I don’t think many of us envisaged the consequences to the High Street back when an out of town store was first opened. Tesco haven’t helped much over the last 20 years or so, driving out the smaller grocer, fishmonger, greengrocer, butcher, off licence etc etc. They’re acting like spoilt brats. Surely they’re big enough to renegotiate their lease on better terms and keep the store open? They can’t even be bothered to give a firm decision about re-employment to their staff.

It’s hard to tell if their presence eventually saw off Approach as a petrol station, but a recent example of their greed is opening their own car wash and valeting service, when there’s already one over the road.
They also don’t seem to care too much about the state of the fringes of their site. Asda staff recently got stuck in to removing litter from the river by their store. By Tesco, there’s an area of water that’s constantly full of litter and often stagnant, and even though some staff chuck their cans and cigarette butts in there Tesco just reel out the “nothing to do with us line”! Very community spirited!

Also, the recent contaminated fuel and the smelly store episodes weren’t handled particularly well. The motto seemed to be deny, deny , deny. I gather that recently someone reported that the store was smelling again and that Tesco have denied that the November complaints didn’t take place.

If they go, so be it. If the store is reoccupied quickly (that’s a big IF!) it could generate something positive and may create opportunities for some independent traders to re-establish a business in the town centre.

Personally, I rarely go in there. In fact, before I moved home, I’d walk past the River Way store to shop elsewhere!

‘Originally’ – not currently

There maybe others on here that did not know that.