Tesco must be doing something right.
- 22 April 2009 08:2819939The Tesco cashwagon rolls on unfettered making staggering unparraled profits. The profit figure now stands at £3.13billion. Stunning! Clearly the British public are having a massive love affair with the company, as Tesco have now reached sales of £1billion pounds per week....yes per week! A staggering performance in a deep recession.
Woe woe and thrice woe for the humble High St which has been totally blown out of the water by these out-of-town giants. In many towns across the UK the humble High St shop shuts its doors forever as Tesco rubs its hands with ever increasing glee. However it is perhaps too late now to dwell on the sad state of High St UK. The galloping horse is already out of the stable never to return and the High St is doomed.
It is doomed because clearly people prefer not to shop in High St's any longer, they prefer to go and get it all under one roof where the parking is free and the shop displays of goods aplenty are gigantic and colourful and attainable.
But, and here is the bit I used to object to with Tesco...dont be fooled into thinking you are getting low cost bargains despite their TV campaigns, because any company making profits on that level are keeping the bargains for themselves. Each item you buy there is contributing to that vast vast bottom line profit. So what kind of a mark up is there on that item you just bought? They could clearly have sold it to you much much cheaper...and still made a staggering return. Just a little lecture in economics there!
email: dover7@msn.com - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
22 April 2009 08:3319941personly i would like to see tesco give somthing back to the community/high street if they are getting that much profit. - 22 April 2009 08:4719943Apparently PaulB Tescos aim is to make each customer spend at least an extra 40p on an item not on your shopping list.Crazy but true.
Tesco have a moral obligation to plough some of their vast profits back into the High Street even if only means opening a Tesco Express in the Market Square for the shoppers that are unable to trudge up to Whitfield Village.
They should also be forced by the local council to sponsor more inner town activities for the young.Purchase and sponsor Park benches for Howard and the less abled.
There is so much they could do especially in these hard times to raise their profile and offer much needed help to the inner towns which they and other conglomerates have helped to destroy.Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter) - 22 April 2009 09:1419945I found this quite interesting though...
English Heritage Blue Plaque for Tesco Founder
The founder of Tesco stores, Sir Jack Cohen (1898 - 1979), was commemorated today (Thursday 16 April), with an English Heritage blue plaque at 91 Ashfield Street, Whitechapel, E1, where he lived as a child. The scale of Sir Jack's contribution to British retail culture is indisputable. His opportunistic and inventive approach to business won him phenomenal success, and the profile that the Tesco brand continues to enjoy today is testament to his acumen, energy and insight. The blue plaque was unveiled by current Tesco Chief Executive, Sir Terry Leahy, and Sir Jack's daughter, Dame Shirley Porter, will also attend the unveiling.
Jacob Edward Kohen (who later changed his name by deed poll, and was generally known as "Jack") was born in Whitechapel, London, in 1898. He was the second son and last of five surviving children of Avroam Kohen, a tailor and immigrant Russian Jew. Leaving school at 14, he joined his father in business; the outbreak of the First World War led to a demand for uniforms and ensured an income for the family.
In 1917 Jack joined the Royal Flying Corps but was demobilised two years later. In order to avoid returning to his father's workshop, he spent his £30 demobilisation gratuity on surplus NAAFI foodstuffs, which he sold in a Hackney street market, quickly developing the selling strategy - low prices and fast turnover - which earned him the nickname "Jack the Slasher". Anxieties about the respectability of market trading were swept away as he found he had the enterprise, self-confidence and stamina to succeed as a costermonger. Before long, Jack was carting his wares to a different London market every day but Sunday. Jack married Sarah Fox, or "Cissie", in 1924; so great was her support of her husband's ambition that the money they received in wedding presents was invested in a wholesale venture.
The creation of the Tesco name was in fact more accident than design. Tea supplied in chests by Mr T. E. Stockwell was sold in packets by Jack, branded with the name Tesco - a hasty conjunction of Mr Stockwell's initials with the beginning of Jack's surname. Sir Jack became known as the "grocery doctor", who was always ready to relieve wholesalers, importers and manufacturers of unwanted goods. The appointment of a book-keeper in 1930 allowed him to concentrate on expanding his operations - until then, he had kept no account books and had a slightly chaotic approach to record-keeping. A deal with Amalgamated Dairies in the same year lifted his turnover to £50,000 following some astute re-branding of a sub-standard product.
At the beginning of the 1930s, Sir Jack's shrewd ability to identify new markets drew him to the new covered arcades serving London's growing suburbs. He rented a stand in an arcade in Tooting, and then built an open-fronted store at Dartford which combined storage space with a retail outlet. In 1932, Tesco Stores Ltd was registered, and the first shops opened under the Tesco name at Becontree and Burnt Oak, and by 1939 Sir Jack had acquired a hundred stores in the London area.
Inevitably, the outbreak of the Second World War halted Sir Jack's plans for further growth, but following the opening of Britain's first self-service shop in 1942, he was inspired to travel to America to investigate the emerging trend for self-service "supermarkets". He found that post-war Britain, constrained by rationing, was not initially receptive to his attempts to reproduce the "gleaming palaces" he had found in the United States. However, the 1950s saw triumphant expansion: Tesco's first supermarket - a store with over 2,000 square feet of trading floor - opened in 1956. Take-overs brought even faster growth in the 1960s, and by 1968, Tesco was the fourth largest chain in Britain.
