) which has yet to be conquered by the superstores. No one expects us to hold out for much longer. Last month Tesco submitted an application to subjugate us(1). It wants to build a store of 27,000 square feet on the edge of the town centre(2). This is twice the size of all our grocery stores put together, and bigger than our tiny settlement – 2100 souls – can support. Tesco will prosper here only if other shops close and customers come from miles away.

Over 300 people – roughly one fifth of the adult population – have sent letters of objection. The case against the store and the strength of local feeling is so strong here that if we can’t beat Tesco, no one can. But, being deficient in magic potion, we have precious little chance of stopping it.

This town’s tragedy has been precisely foretold. In 1998, the government commissioned a study of the impact of big stores on market towns(3). It found that when a large supermarket is built on the edge of the centre, other food shops lose between 13 and 50% of their trade. The result is “the closure of some town centre food retailers; increases in vacancy levels; and a general decline in the quality of the environment of the centre.” Towns are hit especially hard where supermarkets “are disproportionately large compared with the size of the centre”. In these cases the superstore becomes the new town centre, leaving the high street to shrivel.

If this monster is built, everything that is special and precious and distinctive about this town – the quirky shops, the UK’s oldest farmers’ market, the busy community – falls under its shadow. Tesco will suck the marrow out of us.

The prospects for small shops were dim enough during the boom. As the supermarkets closed in, independent stores in the UK shut at the rate of 2,000 a year between 1997 and 2004(4). Now they’re in much bigger trouble. A report by the Local Data Company at the end of July suggests that 12,000 independent shops have already closed in England and Wales this year(5). Tesco, by contrast, has been mopping up. In April, for the first time, its turnover exceeded £1bn a week(6).

But in seeking to oppose its application, we find ourselves fighting bound and gagged. Tesco launched its campaign with an exhibition and “consultation”, which seemed to me to be wildly biased in favour of the development. I asked its PR man whether the consultation would be independently audited. The answer was no. Tesco announced that the great majority of residents were in favour of the store. A door-to-door survey by local people discovered the opposite, but I think you can guess which study made the headlines.

We waited, but we had no idea when Tesco would submit its application. Like all developers, it is not obliged to give prior notice. It submitted its plans to the county council on June 24th. The council didn’t release them until July 14th. From Tesco’s point of view, the timing was perfect. This was the week in which the county’s schools broke up and many of its opponents were setting off on holiday. We had until July 31st to register our objections (we lost four days due to council fumbling). People are now returning from their holidays to discover that it’s too late to object.

To compound the unfairness, there is no legal requirement for the developer to ensure that the claims it makes are accurate. Tesco’s application is riddled with questionable statements. It maintains that the new store “will provide a minimum of 140 additional full and part time jobs”(7). But the superstores’ own research shows that every large outlet causes the net loss of 276 jobs(8). That’s hardly surprising: independent shops employ five times as many people per unit of turnover (9). Tesco maintains that it will buy local produce “wherever possible”(10). But when its representatives were challenged on this point, they said that local suppliers would have to sell their produce to the company as a whole. It would be trucked to the nearest distribution centre – now 120 miles away in Avonmouth – and then trucked back across Wales to Machynlleth(11). Incredibly, Tesco proposes that its new store will reduce the traffic on our congested roads(12). It appears to be relying on a radical misinterpretation of the evidence(13).

But the real issue is this: if the county council turns it down, Tesco can appeal. The cost to the council would be astronomical. As John Sweeney, leader of North Norfolk District Council observed, Tesco “are too big and powerful for us. If we try and deny them they will appeal, and we cannot afford to fight a planning appeal and lose. If they got costs it would bankrupt us.”(14) Hardly any local authority is prepared to take this risk. Tesco can keep appealing and resubmitting, using its vast funds until it gets what it wants. Objectors, by contrast, have no right of appeal. The inequality of arms means that we scarcely stand a chance.

Once the store is built, we will quickly be deprived of choice. As the first wave of customers peels off and the income of the independent stores declines, the quality and range of their produce falls, driving more people into Tesco’s arms. From that point on, the collapse becomes unstoppable.

The question that occurs to me is this: why should people who don’t live here be making this decision? Why do the planning laws not permit us to hold a referendum? I understand why decisions about essential services should not be made by the community alone. I know that rich villages try to shut out social housing and that local people campaign against hostels for the homeless and mental health units. But in this case we are not talking about essential services. We are talking – or so we are told – about choice. You can already buy all the food you need in this town, including (from the market stalls) much cheaper produce than the superstores sell. By voting against Tesco we would not be depriving anyone of the means of subsistence.

So why should we hand this decision to a remote and frightened county council? The choice should be ours and ours alone, and it should be final. If planning had worked like this, I’m sure that Britain would be a very different country, in which independent shops still thrived and communities still deserved the name. This might look like a battle over diversity and local character. Underneath it is a struggle for democracy.

