News is welcome (From Gazette Series)

News is welcome

I REALISE that I may be one of a small minority but I welcome the news that Tesco will not be building a store in the heart of Dursley.

I have spent over a quarter if a century working in the retail sector and have witnessed the way that the centres of large towns and cities have become clones of each other with the same names appearing on the shop fronts, replacing many of the local traders that offered something unique in both merchandise and service.

Of course supermarkets have a place and that place is principally out of town.

Dursley is a small market town and that is the way it should stay. Gloucester, Cheltenham, Bristol and Cribbs Causeway are all within a short travelling distance for that special shopping expedition but it is the rather special blend of shops, both local and small units of national chains, that makes Dursley so different from many towns. It has a butcher, a baker, greengrocer, hardware store, chemist, travel agent, estate agent, newsagent, etc, etc. This is not the case in many towns.

As an example try and find a butcher in Thornbury, a bigger town but one which has two supermarkets on its doorstep.

Tesco is a fine and very successful supermarket chain which offers a huge range of merchandise of good quality and good value. Nevertheless, it can't replace what Dursley has at the moment but it can destroy it.

Mike Blackie Evergreen farm Breadstone Berkeley