Thursday 29 January 2015

Reversal of fortune

Following an accounting scandal and a dramatic downturn in trading figures, Tesco have announced the closure of 43 stores across the country and the scrapping of plans to open another 49. No doubt many who have opposed the conversion of pubs into Tesco Express stores will experience a pleasing sense of Schadenfreude.

Amongst the closures is the Tesco Express store in Heaton Chapel (pictured), which was converted from the former Chapel House pub and has only been open for about three years. I wrote about it here. To be honest, it had never been a particularly appealing pub throughout my time living in the area, going through a short-lived incarnation as a Tut’n’Shive (often disparagingly referred to as the Tub’o’Shite) and ending up as the Irish-themed and keg-only Conor’s Bar. Few tears were shed when it closed.

However, if we are to believe the narrative that greedy supermarkets and pubcos have conspired to close thriving pubs, then surely all those making this argument will be queueing up to invest in turning it back into a pub. Won’t they?

It’s also somewhat ironic how people campaign against Tesco coming to their area, but then many of the same people complain about the loss of jobs when they close a store.

6 comments:

  1. We have enough pubs and not enough places selling cheap slabs of lout. Save our community Tescos!

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  2. Its temporary incarnation may have been enough to get rid of the bad image that pubs struggle to shake off. But it looks too big for someone to reopen as a primarily wet led pub. Harvester or the like may be OK but is it the sort of location for essentially a big family restaurant?

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  3. I don't think there is a conspiracy but I do think that Tesco and most pub companies are greedy

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  4. @Rob - I'd say most of the pubs that have ended up being converted to supermarkets have actually in the current era found themselves too big for the trade on offer in their location.

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  5. but this is one of the daft things about the planning laws around pubs, Tesco didnt need planning permission to turn the pub to a shop.

    but anyone wanting to switch it back from shop to pub would now need to apply for planning permission.





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  6. List it as an asset of community value! It must not be turned into a pub without the community consent!

    We cannot have capricious capitalists maximizing the value if their assets by altering the uses of them and creating wealth. We cannot have an economy that responds to changes in consumer behaviour. Consumers must do as their told. Buildings must remain what they started of as! Can't we have a community committee of corrupt union shop stewards and ex teachers deciding what's what?

    ReplyDelete

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