Clapton residents should be applauding Tesco
Local residents are protesting over plans for a Tesco on Lower Clapton Road Photo: © Hackney Citizen
Dear Hackney Citizen
The current upset caused by the arrival of a Tesco on the Lower Clapton Road is really misplaced and a knee-jerk reaction to Brand Tesco. The already established local shops have a faithful clientele and their survival cannot be dependent on the arrival of one rival. Those who seek to remain loyal customers can do so and can turn their backs on any new retail outlet coming to the area.
There are hundreds of new flats that have already been built, or are in the process of being built in the Moorfields Park area. A new mini supermarket is, as we understand, also being built on the Lea Bridge Road next to the old Ship Aground public house to serve this development. Are we aghast at this new mini supermarket opening or do we conveniently save up all our antagonism for Tesco? Are Tesco solely responsible for the decline of the individual High Street shop?
Tell us where it is possible to buy decent meat on Lower Clapton Road, is there a good butcher? Clapton’s residents should be applauding Tesco for making a brave move into their area and should be campaigning for Tesco to make its home here.
As to the question of delivery trucks and the disruption they may cause, well it is a main road and that’s what roads are for.
Presumably the residents noticed the road when they made their decision whether or not to live there, not only that but probably saw it as a local amenity. Lorries and roads are there for delivering the goods which we consume in our droves. If people don’t like roads, then perhaps they shouldn’t live on them, then also perhaps they should do away with their congestion-causing, oil guzzling, polluting cars and hold our politicians to account for engaging in illegal wars and mass murder in order to keep the oil price a few pence lower.
Or would the people prefer the extra couple of pence in their pockets so they can spend it on Tesco cava, Tesco taramasalata and Tesco Kettle Chips for sunny Saturday afternoons in London Fields, while the real victims of capitalism and the poverty gap continue to shoot one another, upsetting their bourgeois picnic hampers?
If this is a genuine concern then those who will be directly affected should try and reach an agreement with the retail outlet over delivery times and noise pollution. A new, city sized Tesco will provide steady jobs and training opportunities and bring convenience and increased normality to the Lower Clapton Road.
As an arts organization Decima are well aware of the anti- Tesco bandwagon promulgated by certain anonymous and fashionable artists. We ask with all due respect if shops such as Waitrose, who genuinely offer fresh fish and meat counters and extensive quality wines, have not put far more small specialist food shops out of business up and down the country than Tesco ever have; but then the people who support this ‘agitational’ type of art, and purchase it for their Notting Hill Gate apartments are far more likely to shop at a Waitrose anyway and therefore never raise a fuss about one coming to their area.
Decima will be holding a celebration of the new Tesco opening, mounting a celebratory art show featuring Derrick Welsh and Simon Ould on the day the new Tesco opens, bringing joy and expanded choice to the people of Clapton, those who do not want to come can go and see the anti-Tesco art on the Essex Road,
Tesco is not the cause of hypocrisy and breakdown within our society, it’s a symptom, and if there wasn’t the market for it in Clapton they would not build it. The very same people who are up in arms will almost certainly be going there along with us for cheaper milk, fresher eggs, a greater selection of biscuits and choppier chops.
If these simple offerings are beyond the local shops’ abilities, then we must really ask ourselves which one is putting profit before the customer, as I suspect sourcing ever cheaper and dodgier suppliers in order to sell at a greater profit is near the top of the list of priorities for the local shops.
If people really want to halt the increased homogenisation of our high streets and increased dependence on corporate capitalism then perhaps they should look into changing their attitude and approach towards life in general, instead of this token anti-tesco nonsense. Let them build Tesco and then exercise your vote with your feet – not just in Clapton, but on every high street. And not just in the high street, but in your choice of phone provider, washing powder, methods of transport, community cohesion and even down to the choice of art for your middle-class walls.