References:

  1. https://www.keepmachspecial.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/planning_application001.pdf
  2. 2565 square metres = 27,600 square feet.
  3. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, October 1998. The Impact of Large Foodstores on Market Towns and District Centres. I’ve posted the executive summary here: https://www.keepmachspecial.org.uk
  4. Friends of the Earth, April 2007. Shopping the Bullies. https://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/shopping_the_bullies.pdf
  5. BBC Online, 31st July 2009. 19,000 shops ‘closed this year’.
    https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8177502.stm
  6. Jonathan Prynn, 16th April 2009. Every little helps … Tesco tills now ring up £1 billion every week. Evening Standard.
  7. Tesco Stores Ltd, June 2009. Machynlleth: Retail Assessment. Para 3.11. https://www.keepmachspecial.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/retail_assessment001.pdf
  8. Sam Porter, Paul Raistrick, January 1998. The Impact of Out-of-Centre Food Superstores on Local Retail Employment. The National Retail Planning Forum, c/o Corporate Analysis, Boots Company PLC, Nottingham. The NRPF was at the time financed by Tesco, Sainsbury, Marks and Spencer, Boots and John Lewis.
  9. Letter from Emma Hallett, New Economics Foundation, April 1998.
  10. Tesco Stores Ltd, June 2009. Machynlleth: Retail Assessment. Para 7.35. https://www.keepmachspecial.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/retail_assessment001.pdf
  11. Ecodyfi, 2009. Planning application P/2009/0746. Annex B: Analysis of Tesco Machynlleth application. https://www.keepmachspecial.org.uk/?page_id=51
  12. Tesco Stores Ltd, May 2009. Land at Heol y Doll, Machynlleth: Transport Assessment.
    para 6.2.5 https://www.keepmachspecial.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/transport_assessmentment001.pdf
  13. Ecodyfi, ibid.
  14. Quoted by Paul Brown, 22nd January 2004. Secret deals with Tesco cast shadow over town. The Guardian. https://www.guardian.co.uk/supermarkets/story/0,12784,1128488,00.html

8 Comments

  1. George, can you apply to the county council to change the purpose of the plot of land on which the supermarket is to be built? In Poland there are often functions for the individual plots of land designated by the city council, such as for example: housing, park, services etc. If it says “housing” on the map, than you cannot build a supermarket there which is in the category of “services”. Perhaps you could apply to change the function of the land on which the Tesco is to be built to e.g. forest or arable land?

    I fully agree that it is a struggle for democracy. Democracy is not just about elections. It is about people being able to make decisions on their own. Best of luck for you guys in Machynlleth!

  2. Good luck. It’s insane – in a time when we need to be going local, to provide any hope of food security. Have you tried a radio program like ‘You & yours’ with all you info?
    Like any huge corporation, Tesco’s seems beyond the law. I think they earn 1 in every 6 pounds spent in the UK. That is the consumers fault,bottom line. If only the people of you town boycotted the damn thing – that would be the ultimate weapon. Just leave it customerles.

  3. Sounds like a good suggestion from Marcin too! use everything to save your town.

    Fight them tooth and nail, with the worst weapon of mass destruction, constant negative PR on TV. get some journalists in!!!

    Get support from the outlying towns also. If you can get them onside, then part of the stores rationale for opening is gone. The retailers there are the ones who will lose also, not just in your town.

    If the Council have the power to put conditions on the approval, load it up with things that are costly, and will benefit the town.

    Look for some prior rulings on similar issues. I think McDonalds have been prevented from opening for similar issue in some places.

    If it does open, boycott it. Ensure that the council mandates they rehabilitate the land to public park when they close!

    If you really don’t want it, don’t let them think for a second that you will roll over. They need profit daily, and wont risk investment unless they can rely on apathy on your part to give in and go there to buy. They are experts on gauging apathy, you can bet on it.

    good luck!

  4. How ludicrous this whole situation is, I spent over fifty years living in the UK and have seen this situation time and time again. I now live in Australia and the same thing happens here. The town of Maleny, up on the range in the hinterland of the Sunshine coast of Queensland fought hard and long to stop Woolworth building a store there. It went ahead, with an environmental impact and is being heavily boycotted by many of the town’s people. This company is so enormous and has vast resources, that they can keep that supermarket losing money for years, without effecting them one bit. At some stage in the future when new people move in and older ones move on it will start to make a profit.
    There has to be some radical rethinking within our governments to update laws so that we are living in effective democracies and no longer ruled by big business. These huge supermarket companies are becoming the monsters that are damaging our societies forever, changing the character of our towns, causing destruction of the environment, displacing countless small businesses. What is our response, the average punter, we keeping pushing a trolley around those shopping aisles looking for the ‘bargain’, the ‘two for the price of one’ telling ourselves we only have to spend $30.00 and then we can claim a 4cent/litre discount on our fuel! As a species I sometimes think we are heading the way of the Dodo, if we don’t wake up very soon what’s going to be future for our children and their children? ………WAKE UP!

  5. Hi,
    we can spread the word about Tesco. This article is the first snowball to start the avalanche. ;-)
    I know some german Blogs and Forums where i can place the name Tesco with a nice little story (e.g. mentioning the facts you cited). I only heard the name once before i think. Now i know him better. :)

    What about placing flyers with the facts in all the shops of the nearby town which will be affected? Consumers perhaps not often know that they are destroying their own city with their choice to buy.

    Bad publicity is for sure the mightiest weapon in this struggle.

    A mosquito is only a tiny little insect. But it stings and produces an annoying sound! Nobody wants to lie in bed with a mosquito. ;-)
    So, mosquitos to the front.

  6. George,
    there is yet hope!
    I’ve heard of similar situations in Australia where mega-stores have opened in small country towns only to be boycotted by the locals.
    Many of these stores are merely waiting until their contract expires before they up stumps and leave the town; concerted public action can hold up the homogenizing effects of these behemoths.

  7. the above post is so true, McDisgusting closed down in a Sydney suburb because no body went there. Economics always holds true, if you don’t go there, they’ll leave. But you should definitely ask for a material change of use for the land, re-zoning etc or stack the council in favour of extremely restrictive opening hours … try everything and you can outlast the Romans.

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