Letters: Tesco Greenfield
Below are two letters to the editor giving differing views on the opening of the new Tesco at Greenfield. I’ve reproduced both of them in full. If you would like to respond to the points made in the letters, you can either leave a comment below this post, or send an e-mail by clicking on the Contact option at the top of this page. If you would like an e-mail published on this website then please mark it as a letter to the editor, and I’ll be happy to do so.
The first letter is from Heather Shaw:
“Just wanted to say that it was really nice to go to Tesco Greenfield today and bump into lots of local friends doing their shopping, instead of going into Tesco Oldham and not speaking to anyone.
“It was like village shopping in the old days. Congratulations to Tesco.”
Heather Shaw
The cutting of the celebratory cake at the opening of Tesco Greenfield on Monday.
The second letter is from a Saddleworth resident who chose to remain anonymous:
“The problems re: Tesco are not the lovely donations to local charities on opening – that is very nice and pleasant and kind and all that – it is also a very small item in the launch budget. It can be seen as being a little sinister in fact.
“The more a Tesco employee goes on about ‘community’ the more obvious it is to me that this is not at all their focus in any way.
“Tesco do not care what happens on our local high streets – they will suck them dry like they do everywhere else – all Tesco employees like the manager of the new store care about are profits – for the board of Tesco and of course their shareholders – institutional as well as private. Nothing to do with locals at all. Try and get a local product stocked in the local store and see what happens.
“The big problems will be what happens over time – all you have to do is look at Stalybridge centre – all but destroyed by a Tesco is it? And if you look at the once proud and thriving area of Oldham Road in Rochdale – now desolate, bleak, destroyed by two local supermarkets. My parents made their fortunes there – impossible now.
“Tesco may look like a positive move now – but the real effect of the decision will be borne out locally in the coming months and years. So Mr Wiggett and your mates – do you think you have made Saddleworth a better place or do you think you have made it worse? We are about to find out.
“Also it’s funny isn’t it that as soon as Tesco arrives – the car parking locally could end up with charges – unlike the massive Tesco car park that will be free of course. That should not be allowed to happen. This needs to be stopped right now.
“I smell a big stinky rat there – this very same thing happened in Oldham town centre when Sainsbury’s arrived – now overtly aggressively policed by a private enterprise, forcing people to shop in the supermarket. It does not attract you to local shops – it does the opposite and turns you away.
“So well done you guys who made this happen – let’s see what you have really done! The interviews on your site really ought to be with the local shopkeepers not the newly arrived ‘Big Boys’ who are very good at getting all the publicity they need. Will they surivive? It is very unlikely they all will.
“Saddleworth is special as it is not like everywhere else. Not until now that is.”
Name and address supplied
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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In response to the anonymous letter.
Almost everybody shops at a mainstream supermarket for their bulk weekly or monthly shop. Convenience shops on High Streets are used as named – for convenience often for when you run out of something or need it in a hurry. ‘Anonymous’ I bet even you shop at a supermarket!
Good High Street shops that sell excellent produce will survive that is why despite using supermarkets people continue to shop at local butchers, bakers, etc – as I will do.
Saddleworth is not something special. It comprises old and new properties with a mixed range of people just like most other places. Why you think that Saddleworth people, without personal transport or too elderly or too poor to travel far should not have the same advantages as in other areas defeats me.
The new Tesco and Kingfisher pub has transformed what used to be a disgusting area which was dingy, depressing and dirty. However, I do agree with many folk who think the Tesco illuminated sign is a carbuncle, there is no need for it to be illuminated and Oldham planners should stop it, although knowing what an incompetent lot they are I won’t hold my breath.
Finally you mention the decline of Stalybridge and parts of Rochdale. But isn’t it strange that despite many supermarkets inside and surrounding Ashton-under-Lyne town centre it is now striving with diverse independent shops, excellent indoor and outdoor markets and has a real ‘buzz’ about the place. I wonder why?
