nomillroadtesco.org is live
The campaign to save the Mill Road area of Cambridge from the insipid, depressing big-brand mediocrity that supermarkets bring has well and truly kicked off. Tesco plan to open a metro store on the road, inevitably destroying the smaller merchants and sucking all the character out of the place. Metro is a special code-word that magically reclassifies tesco supermarkets as non-supermarkets (convenience stores) thereby allowing them to bypass the usual competition laws. Tesco control 30% of the UK grocery market - but over 5% comes from metros so the magic 25% that would otherwise incur the wrath of the competition comission is avoided.
The main site has links to all the relevant resources such as tescopoly, indymedia and even a facebook group.
There's an excellent blog highlighting the many problems with the decades-long supermarket chain explosion the UK is undergoing. In fact criticism of Tesco in particular is so widespread it even has it's own wikipedia page. Another site worth a read is tesco employees' own Very Little Helps.
There is a lively protest planned for this weekend at the proposed site, from 10am on Saturday.
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