True to his early principle, "pile it high, sell it cheap", Sir Jack campaigned against resale price maintenance (RPM), which inhibited price cutting; he defended his right to slash with Green Shield stamps, effectively lowering prices. The abolition of RPM in 1964 marked a major shift in British retail and the focus moved firmly from the traditional shop to the supermarket. However, Sir Jack's empire retained traces of the small-scale East End concern with his extended family being involved at every stage of its development. When he retired in 1970, having been knighted the previous year, his leading role was taken on by his two sons-in-law. In his final decade Sir Jack Cohen took an active interest in residential homes for poor and elderly Jews, whilst continuing to exert influence at Tesco. He died in 1979.
Attending the unveiling the Chief Executive of Tesco, Sir Terry Leahy said: "This plaque is a fitting tribute to a man who, aided by an industrious spirit and canny business sense turned adversity into opportunity. Jack Cohen was not only a personal success but helped create jobs and prosperity for many across the country throughout his long career.
"His story started off a simple one, borne of a need to earn a living in post-war London. This impressive man allied with a strong work ethic and a healthy dose of optimism then embarked on a new occupation as a retailer of popular goods - unaware how his actions would help shape the future of retail in this country.
"I like to think that some of Jack Cohen's entrepreneurial spirit lives on in Tesco today as we build an international business and look to serve customers in new markets such as banking, telecommunications and on-line shopping."
Sir Jack's success lay in his ability to identify a retail approach that strongly appealed to the public - he applied his irresistible street-market techniques to the shop, supermarket, and superstore There can be no doubt of the impact that his vision has had on the lives of most people in Britain; since 1995 the company he founded has been the UK's largest retailer, and it is now expanding rapidly overseas.
For further information, contact Helen Bowman, EH Corporate Communications on 0207 973 3294, mobile - 07789927584 or helen.bowman@english-heritage.org.ukBeen nice knowing you :) - 22 April 2009 09:2819947What a great guy - certainly carrying on with his philosophy, perhaps a bit more aggressively.
Roger - 22 April 2009 10:3219948Interesting post - all power to the entrepreneurial spirit out there in all of us - if the likes of Jack Cohen, Richard Branson, Alan Sugar weren't out there getting off their butts and doing it the world would be a bleaker place.
It would appear that the Tesco business plan is succeeding as did the McDonald brothers strange fast-food franchise idea that has gone round the world (just turn around when you are looking at the Sphinx in Egypt and what do you see - KFC!).
Business is business we either learn from it and catch up or die.Oh Boy!, That'll be the day......... - 22 April 2009 20:2319975I just have to add.................I hate Tesco. But then you know that!!!
- Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,709
22 April 2009 20:2619977to answer the title of this thread
yes destroying the high street and eliminating competition as far as they can"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi - 22 April 2009 20:5619982indeed.......................
- 22 April 2009 21:3019984I can only speak from my own perspective. I am incapacited with arthritis etc and have to go into town on my scooter. The pavements are in a dire state, and it is a bumpy ride. Many of the shops do not have easy access for the disabled - there are steps up into the shops, even just a sill makes it difficult to get over the threshhold. Doors to shops are often heavy, and you have to get off your scooter and try to hold them open while you manoeuvre through. If you go to Tesco, there is plenty of room between the aisles, products are on view and well displayed, the checkouts are usually easy to get through, even at busy times. I should like to shop in town, but often I think I just cannot face it. I do a lot of shopping on-line!
- 22 April 2009 21:4719986But isn't that business.... how successful does something have to be before people don't like them.... ??
Been nice knowing you :) - 23 April 2009 07:4219998About as successful as tesco..........
Diana - I empathise with you about the pavements etc - my Mother was over recently and needed a wheelchair for town as the distance was too much and it was a nightmare. Again I have to say DDC and KCC let us down: where is the respect for and understanding of mobility issues that affect so many of the citizens of Dover? I recall, yet again, one local rep blithely saying that people should just walk mto the other end of Pencester to cross the road because that is where the crossing is - no recognition of mobility or other issues, no thought for elders or others with incapacities, just "let them eat cake" attitude. - 23 April 2009 07:4419999And...define success. Tesco has decimated town centres, literally bulldozed through rural communities, stripped individuality from the arena, made billions for shareholders and a pittance for workers, damages the environment. But, hey, it makes a profit, so that's ok.
- 23 April 2009 07:5520002
You appear to be a roll on the forum today Bern.
God help anyone at your workplace who steps out of line. Great posting here and on the Rozzers thread.
Marek
I think therefore I am (not a Tory supporter) - 23 April 2009 07:5720003You are right, Marek - I almost feel sorry for the multitude of eejits I will have to slap down today!! Somebody stop me!!
- 23 April 2009 11:2520027There, there, Bern. It's St George's day, spring is in the air, dear little kittens are being born and gearing up to need rescuing - just let's have a teensy-weensy smile!
- 23 April 2009 12:1920029