Saturday, April 19, 2008

Tescopoly

Tesco Express, Events Square, Falmouth, 23/3/08

Recently, I've been seeing quite a lot about Tesco in the news. In Thailand, for instance, it's suing a couple of journalists and a former Thai MP; basically, just for being a little bit critical, really. Either that, or because Tesco's feelings got hurt: "Ha! Tesco doesn't love Thais,"* said one of the journalists, not entirely seriously; the ex-MP seems to have made the mistake of calling Tesco "aggressive" (or its expansion plans, at least) and getting a figure wrong. He admitted that he'd got the figure wrong, but apparently that didn't help.

But besides suing Thais, Tesco also appears to be: trying to topple iTunes, launching its own degree programme, making tentative attempts at taking over America, and recording record profits (£2.8bn last year). Oh, and they're suing the Guardian too (something or other to do with tax avoidance; I couldn't really be bothered to read it). Quite a list...

All of which leads me to two conclusions:

- Despite the ominous catch-all vagueness of the closing threat, Mr Restall probably got off quite lightly.

- It might be time to post a YouTube clip on here again...



Can't think why, but for some reason, that one just seemed kind of apposite.

IN OTHER NEWS:


Sentence of the week:

"I got a lump in my throat when they were old enough to pick up the chainsaw." The Guardian's Weekend magazine.


*If Tesco is suing over this remark (and it is), surely that means that its management believes a corporation has, um, actual human emotions? Hmm...




3 comments:

patroclus said...

I'm not sure that Tesco's aggressive suing of individual Thai journalists (rather than the organisations they represent) does an awful lot to prove that it does in fact 'love Thais'.

Taiga the Fox said...

I have never been to Tesco. Is that bad?

Occasional Poster of Comments said...

You're probably safest that way, by the sound of things, Taiga :) Although, who knows, they may be set to invade Finland... Especially now Denmark's on the alert.

P: Yep, Tesco might have lost that one already.