Anti-Tesco

Tesco. I hate the place. This is big when you consider the only other thing I could use the word "hate" for is Manchester United. I don't hate easily. I won't shop in Tesco, I won't even visit it with others who want to shop there. I feel slightly ill at the thought of walking around those long aisles full of fake food. It is fake, have you ever actually stopped and tasted the stuff?

Really? Next time you are eating your Tesco's Finest lasagne or whatever they process these days, ignore the packaging with it's delectable cuisine photography and rich colours and concentrate on the actual product inside. Still yum yeah? If so, you've obviously been brought up on the stuff and never experienced a home-made, fresh lasagne made with care.

My hatred of Tesco has stretched to the appearance of the place. Summed up nicely by Ross Clark of The Spectator:

Suddenly I can’t stand that ghastly blue and red logo, which reminds me of the Co-op in the 1970s. Like the Daily Mail, I hate the way every tree for half a mile around any Tesco store is strewn with fragments of its plastic bags. I hate the smell of its in-store bakery. I can’t stand its speckled orange flooring, and the way all its stores now have to be cheap imitations of Norman Foster’s terminal at Stansted airport.

Link to article

I used to shop at Tesco all the time. It's the nearest supermarket to both my house, my workplace and at one point, my girlfriend's flat. It also seems to be the nearest one to everyone else, which just couldn't be true but it could be that way very soon. In fact I envisage Tesco homes soon. Apartments inside the retail space. After all you can already get a mortgage from them, take out life insurance and possibly Tesco funerals. You can already use points from your clubcard off your funeral. Even in sport, Everton Football Club have agreed a deal with Tesco to build their new stadium on the retail park of a new superstore.

And the clubcards. They try to persuade you that getting 20 cents off a packet of sausages is a good deal in exchange for details on all of your shopping habits which is then used by a company to make a profile of your lifestyle; how likely you are to respond to special offers, how loyal you are to particular brands and then build it into a profile where they can guess what you do for a living, the size of your family, how far you drive etc etc.

I'd rather buy my sausages off the butcher, thanks.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net