I actually went to Greenfield tesco this morning, its nothing special, quite small, a lot of stuff on my list they didn’t stock so will have to buy elsewhere. It was handy to buy my bulky and heavy items, ie washing powder. But as far as fresh meat went there was a poor selection compared to the local butchers. A huge bonus is being able to buy fish.
Its a handy shop that i will use, but not somewhere were i’ll do my monthly cupboard shop. Living in Diggle I will have to get in the car anyway so its just as easy to go to another supermarket. As far as fresh products go, particularly meat i’ll still buy the majority of them from Albion farm shop or Uppermill.
I think it was inevitable really. For me living in Greenfield it wont change much as we have always bought meat from the butchers, bread from the bakers and veg from the green grocer’s and general groceries from supermarkets. It just means now I can do this cheaper (no travel) and quicker. They have a nice range of proper beer which is quite rare to see on shelves in Saddleworth. The co-op and the drink shop are poor quality shops and will suffer because of this.
John has it in one. A lot of people need to start thinking about investing in tinfoil hats by the sound of things. We have a number of superb stores in the area and people will continue to shop there. Tesco will never be able to compete with the likes of Neil Mellors or Souths for phenomenal quality and customer service. However some of the poorer shops, who have not had to worry about these aspects of running a shop because of their ‘captive audience’ will have to up their game or suffer as a result. Just imagine, being able to buy toilet roll without having to mount a climbing expedition over the crates and trollies blocking the aisles of Uppermill Co-op or making an unnecessary car journey to Oldham or Stalybridge.
John makes a good point about those shops that serve us well with good produce (Paul’s Quality meats and the butchers opposite) surviving and those that don’t (co-op, Spar and greengrocers in Uppermill that shuts at lunchtime on Saturday’s!) won’t.
I agree with all that a petrol station is desperately needed and would ask all visiting the store to say as much on the comments forms.
I’m glad to see they are supporting our local Mountain Rescue team, when even the Government let them down (forcing them to pay VAT on equipment but not the RNLI) but it’s true that £1000 is a drop in the ocean and a fraction of what it’s likely to cost to keep the team operational. I only hope our rescue team doesn’t suffer the same way the Archway did and get dropped as a locally supported charity when Tesco have their feet ‘under the table’.
has that chap Frost actually been to Staley Bridge?! Obviously not. And most certainly not the Oldham Road I passed in Rochdale yesterday! No butchers left, no bakers left. Just a few kebab shops and tanning booths. Fancy a tan with your kebab Mr Frost?
If that woman pam de brett had taken the care to read what I actually said she wouldn’t make such comment. I didn’t say Tesco and other supermarkets were not a threat to local shops. I said that if the local shops supplied the excellence that customers required they would survive – as they do in Ashton under Lyne!
pam de brett is obviously a rare woman indeed as she doesn’t apparently shop at a supermarket – but if she does then she is a hypocrite. If anybody uses a supermarket then they have no right whatsoever to complain about the loss of local shops.
Roger makes the point that the shops with good produce will survive but then thinks the greengrocers in Uppermill will not. We have shopped there for years and have no intention of buying fruit and vegetables from anywhere else. We shop at the supermarkets like everyone else for tother things. The produce is fresh every day and is not warehouse ripened like at the super markets. I feel sorry for the owners who have to contend with purile criticism because they close on a saturday afternoon. Small business owners are entitled to a life of their own.
The person who thinks that bumping into a few people you know is like old-style village shopping is in a dream world! of course it’s nothing like that. I like to be able to go into Paul’s butcher and have him say hello and greet me by name. I like that Graham the greengrocer knows I’m a United fan and we have a bit of banter. Does anyone really expect that in Tesco? of course not, it’s like comparing apples and oranges (not warehouse ripened ones though)!
Judging from the same busy atmosphere yesterday in the butcher’s and greengrocers I don’t think any of the produce shops in Uppermill need to worry too much.
It is good that Tesco is supporting local charities but I share your reservations Roger, let’s see how that goes.