Tesco’s should bow out of store wars
On the subject of the supermarket stalemate I am reminded of a cartoon which I believe appeared in the ‘Oldie’. It depicted a building site with a large hoarding bearing the legend ‘Site acquired by Tesco for a new supermarket’; on the opposite side of the road was another building site with an equally large hoarding bearing the legend ‘Site acquired by Tesco to stop anybody else building a new supermarket’.
I should declare that I do not have shares in Sainsbury’s but it does seem to me that the arguments favour a decision in support of Sainsbury’s claim. Sainsbury’s owns over 90% of the site in question; Tesco merely owns the means of preventing access to the Sainsbury site. A further argument in favour of Sainsbury’s is that for those who prefer Tesco there is a bus service from Rye to Tenterden which conveniently terminates close to Tesco, whereas for those who prefer Sainsbury’s there is no direct transport link to Sainsbury’s at St Leonard’s nor is the Ashford Sainsbury’s anywhere near Ashford station.
Logic and the need to resolve the stalemate dictate that Tesco should be obliged to give way.
John T. Smith
Iden