From a feature in yesterday’s Guardian…
And from the BBC today…
I feel quite guilty about Beano’s… I used to go there quite regularly, and although I didn’t buy much (I bought more from 101 Records, another sadly missed independent shop nearby) I was certainly “browsing with intent”. The easy availability of Amazon and Ebay have made it so much more convenient for me (and, clearly, so many others) to do my browsing online.
And while I can’t really blame Tesco directly for the demise of Beano’s, they are a major influence on the overall changes in our towns. Look at that Guardian quote again… three independent retailers in central Croydon, two of which are soon to close. In case you don’t know Croydon, there’s a *lot* of shops; I’m guessing a large proportion of them belong to companies such as Kingfisher, DSGi and Virgin Group… huge companies who want a finger in every retail pie. It might not be Tesco, but it’s the gradual “Tesco-isation” of our towns.
Another thing occurs to me… while our society is becoming more and more attuned to short-term disposability, Ebay proves that some of us are still interested in looking for tasty bargains among secondhand stuff. But when that interest is almost totally monopolised by Ebay, aren’t they almost as bad as Tesco? Rather than diversifying our spending habits (let’s drop in the obligatory Long Tail reference here!) is the internet contributing to the lazy, bland Tesco effect?
That’s a shame re. Beanos. We are in the process of moving to a small Derbyshire town, and it recently got a Tesco. Uh-oh!
Nige.