Tesco’s rise mirrored that of Thatcherism. Neither is dead yet | Anne Perkins
by Anne Perkins from on (#7JV2)
Unfortunately Tesco's 6.38bn loss doesn't mark the coming of a new world of independent, value-based shopping. It is still a 50bn business with the confidence of the City
Tesco has made a loss of 6.38bn. That's not much less than Nicaragua's annual GDP. It's more dosh than most sub-Saharan African countries can dream of. It is "the official end of the Tesco era," according to the retail analyst, John Ibbotson. "With this huge loss, the decadent retail dynasty of Tesco has come to an end."
Decadent. That's a big word, meaning a state of moral or cultural decline. To some of us, Tesco has always felt decadent, a rapacious giant that ruined high streets, hollowed out town centres and fuelled an economy built on extreme downward pressure on costs at one end in order to sell deceptively cheaply at the other.
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