They have had the embarrassment of the ‘big price drop’ flop, the worst perfomance of the ‘big four’ over Christmas, the humiliation of their market share dropping below 30% for the first time since they achieved that milestone, a shock profits warning, their share price plummet almost 20%, wiping almost £5bn of their valuation, their UK operations CEO sacked, their local management in a spin and a plague of mice which shut their Covent Garden store.
What else could go wrong for Tesco and its investors? Watching the company is for many of them like watching a slow-motion car crash. Talking of which, Tesco’s online second-hand car sales venture has now run out of petrol and closed. It is the latest problem to hit the stricken firm since it announced a £30,000 gift to London Gay Pride in November 2011.
Whether the Gay Pride decision has brought the wrath of God on the supermarket giant, or whether that ill-timed and ill-thought-out decision was simply a manifestation of a general and deep-seated incompetence, depends on one’s point of view.
The second-hand car business was a joint venture with the established firm Carsite, and began just twelve months ago with much fanfare, hoping to sell thousands of RAC-inspected cars at prices up to 20% below those offered by traditional forecourt dealers. Even at the halfway stage, although sales weren’t as high as hoped, things were still looking pretty good.
So what happened? Tesco said the site had come to the end of the road after it “couldn’t procure a good supply of cars”.
However, a Tesco source said that at the end of 2011, Tesco was only selling 150 vehicles a month, no more than Carsite did on its own. That suggests it was customers who couldn’t be found.
Last month the firm lost a battle when its plans to open a Tesco Express store in Herne village in Kent united the whole village against their planning application, with a local councillor branding the company ‘totally silly’.
Local parish councillor Carol Davis said: “Almost immediately the community was right against it.
“It would have meant the village store would never have survived, and that would be a tragedy. It was in totally wrong position, they are totally silly – why they ever considered it I don’t know.”
When Tesco launched its £30,000 donation to London Gay Pride, we put up an article with the headline: Prayer will humble proud Tesco. We called for a boycott and our members and friends began giving out leaflets at Tesco stores encouraging others to boycott to store in the run-up to Christmas.
Those prayers, backed up by our actions, certainly seem to have been answered in dramatic fashion.
Tesco and the £30,000 Gay Pride donation; what you can do:
1 Pray that God will send repentance into the Tesco boardroom, and that they will reverse their grant to gay pride..
2 In the meantime, Boycott Tesco and encourage others to do the same.
3 Mount a witness with banners and/or give leaflets out to shoppers outside Tesco’s high street stores ‘Tesco Direct’ (they can ask you to leave their car park, but you have every right to witness on the street). Contact us for leaflets on 01994 484544 or email info@christianvoice.org.uk (there is a spam arrest filter if you have not emailed us before). The text of the LEAFLET is HERE Always go in pairs or a group, not alone.
4 Email/write to the Tesco Group Chief Executive, Philip Clark, philip.clarke@tesco.com. You can also write to their new Chairman, Sir Richard Broadbent, at New Tesco House, Delamare Rd, Cheshunt, Herts, EN8 9SL. His email seems to be: richard.broadbent@tesco.com. Ask them what their policy is regarding freedom of speech and what advice they have given or will be giving to branch managers who have Christians leafleting outside their stores.
5 Sign our petition ‘Boycott Tesco’.
6 If you do not receive our monthly newsletter, Join Christian Voice!
Previous related stories in www.ChristianVoice.org.uk:
28/03/2012 Tesco – now it’s mice infestations
23/03/2012 Tesco run to police over leaflets
07/03/2012 Christian ‘Not Guilty’ in Stonewall email case
10/02/2012 Taunton Preacher ‘Not Guilty’
12/01/2012 Shares dive as Tesco sales slump
06/01/2012 TESCO – from the horse’s mouth
03/01/2012 Tesco rattled by Christian Voice campaign
20/12/2012 Tesco Head is Anti-Christian Bigot
18/11/2012 Where it all started: Prayer will humble proud Tesco
The experience of Herne Village is not unique. There have been many accounts of communities protesting over a new supermarket, which would take business away from local shops, and the offending store was nearly always Tesco. Some of these protests happened years ago, long before Tesco started supporting Gay Pride.
But why was it Tesco that bore the brunt of the protests ?
A few years ago, Tesco went through a very rapid expansion. Nearly every new store was a Tesco.
Local people were saying that they already had 3 or 4 Tescos so why do they need another one.
Competition from another large supermarket is better than no competition, as it provides some choice for shoppers.
Some stores were sited in unsuitable places, where huge delivery lorries had to negotiate narrow suburban streets.
Tesco just didn’t care.
Tesco became more arrogant each year until they appointed a homosexual atheist to senior management.
Now they are paying the price.
They appointed a homosexual who was also an athiest? That truly is the height of arrogance. A straight non-believer or a gay theist would have been bad enough, but both is beyond the pale.
If what you’re suggesting is true, Stephen, it highlights what a nasty, spiteful, petty creature your God is. The reality though, is these attributes describe a few people in this world.
[…] Tesco’s announcement in November last year of funding of £30,000 for the event led to a Christmas boycott, followed by disastrous trading figures and a 16% mark-down in their share price. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for the supermarket giant. […]
[…] had already become for many of them like watching a slow-motion car crash. Talking of which, Tesco’s online second-hand car sales venture promptly ran out of petrol and closed in April […]