Tropes and tripe

The whining continues with that other bête noire of the whingeing classes, Tesco.  Once again, Comment is Free on the Guardian website is the source and Felicity Lawrence is the author.  I was amused to read in her profile that she is the consumer affairs correspondent for the paper.

Predictably Lawrence rehashes that old trope that Tesco is the devil, or in her words "a weed".  It seems contradictory that she is writing on behalf of the consumer, yet argues in her article that Tesco needs to be "controlled."  She readily forgets the benefits of Tesco, the cheaper food, the greater accessibility and the jobs.  She takes the lazy way out, focusing on its detrimental impact to the small food shop or suppliers.  As with McDonald's, I choose not to shop at Tesco.  The only reason Tesco were able to report such stonking results today, is because lots of people do decide to go shop there.  If they didn't, Tesco wouldn't make so much money, it wouldn't be so ubiquitous and it wouldn't be able to turn the thumb-screws on suppliers.  I also think we shouldn't take everything the suppliers say at face-value.  After all, they too are in business and therefore ultimately out to make as much profit as possible.  Negotiating through the press is a very useful tactic.

Rather than taking such a po-faced and facile position on Tesco, Ms Lawrence should start looking at consumers themselves.  Rather than calling for more regulation which will increase costs and therefore hurt the consumer, she should berate the consumer (her readers) for shopping at Tesco - really take them to task.  Somewhat more tricky than repeating dull, lazy arguments that are fundamentally flawed, I realise, but maybe she'll get a bit closer to fulfilling her job title.

Comments

[Andrew]

As you say it is the consumers choice where they shop. the argument that supermarkets in general have decimated town centers is down to the greed of town councils. Where I live is a small market town, ok so one of the most prosperous parts of the country, but it still maanges to support two supermarkets (tesco & waitrose), two independent bread shops, two delis, a top quality butcher, a chocolatiers and a farmers market. It is all down to consumer choice; even if I do find the profits Tesco have just announced rather obscene it is a British success story that we should be proud of.

[Silverbrow]

Andrew, I couldn't agree more - although you do sound particularly lucky where you're located.