The post you are reporting:
Vic can't you see that Sainsbury's and the Coop were just the first stage of this move towards 'superstores'. However where they were of a scale that in some way benefitted local traders not blew them out of the water. OK so you say the shops were closing before we had superstores? Where people starting to eat less? Severe drop in population through disease? Consumption (not the disease) has increased, along with product variety, however of choice of where to shop has decreased...out your eyes!
Paul, I'm not trying to sell anything. I agree the horse has been bolting, but blind acceptance of that horse potentially being your master is just ignorant. It takes little imagination to see that in another 30 years time certain companies will have the power to dictate our choice. This isn't resistance to change, in a desperate hope to hang on to the sort of twee shopping experience obtained in Tenterden. This is realising that the notion of one or two companies hold the monopoly on our physiological wellbeing. Our health, food and primary means of production could in theory be defined by these companies, and to an extent they already are.
Now not everyone enjoys shopping, but large supermarkets ensure that the process is nothing more than a chore. Home cooking is not everyone's thing but supermarkets also deskill and sanitise this process. Eating at a table is not to every families outlook, but the TV dinner undervalues this too. And so it continues; why go to a pub when I can drink cans of lager at home for a fraction of the price; why go to see a band when I have MTV. Slowly all those things that that have any social value disappear to a choice based on monetary value, and by no coincidence these are the very things in life that provide aspiration, inspiration and joy to so many. It's like reducing architecture to waterproof boxes or wine just to ethanol, there becomes a lack of character.
Tesco shopping is a truly thoughtless process, the contrived layout, soulless aisles of stacked goods highlighting things they want you to buy, not things you actually want. Supermarkets provide no social capital to towns where shops do.
I know people are busy and this isn't about me dictating their time. Listen to Roger, support local shops and realise you can't moan about a town when all you do is shop in a supermarket. Paul I'd like to know what Tesco has that is so unobtainable in Dover? Or whether this is actually about susceptibility to branding.