Tesco...and The Like!

[scotsman]

HI,no posted for a while!,So tesco and the like have opened up in wick(tesco end nov).25 years too late for a lot of us ex-weekers!.My point is,wheres all the money coming from to sustain these stores?,theres no manufacturing industry to speak of in caithness,no money coming in from exports,etc.And bill and the highland council think there doing us a favour by shoving all these service industry stores at us.Were not selling things that are made in caithness!,years of under-investment by the highland council,local buisness-men with no vision(greedy to the max),and no doubt the end result will be all these stores pulling out in say,4-5 years time.Thousands of caithness people have had to take the road south to look for work(im in england),and thats plain sad!!.The old dominoes nightclub lies in ruins,theres a few building contractors up there in wick,who could/should have the vision to turn it into flats,affordable housing,but will they ? nope,too short sighted.Bill from caithness org says wicks on the up,new roads etc,i think not bill!go get some big manufacturing companies to come up to wick,then you can rest on your laurels.Dounreays workforce cant sustain these stores alone....opinions please cheers scots

[Ann]

"My point is,wheres all the money coming from to sustain these stores?,"

Credit cards? ;)

[willowbankbear]

There are an awful lot of us in Caithness working offshore, so we do wur bit for the ecconomy;) Oh & credit cards of course Ann

[JAWS]

"My point is,wheres all the money coming from to sustain these stores?,"

Credit cards? ;) The same arguement was used when Wetherspoons decided they were coming. I'm still waiting for even one of the disasters predicted then to happen.

"Where will all the money come from?" Perhaps that is not the question which should be being asked.
Perhaps the more sensible question to ask is, "Where is it being spent now?" and I would suspect the answer is round about a hundred miles away.

[dragonfly]

aye, us offshore widows, couldn't get by without our credit cards!

while hubbys offshore, wife will spend more! :lol:

[rockchick]

Have you ever been in Wick or Thurso town centre when they have their special market days, in summer and before Christmas? The place is teeming with people! If everybody who lived up here spent up here all the time, the economy would float...except perhaps the petrol guys who would lose half their dough because folks wouldn't be driving down to Inverness as much!

[scotsman]

spend what? wheres the money coming from?im an ex weeker by the way! CHEERS SCOTSGUY

[Stargazer]

A few years ago you could have asked the same question about Inverness. In fact when Prestos opened in Thurso it was almost as big as anything in Inverness. Now you can hardly get parked in the Culloden Tesco on a Saturday afternoon. I'm sure the Wick Tesco will soon be the same.

I'm sure when they built the M25 somebody asked "who will use it?"

[WeeBurd]

I'm really not sure what you're getting at Scotsman... what do you mean "Spend what"? Our hard earned cash, what else could we spend?

Or are you implying us Teuchters who didn't move south are all still dealing in tatties and neeps [lol] .

[kc]

I think he means where does Joe public and the community get their money with no other big employer like dounreay planned .apart from new stores.

[WeeBurd]

I think he means where does Joe public and the community get their money with no other big employer like dounreay planned .apart from new stores.

Where does anyone get their money, KC, they work for it. It doesn't matter if it's a big or small employer. It's not the sticks, it's a (relatively) thriving community we have here in Caithness.:confused

On a personal level, a reasonable portion of my dosh is spent outwith the county at present, either via internet shopping, or trips to Inverness/Glasgow. That is money that is not currently in Caithness, but may well be if we had the right shops to cater for my needs/tastes.

[scorrie]

spend what? wheres the money coming from?im an ex weeker by the way! CHEERS SCOTSGUY

I had a chat with a local debt advisor a few years ago and he told me that debt was a huge growth area in Caithness at that time. I would imagine that not much has changed. Of course we all have debt of some sort owing but the difference comes when it cannot be cleared at the end of the month and people have to turn to those who offer "restructuring" of your debt. Of course for "restructuring" you simply have to substitute the word "spread" and then pretend that 300 months is not as long as it sounds. I remember a spoof advert for Vorderman Loans where the Countdown Goddess encouraged you to "Borrow what I earn in an afternoon and spend the rest of your life paying it off"

I think that this is the angle Scotsman may be coming from here. If we are to sustain a new "Giant" in the area then the money either has to come at the expense of existing business or from fresh consumers. Otherwise we will have to increase our budget by wielding our flexible "friend"

Perhaps, rather than the wartime ARP Wardens, we will now see APR Wardens patrolling the Supermarkets wearing adapted helmets? "Excuse me Madam, are you sure that purchase is strictly necessary? There is a war on you know!!"

[grumpyhippo]

The money's out there somewhere. Tescos have not grown to the size that they have by doing charity work in towns like Wick. They will have researched the market potential in detail before even considering building in the far north. Thirty years ago Tescos was at down heal, twopence ha'penny sort of outfit. They've not got to be number one by making wrong decisions and building stores where there's no customers with no money.

[David from Stockport]

Do you know what type of Tesco you are getting ? some do mainly food but the big ones sell clothes tv s and just about everything you can think of. There petrol stations are also cheap if you are getting one of them ,that will be good for you guys last time i was up there petrol was so expensive!
Retail evolveslike everthing else of course the money spent in Tesco will be money that would otherwise spent in Somerfield or the local Spar etc and there will be some losers but if say the local Spar closes then a few months down the line that unit will be say an Italian restaurant or something. I work in the Trafford centre in Manchester and althought its massive and packed to the rafters its been affected by people shopping on the net - you just have to addapt.
As i said on a tread yesterday Tesco are succesfull partly becouse they are ruthless , with staff and definatly with there supplyers who they have nailed to the floor , they are at the moment having problems with there distribution staff becouse Tesco are useing more agency staff ( poles and Russians etc) and staff that have in the past relied on overtime to make up there wages are finding overtime is now given to the cheaper Poles . Also i read a tread the other week on the org from someone who reckoned Tesco had bought a site in Thurso - well dont get to exited Tesco and indeed the other big supermarkets buy up land just to stop the competition buying it they are then happy to sit and watch the nettles grow and eventualy resell it for housing or anything that stops the others useing it.

[scorrie]

The money's out there somewhere.

Sounds a bit like the line from the X-Files.

There is no magical hidden well of money in Caithness, Tescos will expect to take customers away from the existing supermarkets and other businesses in the area. If they have had a look in Somerfield recently they will hardly be cacking the old drawers at the thought of donning the boxing gloves and going into the ring to slug it out with that shambolic outfit. Lennox Lewis v Jerry Lewis!! There is more chance of Jimmy Tarbuck starring in a remake of Saturday Night Fever than there is of Somerfield floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee in the upcoming bout.

For the record, here is where this Agent Mulder thinks the answer lies on the money front:-

http://www.creditaction.org.uk/debtstats.htm