Will you shop at Tesco’s new budget store, Jack’s?

We already have a Jack’s store in our village so we don’t need two but Lidl are moving into my nearest town which currently only has Waitrose, so it’s not good news for them. It will be interesting to see whether Jack’s can really meet their British Products promise and keep prices competitive.

We shop at supermarkets because they are there, and they would not be there without planning permission from the District Council. Without online shopping the elderly and infirm would lose their independence and would be unable to continue to survive in their own homes.

Most rural villages rely upon a small general store that supplies basic essentials such as fresh milk and bread and occasionally an ATM if you are lucky, and in places abandoned by the smaller chain stores such as Spar and Safeway, local people will get together and form a small cooperative shop which is usually run by themselves on a voluntary basis.

Tesco recently opened a small convenience store on the outskirts of our village despite local opposition, so one questions how and why permission was granted by the Local Council when it was generally considered an unnecessary adjunct by most residents. This new venture by Tesco, in my opinion, is a marketing ploy to counteract
the invasion of budget supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi in order to continue to secure and monopolise the grocery marketplace.

I am convinced the future of large supermarket chains lies in online shopping as more and more women with less time to spare, need to take on paid work outside the home to supplement the family income, hence the need to continue to patron the local store for that essential commodity you forgot to include on your supermarket shopping list and which could prove to be a lifeline for most on occasion.

I don’t think online shopping will ever totally replace actual visiting supermarkets Oscar for reasons that you quote, but with more budget competition entering the market from foreign countries, plus an ever increasing threat from online shopping, footfall is bound to decrease in the larger stores, affecting their overhead expenditure and ultimately their profit margins.

Tesco are aware of this threat which is one of their reasons for introducing ‘Jack’s’ to ensure a continuing comprehensive and lucrative share of the market. ‘Jumping Jack’s’ seems more appropriate here I think – or maybe I am being a tad over cynical! Trouble is they are now so well and truly established in local villages with their ‘convenience’ shops, the smaller independents are rapidly being priced out of the market.

I have however noticed an increased interest in local farm-c*m-garden centre shops selling local organic produce, which always seem to be extremely busy when I have visited, together of course with the extra lure of their lovely cafe’s with home-made cakes and scones and friendly country folk! Nice 🙂

I disagree with a blanket approach of buying British. Instead, I believe in buying British when we have the best quality product, buying from another EU country when they have the best quality product, and most crucially selling our highest quality products to other EU countries without any restrictions. That’s what the Single Market is about – everyone across the EU can get the best of everything.

I buy organic whenever possible – I assume there isn’t much organic food in Jacks – anyone know?

NO. The prices will go up soon to match Lidl and Aldi. They cannot do what they did to other small independants by having a lot of loss leaders in their convenience stores to put the indis out of business . I boycott tesco anyway. The few examples you show I do not buy anyway and it is easy for them all to alter a meat price for a week or two. The fact is British owned supermarkets want more profit. The Germans work on less and they do of course stock more foreign stuff but all the big 4 buy veg from abroad. I like the German, Greek, Polish and other special and now and again stuff the Germans put in their stores.. I never go to Sainsbury, too dear and so is Waitrose. It may be swanky but why buy say Tea Bags from them which the same brand is cheaper in Asda or Morrison. Snobbish stupidity.

Its all very well to offer “cheap” food, but someone has to pay the price – and that is the farmer or the producer. We owe it to our farmers to save them from the penny-pinching supermarkets who frequently pay pennies to the supplier, reject a high percentage of a crop because it doesn’t conform to some standard idea of size or perfection, and make a massive mark-up on so called “cheap food”. Also, if Tesco can offer cheaper items in Jacks, why can’t it simply reduce the prices in its main stores?

I also notice in the picture accompanying the article in your current issue that every single head of broccoli is encased in shrink-wrap plastic. My local supermarket (not Tesco) always has loose, unpackaged vegetables and I always buy these. They are always cheaper than the packaged vegetables and I defy anyone to tell the difference when the vegetables are cooked whether they were unpackaged and cheap or covered in plastic and expensive. Yes, there are sometimes odd shaped carrots, potatoes that are larger or smaller than “standard” but what do looks matter when you are going to be chopping it up and cooking it anyway?

So Tesco’s are admitting that they have been ‘s******g’ shoppers for years. Now they are telling us after all that they could bring down their prices if they wanted to I am not prepared to support such hypocrisy.

Pointing out that Tesco sells more common UK brands can imply that quality is better, which it isn’t. You have previously shown evidence of the high quality of Lidl and Aldi own brands – worth reminding here.