Is this a vision of Tesco town – and a new look for our High Streets?
Posted on April 26th, 2010
Tesco is in the news today because of plans to build little ‘Tesco villages’ for people who like Tesco so much that they can not only shop and bank in Tesco and earn Clubcard points but they can live in Tesco houses, presumably paid for with Tesco mortgages, wired with Tesco broadband and discuss Tesco house prices over Tesco ready meals with their Tesco-loving neighbours and Tesco, Tesco, Tesco.
Reactions to the proposal have been mixed.
The Telegraph suggests the plans will make Tesco more powerful than the government.
The Wall Street Journal, however, describes it as one of those win-win situations between business and planners, quoting a Tesco spokesman who says that, anyway, they’ve been doing this kind of thing for years.
Tesco, says Tesco, is: ‘proud to be able to invest in these communities and to provide significant numbers of jobs to both the construction industry and the wider economy.’
The Tesco debate will always polarised.
Depending on your view, Tesco is a great British success story, a force for good that gives customers what they want at the right price or it is an unstoppable behemoth that tears up planning rules and destroys local shops and communities.
Whatever the truth about Tesco’s plans, this picture from a Tesco publicity brochure for a proposed store in Epsom, Surrey, is a fascinating addition to the debate.
Click to enlarge
It shows the planned supermarket plus a parade of Tesco shops, including a bakery, a cafe, greengrocer and a couple of other small shops – the kind of shops that critics say are likely to be most threatened by the continuing expansion of Tesco.
Is this a vision of how our towns will look one day? Is this what we really, ultimately, want from Tesco? Does it matter? I think it does.
>> Have your say: Would you live in a Tesco village?
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Tags: New, New Look
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