A meagre protest

Recently we heard news of how a Tesco protest became quite violent as it turned into a riot in Stoke Croft in Bristol. It is termed as a bohemian area and they saw the opening of the store as a risk to small local businesses. I am personally not a big fan of such type of rioting as usually innocent people get hurt and it usually doesn't really achieve must. Yet I find myself sympathising with the cause as a new Tesco Express opens in the Merchant City. It's not even the fact that I now have a choice of maybe 5 or 6 Tesco's I can now go to all within scarily close proximity to each other it's the fact that my local greengrocer probably closed it's doors because of it! It had something special by being able to go there and buy my fresh bread. I even blogged about it! Yes you may argue that Tesco do fresh bread but pity you because it is certainly not the same. It also had great options for fruit and vegetables. Everyone must agree that just because an apple is the perfect shape, red and shiny does not necessarily mean that it is going to taste good....and that's usually how supermarkets market their products...on the perfect look.

I would argue that now it is the case of "the chicken or the egg", that is, we as consumers now have lower expectations on what is on offer that supermarkets no longer have to work so hard on what they try to sell us. The quicker and the more convenient the better is what sells these days. Cheap usually wins out over quality as well. Can you really compete against a supermarket anymore?

Yet this is a meagre protest, as hanging my head in shame, I shop at Tesco.