Every little helps…
Our supermarkets must surely be the best in the world, offering an astonishing range of products, and usually with convenient car parking – they are central to most people’s way of life.
There are downsides to this. Farm gate prices bear little comparison with check out prices, to the chagrin of farmers, or indeed other suppliers. The supermarkets are very tough business partners indeed.
The biggest town in my constituency, Haverhill, has been transformed in the past decade. It is more prosperous, confident, and outward looking. Tesco wants to build a store very close to the town centre, which is in itself in need of a more diversified retail base, and needs to be more modern and user friendly. I, like almost everybody else, welcome Tesco’s likely arrival. They certainly will do well in a town which is growing so fast. However, there are concerns about their wanting to have 20% of the store’s floor space devoted to non-food items. This may well adversely impact the smaller town centre retailers. Also, there are question marks about how the store will be physically linked to the town centre. In other parts of my constituency, town centre supermarkets are not allowed to sell non-food items for fear of negatively impacting local smaller retailers.
So I have convened a meeting today between the local district and town councils, the Haverhill Chamber of Commerce, retailers and of course Tesco representatives, to see how we can take this matter forward. Naturally, Tesco must feel its investment will be rewarded, but smaller retailers must not be put out of business.
It is a question of the right balance being struck. This may not exactly make national headlines, but it really matters in the real life of one of England’s market towns, and very important to the people who live and work there.