David C. West
Alex Chappel
Larry Mcginity
Mark Reeves
Decima Gallery, Old Street
Related story: Clapton residents slam Tesco plans
I must admit, the first time I read this it was with slack jawed incredulity at how anyone could be so far up their own bottom. The way in which it’s couched as some sort of class war – the Clapton Pond bourgeoisie versus Tesco – the champion of the poor working classes. Conjuring up shadowy groups of anonymous artists who produce ‘agitational’ art while spouting the same, tired old agitprop about illegal wars for oil. Yawn. I was also slightly surprised at the naked self-promotion slipped in half way down urging those in favour of Tescos to come to their quite obviously pre-existing exhibition which they’re now presenting as a celebration of Tesco
But then I did some research (wikipedia) into the Decima gallery, and found that:
“Ralph Rugoff in Frieze called them “Neo-Publicists”, as they do not just seek press coverage, but use the mass media as their artistic medium.”
Suddenly it all makes sense – it’s art! Re-reading the article certainly made me chuckle. And good luck with your “anti-Tesco” show – I’m sure the art will be snapped up by the taramasalata munching burghers of Notting Hill to stick up next to that Banksy print of the Tesco bag up a flag pole.
🙂 now I get it. Quite funny, printed.
Probably not funny when your bus (is it 48, or 55, or the 38 perhaps?) is stuck behind yet another delivery on Lower Clapton road, on a grey autumn morning, when it’s raining … and you forgot to bring that handy little umbrella..
Yeah and we want to thank Decima for sharing their weekly Tesco deliveries with us as we certainly couldn’t afford it otherwise. We don’t mind them collecting the points they are nice people even though they live in Islington.
I forgot to add that Decima are located near Old Street, so they certainly cannot be classified as Nimbyist, it’s not in their backyard, it’s simply none of their business!
Just to let you know that the old street address for decima is nothing more than a mail box shop not a real house or home. Clapton is very much in decima’s area.
yes, let it be known, that every member of decima except one lives in Clapton at the moment, and we feel very strongly that it’s important to get a nice piece of juicy meat when you’re peckish, instead of having to rely on a cured sausage of some sort. And it will also be great to have a cashpoint, so that we can all draw out cash and spend it on yucca plants and pavement coffees at Palm 2
We would also like to correct “Tamar” – though we love your post, your idea that our Derrick Welsh and Simon Ould show might be a “pre-existing exhibition” is quite wrong – the idea of a Tesco art show was directly inspired by the imminent oncoming of a Tesco in Clapton, and we hope the exhibition will be the first of many ways in which Tesco can influence our local culture and our engagement within it; far more than the existing local shops have hitherto demonstrated
I wonder if you guys could encourage a Wholefood megastore to open in East London too, thanks to your powerful media influence.
I just find that it is soooo cool when, leaving their shop with an half empty bag containing a couple of ‘organic’ items like toothbrushes and not sticking pans and even the perfectly shaped, out of size fruit and veg you know, unless you are seriously dumb, that you’ve been charged 1/3 if not db the price of anywhere else. It is so boring seeing the shelves in my local shops full of not organic products, like Kenyan bananas and all those disable and scary to watch Asian veg 🙁
Decima’s works should definitely be exhibited in Tesco’s, they are just like Tesco’s products: cheap and not very good.
Don’t you mean Millfields Park?! Show’s how local you are.
Yes tony should have been millfields my error, I do actually live about 100 metres away from it so i hold my hands up to that error. cheers.
Tony – While David C West may well live near Millfields, one of Decima’s directors lives on the Lower Clapton Road itself and another on Cricketfield Road, just opposite the Tesco site. May I also suggest that, as a frequent user of various pubs, cafes, shops, bookshops, newsagents, launderettes, charity shops, round chapels and buses on the Lower Clapton Road, Mr. West’s views on this matter are indeed quite legitimate.
We would like to point out that the posts on this site signed as ‘decima’ are fraudulent and should therefore be ignored. We are David C. West,Alex Chappel,Larry Mcginity,Mark Reeves.
The one and only Decima Gallery, Old Street (as our contribution was signed). None of us lives anywhere near Clapton and yes we only use the media for publicity.
Hi, all getting very confusing, Decima (the offcial ones) see above are not actually representing Decima and nothing to do with Decima. cheers
Decima (the official ones) you are only 25% correct in that assumption, for I am the only one that lives away from Clapton.
