A couple of days ago I got a letter from Tesco confirming that they are indeed going to close their Kirkcaldy store. They obviously aren’t bothered about keeping my custom as they didn’t even take the chance to tell me where my nearest Tesco would now be.
When I blogged about this a few weeks ago I got a comment from Colin who thought that Tesco might be persuaded to keep the store open at the last minute – with the kudos for the change of heart going to Gordon Brown, although as he is standing down as the local MP in May that never seemed too likely to me.
I was quite amazed though to see a local Fife Council official on TV who seemed to be saying that ‘they’ were even willing to offer money to Tesco to help to keep the Kirkcaldy store open!! I was gobsmacked by that thought. Much as I want the Tesco store to stay open, for the sake of shoppers and particularly for the staff, I don’t think it’s appropriate for the council tax payers of Fife to be in effect subsidising a multi-billion profit making company.
Apparently the Kirkcaldy store only makes £21,000,000 profit each year. If they aren’t happy with that amount of profit what exactly would they be happy with?
At a time when the council tax budget is stretched to breaking point with services cut to the bone it seems bizarre in the extreme to suggest giving any of it to Tesco. I for one would complain about that.
It would be nice to think that this closure might herald the return of a “corner store” or two – a butcher’s, green-grocer’s, fish-shop, grocer’s, etc. – any prospect of that?
Valerie,NZ,
It is ironic that Tesco and Sainsbury are now concentrating on opening small stores about the size of the corner shops which they originally put out of business. I can clearly remember when that happened in the 1960s as my dad was a fruiterer and he ended up closing down as did his father who was a fishmonger. I think that business rates are now too high for most ordinary people to contemplate opening a small business selling perishables, it’s just too risky.
I think it is sad, that shops are closing. Not sure how that much profit is not acceptable!
Within less than five miles to where I live, I have access to a large Sainsburys, two Tesco Extra stores, a huge Asda. Too much choice springs to mind.
Jo,
My problem is that before we moved earlier in the year we were within walking distance of Tesco, Morrison’s, Aldi and Lidl and we just got used to that. Now we have to drive to a supermarket, or walk to a Co-op.
I just feel so sorry for the staff of Tesco, I was there a few days ago and the check-out woman who is normally cheery and chatty was so down – I couldn’t even risk commiserating with her in case it set her off!
The articles I read said there was 20 million in turnover, not 20 million in profit. It’s sad when a business has to close locations. That has happened repeatedly over time here. Businesses have to have profit targets to survive and stores that aren’t meeting their hurdle rate eventually become a drain on the enterprise…clinging to those can cause the whole thing to collapse. That happens as well. I always feel bad for the people losing their jobs, but you also have to consider how many would lose if the whole enterprise folds.
It’s interesting that people there are fighting so hard to keep a big box store in the neighborhood. Here people fight to keep them from coming in to begin with, trying to preserve their local mom & pop businesses. As Valerie commented, maybe this is the time to go back to the old pre-big box days.
Pearl,
I never know what to believe but I’m sure that the turnover must be a lot more than 20 million, it’s never not busy and is far busier than any of the other Kirkcaldy supermarkets. However Tesco bought the store from Wm. Low a much smaller Scottish supermarket business and they have never been that happy with the actual premises, there is no proper car park for instance. I don’t think there is any chance that Tesco would fold, it’s a completely different situation from Woolworths which closed at the beginning of all this financial mayhem, due to not being able to get money owed to them from other businesses. That put 50,000 people out of work.
I don’t think there’s any chance of going back to small independent businesses here, they just can’t compete price wise. Apart from the staff, it’s people without cars that I feel sorry for, and also the taxi drivers who are always queued up outside the store, 13 taxis were there on Thursday and sometimes there are more, who all must be able to make a decent living from it, they’ll be out of work too and so the ripples spread.