# BOGOF! To new supermarket on Glous Rd



## Cakes (Jun 19, 2006)

The Gloucester Road is celebrated for all it's independent shops. It's a great place to go shopping, you can hit all the specialist shops in once place at the same time as buying the weekly staples. It's cheap too! I can feed myself luxuriously for the week on fresh, organic, local produce for less than 25 quid. Saturdays see the street hoping with people, spilling from one shop to the next. All the cafes and bars are full and the sociable atmosphere makes the weekly shop a pleasure.

I really value the relationships I have built up by going to the same shops for three years and feel protective of these small businesses and how they will be effected by the WHOPPING GREAT BIG TESCOS that has been proposed for a site next to the north Somerfield.

It might be hypocritical of me to want to protest this new supermarket, because I do use the existing supermarkets, but I really don't want to see another big one get built, especially so soon after the Tesco Metro and Sainsburys Local. It's making me concerned for the group of small businesses that exist in the area and I think I need to act on that.

If there's anyone else who feels the same, there will be a meeting this Wednesday. I want to go to get more informed on the POV of local businesses and to see if it's worth opposing the proposed new store.

Wednesday June 21st at 7:30pm
12 Derby Road
(off Somerville Road, near the north side of St. Andrews Park)

discussion on BIM: http://bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=25039&fontsizeinc=2Array&sc=1

One thought that springs to mind is that Glous Road is not a market with a gap - it's bloody full of shops and supermarkets! Why not got to broadmead/centre? Apart from Spars and Tesco Metro there aren't really any food shops competing for business in these areas.


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## Zaskar (Jun 19, 2006)

People goota shop, so we gotta have shops.  Gone are the days if teeny local shops.  Get with the program.  

The tesco local to me is sooo crowded sometimes, bring em on I say.  Local shops are good for fags papers and chat but doing it all in the teeny shops round here would take an age, be like a never ending hike and cost a lot more.


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## gentlegreen (Jun 19, 2006)

I reckon you're in danger of morphing to fit your reputation Zaskar, was it the mention of Indymedia that set you off perchance, Pavlovian - stylie ?  

Personally I'm fairly ambivalent - since I've had the convenience of a Tesco 50 yards from my front door for the past 22 years.  

e2a :- just seen your new tagline - all becomes clear  

.


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## munkeeunit (Jun 20, 2006)

I'm not against big supermarkets in themselves. 

I am against the deeply exploitative and oil dependent nature of modern supermarkets at every level of the supply chain.

The unfortunate truth that most people don't want to face, is that many local corner shops selling food are no less exploitiative.

Almost all their produce come from huge warehouse supermarkets like macro, which are for retailers only, but which otherwise function with identikit supply chains and exploitative practices to asda and tesco.

The exception mainly being health food type shops which have their own nieche markets in local and organic foods, which I do most of my food shopping at, and partly because it's not dripping so much in oil based packaging.

..........

PS: bit of a tangent, but did you know that a plastic drinking bottle contains enough oil to light a 100 watt bulb for about 6 hours?


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## big eejit (Jun 20, 2006)

The point about the Glos Road is that there are lots of very good small shops, especially greengrocers and butchers selling good, locally sourced products.

Tescos and their ilk use their financial muscle to exploit suppliers and undercut smaller shops. Another large supermarket will surely see the closure of many of these smaller shops, and Glos Road will take another step towards the boring uniformity seen in other shopping areas.

http://www.bogofs.org/


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## astral (Jun 20, 2006)

On Gloucester Road we've already had a Tesco express and a Sainsbury's open in the last six months.

Where are they planning on putting this new Tesco's - between the Somerfield and the Anchor?

ETA- ignore that, I just re-read the first post properly.


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## Callie (Jun 20, 2006)

How many fucking tescos does one city need?  I think theyre getting ready to take over the world.

In that area I don't really see the need for another supermarket, I don't know the Gloucester Rd that well but everything a supermarket can offer is already available and there are already two Somerfields. I guess theyre just gonna set up shop and hope the local shops go out of business.

My guess would be that its too late to stop the tescos being built/opened and the only choice would be to vote with your feet.


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## big eejit (Jun 20, 2006)

Your guess is wrong I think. As far as I know it's not even certain that it's Tescos yet. The land has been bought by an independent company that buys land on spec and sells it on to supermarkets for development.

If enough people point out that this is a fucking stupid idea and make a big enough noise I think there's quite a good chance that it won't happen.


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## butterfly child (Jun 27, 2006)

Callie said:
			
		

> How many fucking tescos does one city need?  I think theyre getting ready to take over the world.



Within a two mile radius of my house, Callie, there are FOUR Tesco's... two 24 hr ones, one of those "Tesco Extra" and a "normal" one.

I don't usually root for Asda (devil and the dep blue sea?) but they've just opened a store in Feltham, and I'm hoping it'll knock some of the stuffing out of Tesco's two supermarkets there!


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## woolly (Jun 27, 2006)

big eejit said:
			
		

> The land has been bought by an independent company that buys land on spec and sells it on to supermarkets for development.



do you know the name of the company?


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## big eejit (Jun 27, 2006)

They're called Storegap apparently. Lots about it here:

http://www.bristol.indymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=25039&condense_comments=falseArray&sc=1

And lots of stuff about BOGOFS - the Bishopston Anti Supermarket group. I've decided to start my own Ashley group - Ashley Resists Supermarket Expansion (ARSE).


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## electrogirl (Jun 27, 2006)

Callie said:
			
		

> How many fucking tescos does one city need?  I think theyre getting ready to take over the world.
> .



Tell me about it! In Broadmead there are 3 in the space of 1/2 a mile. It's bloody ridiculous. I'm moving to Gloucester road on Friday and the idea of another supermarket sounds horrible. As guilty as I am of using the sainsburys over the road at the moment (the clifton down one) I think it would be a shame to ruin the eclectic nature of Gloucester road and also I'd liek to be forced to use more independent stores.


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## big eejit (Jun 27, 2006)

*No superstores 'means prosperity' *

Shops, employment and the countryside in England all flourish if plans for superstores are refused, a report says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5115990.stm


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