Clubcards rock.
there’s a good butchers called ‘paradise halal’ on lower clapton road actually. although it doesn’t do pork obv… but the chicken breast’s well cheap. at least HALF the price of tesco, and fresh every day.
it would be shame if tesco came. starbucks will be next. but yeah i know i’ll only end up going to both… life. tsk.
David Cholmondely West is a bourgeois gallerista who buys his food from expensive organic shops but uses old Tesco bags to maintain his “street cred”. How sad is that?
It’s Pork we want – you can’t get Halal pork. Birchy, that’s not entirely true, our David sometimes uses Sainsbury’s bags too and has even been known to stretch to Waitrose (as a last resort), as even though it’s posh at least it’s still a large chain.
Ah yes! Decima Gallery – as in the “Make Your Own Maddy Porn” element of An Afternoon of Hardcore Porn (utilising Madeleine McCann material). They used images of the missing three year old schoolgirl in pornographic material. The exhibition was branded “appalling and completely insensitive” by many, including the NSPCC.
If I ever get to meet either David C. West, Alex Chappel, Larry McGinity or Mark Reeves face-to-face I’d like to show them (at slightly below waist level) what a real knee-jerk feels like!
Before the “I am Spartacus” spat drives me mad…if anyone is interested in the puerile arguments that the ‘no’ campaign are offering take a look at their blog;
http://www.noclaptontesco.org/tesco-planning-applications-for-144-146-lower-clapton-road/#comments
They’ve now resorted to deleting my (polite and factual) comments.
“Alex” in comment 20 above is not the real Alex from Decima, but some sort of imposter who is trying to hijack our legitimate support for Tescos for his own ends. Obviously he thinks that by spouting off some old tripe about censorship he’s going to stir up some controversy which will drive traffic back to the noclaptontesco.org website. He’s obviously under the misapprehension that any publicity is good publicity.
Don’t fall for it. We at Decima would never do anything like that. Don’t visit their website, come to our latest exhibition instead: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118171951546939&ref=ts
Dear Decima,
Just to answer your question regarding the availabilty of decent meat on Lower Clapton road: there is a good selection of meat available in Palm 2 with an choice of organic meats across the road in Natural and Organic. Furthermore, there is butcher’s little further down lower clapton road, not to mention the polish delicatessen’s cooked meat products.
1. “Metro” supermarket stores are following the Walmart/Starbucks model of flooding the market with loss making premises to force the competition out of business. Once the competition closes the supermarket, large enough to sustain the loss, will close its Metro store and force shoppers into the larger main store.
2. For art to impact upon daily life, art must participate in daily life. The gallery is a ghetto and its contents no more than commodity. Any artist whose work is aimed at supplying exhibitions is a mere labourer with a degree.
3. Never forget Dame Shirley Porter, heiress to the Tesco empire who, after being found guilty of gerrymandering the vote in Westminster and failing to pay her fine cannot re-enter the country. Tesco ethics.
Tesco metro/express store are overpriced, poorly stocked, generally offensive to look at and are spreading across London like a bad rash.
I can safely say that local shops have much cheaper products, these cornershop style Tesco stores carry none of their ‘tesco value’ products and very few of their own branded tesco products. Whereas local shops carry an abundance of discount products and quality loose fruit and veg (not this pre-packed in foam and plastic, over-priced ‘grade a’ crap that tesco supply, for tesco to sell only big bags of fruit and veg in an area so highly populated by young, single people is bordering or wreckless not to mention wasteful).
I have also on the the odd occasion visited tesco for products such as meat (after the butchers have shut) and i found it incredibly hard to aquire all the additional ingredients to cook a meal, there’s always someting missing, which in turn is always stocked at the local corner shop. Their poorly thought out stock and wasteful use of space only encourage people to eat the vast array of microwave dinners, pizza and other junk food they have on offer.
Disgusting, overpriced and actually quite depressing to see this company taking over our city.
Independent convenience stores in London are overpriced, poorly stocked, generally offensive to look at and are all across London like a bad rash.
Don’t forget them selling items well past their sell by date, hiding the cash till read out and short changing customers. Don’t forget them selling tobacco, alcohol and fireworks to minors. Also don’t forgot them making family members work in the stores all day for little or no pay. Great aren’t they