How Tesco conquered the world

EVERY little helps, goes the ad.

It certainly does for Tesco. The supermarket giant has just helped itself to an annual profit of £2 billion. That's a lot of money. In the past year, Tesco made £38.5 million every week. That's equivalent to £5.5 million every day, and £230,000 every single hour.

Many shoppers may feel uneasy at the thought of a supermarket chain raking in such vast amounts of money, but it is easy to see how Tesco has managed to do it. Quite simply, it offers a winning combination of convenience, value, quality and choice that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.

Tesco and its rivals such as Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons long ago moved beyond being mere supermarkets. Now they are virtual one-stop shops where you can get everything you are ever likely to need, all under the one roof. Clothes, sports gear, medicines - even insurance - you can get them all at the same time as you do your weekly food shop.

But has that convenience and value come at a price?

Some would say yes. Tesco has become such a giant that it now takes in £1 of every £8 spent in the UK. That is a huge share of the retail market - and it gives Tesco enormous purchasing power.

While at present it uses that power to drive down prices - and so benefit the consumer - campaigning groups such as Friends Of The Earth warn that its "unchecked growth" is putting small shops and British farmers out of business.

Tesco isn't about to apologise for its performance. The company is only doing well because it gives customers what they want, a spokesperson said.

"Retailing is very much a democracy," she said. "We give customers what they want. Great staff, clean stores, good quality fresh produce at great prices. If we don't get it right, customers will just drive to another store. You are only as good as your last satisfied customer."

There is no doubt Tesco does give us what we want. But TV cook Annie Stirk, a former promoter of the York Food and Drink Festival, feels we are in danger of losing something in the rush to greater convenience.

"I could not do without a supermarket," she said. "But I do worry about the rise of the big super superstores."

What she misses is the days when you could go into your local greengrocer to be confronted by heaps of fresh cauliflowers and swedes recently plucked from the earth by local farmers. For all their convenience, she finds the plastic-wrapped vegetables that are the staple of supermarket veg shelves less appealing.

Supermarkets could and should be doing more to offer fresh local produce, she says. After all, they manage it on the Continent.

"You can go into a supermarket in France or Spain and find fresh lettuce with the dew still on," she said. "We're not there yet in this country. Our supermarkets should be doing more."

It's not only the refusal of most large supermarket chains to stock local produce that worries shopkeepers such as butcher Simon Simpson, however. It is something more.

The remorseless rise of the supermarkets has killed off many local shops which could not compete with their buying power. And that has affected the quality of all our daily lives, he says.

Simon, who owns Simpsons family butchers in Walmgate, greets many of his customers by name. He and his staff make all their own pies and sausages, and the beef in his shop window is labelled so customers know where and when the animal was slaughtered, and even which farm it came from.

That, he says, is a service no supermarket can match. "Supermarkets are convenient," he said. "But if people want to sit down to a Sunday dinner and say 'that beef tasted like beef should,' you've got to come to a local butcher."

The trouble is, there aren't many left. York used to have more butchers than any city except London, Simon says. Now there is only a handful remaining inside the city walls. And it's not only butchers - it is the same with greengrocers, bakers and almost any local shop. "Where can you go in town now to buy an apple?" he asks.

He is worried about what will happen if and when Morrisons opens at Foss Islands. "We have some very good customers who go to the supermarket for their groceries, then still come here to get their meat. But there are not enough of them," he said.

John Mannion runs what he calls the 'only fruit shop in town' - Mannions in Blake Street - as well as a stall at York market.

He has no argument with the quality of produce that supermarkets such as Tesco offer. But he agrees with Simon Simpson that as a society, we are in danger of losing something because of the growing dominance of supermarkets.

What supermarkets don't have is the personal touch, he says.

"They haven't got the same sort of ambience, where you can bump into somebody, and have a chat, and say 'I'll see you later'. We've lost the individual shops - the small market gardeners, the butchers, the fishmongers - and the days when you could get something on your way home from work without having to get the car out."

He still finds it odd that so many people now go out of town to do their shopping. Local shops you could pop into on your way home used to be the height of convenience, he says. "Who would have thought, 30 years ago, that out on the edge of town would be the place to go?"

Local town centre shops, he grumbles, are not helped by the high cost of city centre parking - not only in York, but everywhere. If M&S bosses nationally had taken the decision to move out of the high street, they might not be having the difficulties they face now, he says.

Tesco isn't about to apologise for the convenience of its out-of-town sites with their plentiful free parking, any more than it is about to apologise for its profits.

Times have changed, the store says - and the days when mums had time to potter around from one local shop to the next, chatting along the way, have gone.

"Convenience is what our customers are demanding," the Tesco spokeswoman said. "People have less time than ever before. Just look at the average mother who goes out to work. They just don't have time to go to five or ten different shops. They like the fact that they can go to one store."

It is not all doom and gloom for those who love the extra quality and service local shops and local producers can offer.

Annie Stirk points out that there is a growing demand from consumers for locally produced food, as exemplified by the success of ventures such as the Farmers Cart at Towthorpe, and the gradual rise of farmers' markets.

Chemist Elliot Goran, who runs pharmacies at Badger Hill and Dunnington, believes that if local shops play to their strengths, they should be able to survive.

He is not too concerned by the growth of in-store pharmacies at some of the bigger supermarkets, because his own pharmacies offer something the superstores can't - personal knowledge of his customers.

As a pharmacist he can offer personal advice to his customers about which over-the-counter medicines are suitable for them. "Small shops have to succeed on the basis of the quality of service, the personal service, they can offer," he said. "If we do that right, we will do well and prosper."

Not many are likely to make profits of £2 billion a year, though.

Why I love Tesco... Jo Haywood sings the praises of her favourite store

WHEN I moved out of South Bank, I left behind neighbours, friends and memories. I even temporarily left a cat that refused to budge from behind the cooker. But there was one thing I couldn't bear to part with: Tesco.

For I couldn't pack it into the van and drag it across the city.

So, for the past four years, I have diligently driven back to Askham Bar - not Clifton Moor, it's just not the same - to do my weekly shop.

I can virtually see Asda and Sainsbury's at Monks Cross from my bedroom window but they don't hold the same appeal.

If it is clothes you're after, especially kids' clothes, Asda is impossible to beat. And when it comes to fresh produce, the fruit and veg lines at Sainsbury's are definitely the tastiest.

But Tesco offers a more rounded shopping experience.

The shelves are always well-stocked - unlike its major competitors - the range is extensive, the prices are good, the special offers are invariably tempting and members of staff are always chatty without sounding as if they are all reading from the same crib sheet (Sainsbury's take note).

I know I should make more use of my excellent local butcher and my lacklustre local baker. I know this in the same way I know I should exercise more and cut down on the booze.

Shopping locally is the utopian option, but it is hardly convenient. Yes, I could get high quality meat and fresh(ish) bread, but I couldn't get the nappies, cat food, bin bags, loo roll, etc, my family needs.

Which reminds me, I must get a jumbo pack of toilet roll from Tesco tonight.

Oh, and some yogurts. And maybe a nice bottle of plonk...

Updated: 10:49 Wednesday, April 13, 2005