What has Tesco got in store?

TESCO, currently holding a share of more than 30 per cent of the national supermarket industry, with its nearest competitor Asda holding only 16 per cent, is widely viewed as a money-sucking colossus intent on world domination.

There is a fear among locals in St Albans that a large store in London Road will inevitably bring traffic chaos, that another supermarket is not needed and small traders will lose out.

And hot on the heels has come the news that the firm has bought the former Shredded Wheat factory site in nearby Welwyn Garden City. The chain already has a comparatively small store in St Peter's Street, while the huge Tesco in Hatfield has recently expanded its shopping area.

The question all this poses is should we be scared?

Is Tesco taking over the world and, if so, is that such a bad thing?

Researching Tesco, I was concerned to find that the majority of information seemed to be negative.

There were a number of articles from Devon to Glasgow where residents are protesting against the proposed opening of new Tesco stores, but interestingly there seems to be little to suggest people are unhappy with the branches once they have opened.

If the customers are satisfied, why are people so anti-Tesco in the first place?

Tescopoly - a group which campaigns against Tesco - points out a number of scenarios where individuals have suffered from the growth of the store chain.

For example, farmers are put in a difficult situation as the "big players" dictate prices.

If the farmers complain, the supermarket will simply take its custom, leaving them with few rival companies to supply.

Small shops are also struggling to keep up with the large supermarket chains.

Tescopoly's website claims: "In the five years to 2002, 50 specialist stores including butchers, bakers, fishmongers and newsagents closed every week."

Even more worryingly a report entitled High Street Britain:2015 released in 2006 predicted independent shops will not survive past 2015.

This leads me to wonder, thinking about St Albans, what will happen to the city's market, which sells the kind of unique products that I certainly have not seen on supermarket shelves.

To my mind this will not only impact on the stallholders themselves, but, in the worst case scenario, would take away one of the area's major tourist attractions.

And, to touch on a huge current issue, the environmental impact is massive.

Figures from Tescopoly suggest food shopping car journeys "cost society more than £3.5 billion per year from traffic emissions, noise, accidents and congestion".

This is not to mention the environmental cost of flying cheap food in from far and wide.

In Tesco's defence, the company is making an effort to ease its environmental impact.

It is currently working on a concept in Thailand's Tesco Lotus shops, aiming to open 132 "green" stores this year.

Solar technology, wind-turbines and bio-fuel will be used to generate electricity instead of fossil fuels.

In addition to this, Tesco also aims to put up wind turbines at almost all of its shops.

But to me the most worrying sign is that Tesco staff are not happy.

The website Very Little Helps, purportedly set up by Tesco staff, was apparently created as a means for disgruntled Tesco workers to come together and vent their frustrations.

Shockingly a poll on the website reveals that 81 per cent of staff have been the victim of "bully boy tactics from managers".

The website shows images of a flooded warehouse, badly repaired machinery and pictures that would make an environmental health inspector's toes curl.

The Very Little Helps site also has an agony uncle where staff can ask work-related questions.

But there is a softer side to the corporate beast.

Tesco aims to give one per cent of its pre-tax profits to charitable causes and total contributions for year ending February 2007 amounted to £43.5 million.

The Tesco Charity Trust, set up in June 1987, aims to add a 20 per cent top-up to staff fundraising.

Last year it gave almost £1.5 million to local charities.

Moreover, the company is currently aiming to raise £2.5 million for Marie Curie Cancer Care, its charity of the year 2008.

This will be raised through money from the purchase of selected products, staff fundraising and various other events in the hope of facilitating 125,000 additional hours of nursing care for the terminally ill.

The problem with all this is we would expect a multi-billion pound giant to give money to charity - and let's face it, one per cent is not a lot.

Of course, Tesco alone is not to blame for the impact of supermarkets, but as by far the largest UK chain it is faced with a huge responsibility.

Returning to the initial questions - Tesco has not yet taken over the world, but it does hold it firmly in the palm of its hand at the moment.

Is it all bad?

No, but things could be made a lot better.

Should we be scared?

If you own a small business, probably.

As for St Albans, it seems we have a lot to consider before we willingly let the Tesco development go ahead.