The Big Tesco Opinion Poll, you decide...

[garycs]

So if the butcher trade is so good why did nobody buy the business? Why can't Polson sell his?

Simple, to buy a butchers shop you would need to be a butcher (or at least willing to train very quickly), if you are a butcher you've probably got your own business, therefore why buy another one?

It is also very unusual for a small business to be sold as a going concern, most people start businesses partly for the satisfaction of being able to say "I built this up from scratch", so a ready made business doesn't have the same cache' and is probably out of reach financially.

[peter macdonald]

The sound of local traders in Wick town centre bemoaning Tescos has become very tiresome .As things stand a lot of people drive to Inverness and do huge shoppings twice a month.That money is lost to the county....
If Tesco attracts people to Wick (along with Homebase etc) to shop then it just might be that those same people will use some of the local services as well .This may just stop the drain of money out of the county and give a slight boost to an ailing and neglected local economy
As for the local shops in the town centre of Wick . They are either specialist or niche market shops ie.Harolds (specialists) ...Sports shop (niche)..Turners(niche) Gunns (specialist/niche)and the bakers in Bridge Street (specialists)
The rest of the shops are chain stores or charity shops

[peter macdonald]

Sorry ,,,,and mcallans Another specialist shop

[katarina]

Personally, if there was a shop that sold truly organic produce, then I would spend my money there. We don't have such a shop. I am not the only one who has remarked on this. Also if I cose to make a special dinner from scratch - I can't buy a lot of the ingredients locally.

Another shop we could do with is a specialized boutique. who wants off the peg clothes that everyone else is wearing?

The drapers tried to stop MacKays coming. I wasn't around at the time but I guess there was a few grey hairs about Woolies.
Oh, and both Mr Polson and Mr MacKay's butchers were busy and doing well. Butchering does not seem to be a trade that young men gravitate towards, unfortunately.
In fact there seems to be a shortage of tradesmen full stop around this part of the country.
Specialise, sell quality produce and a run of the mill supermarket won't affect you!

[Naefearjustbeer]

When tescos come the only shop that will suffer from lack of use by us will be somerfields, We will still buy our meat from the butchers and fish from the fishmonger rolls from the bakers, eggs will be local free range as usual,They all provide quality food that a supermrket cannot compete with. However when it comes to tins of beans, tomato soup, frozen food, bog roll and washing powder etc I know that tesco will be a better option. Bring it on the sooner the better

[Fran]

i am fed up reading objections in the 2Press and Journal" about Tesco coming to wick from people who live outside Caithness. It will bring jobs to the town. A Tesco worker told me they pay high wages and their shelf fillers are higher paid than in any other supermarkets. I hope the Planning committee wont refuse it again. Surely it is up to the people, not a committee. There should be an election!

[champagnebaby]

I am surprised at the one percent vote - why on earth would some one who doesn't live in caithness be against Tescos coming to caithness?

Exactly!

Does it matter what we think anyway??? If it's coming it's coming and we'll just have to see how it goes, no point sitting on here greeting about what might happen.

Personally i'm sick of hearing about it and i wish it was here and that was that

[Fifi]

Over 2000 views of this topic and only 128 people have voted! That's an awful lot of people sitting on the fence - watch it doesn't snap under the strain!

[katarina]

sorry to bring this one up again, but it seems Inverness has the same problem of shops shutting in the centre because of shopping malls. Or can we blame the malls? Small shopkeepers in Inverness centre, like Wick and Thurso, have to pay extortionate rates. Lower the rates and small shops will be able (just) to exist. so basically - we have the council to blame - not the multinationalists. If they must get money in, tax those who can afford it!

[jjc]

Dispatches. Channel 4. Right now.

"Supermarket Secrets" - should be interesting.

[cullbucket]

Over 2000 views of this topic and only 128 people have voted! That's an awful lot of people sitting on the fence - watch it doesn't snap under the strain!

Or maybe the same people are re-reading the thread - I just checked by going round in circles and put another 5 views on to the counter.....

[hereboy]

Cullbucket - I think you are right ..... there are less than 2000 members but more than 2500 views of this topic and almost 5000 views of one of the London topics - some chiels are just in and oot for a deek....

Just shows you - there are lies, damned lies and statistics, for all we know, maybe nobody wants a Tesco in Wick.... who can really say for sure....?

[webmannie]

Went to Tesco Extra in Abingdon whilst away on business, spent over £200 on clothes for myself and 22 month daughter this trip. Even had to buy a bigger case (28" roller one with a handle @£9.97) to take the stuff home on the plane!!

I can honestly say, 'rock on Tesco's, let's be havin yah'

Mind you me and my colleague looked like Tesco Twins when we went out for nights on the town with our new Tesco clothes.

Imagine what it'll be like with everybody in Caithness wearing their gear!!

[Bill Fernie]

Hereboy is right to question statistics. However I would point out that anyone can view the message board withut being member. So far in July visitors have come from over 54,000 sites. Since each site can have many people looking in - say for example - Highland council, North Highland college or UKAEA each of whom may count as one site but have hundreds of users of their PC's counting as one site. Whilst it is possible to go ain and ut it is unlikely many folk will return to one topic more than two or three times in one day unless they have short memories.
What I can say is that the message board posters are very small compared to readers. Stats for web sites are a fairly inaccurate but that is in both directions. For a huge number of reasons visits may be wrongly counted but there are also many reaosn why visits are not counted at all. I have never yet seen an exact way of counting that takes account of the missed stats but most folk accept that there are likely to be many missed visitors in the stats. I suppose it is similar to newspapers that count readers as opposed to sales where perhaps there might be two readers for evey newspaper sold. No one cannot prove it but it is very likely and a newspaper in a waiting room might have dozens of readers. My wife often points out page on the Internet to me or vice versa but we are not counted only the PC is