Thursday, November 11, 2010

First we take Manhattan...Tescos opens on Creek Road

Some may be overjoyed, some may be disheartened, but the new Tescos Express we reported on back in March (here), has now opened, as part of the Theatro development on Creek Road.

A reader commented back in March: "Tescos: dontcha know they feel lonely unless there are a few within walking distance from each other? Rather like the betting shops in the high street, methinks."

If you find yourself using the high street store in the evening for last minute supplies you may be pleased that you'll no longer have to navigate through the drunk gamblers outside Ladbrokes and Paddy Power who represent the main nightlife on the high street now.


10 comments:

  1. Much larger fruit and veg section for peeps who don't use the market...

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  2. They're giving out £2 off vouchers if you spend over £6 - but the studenst have probably had them all now

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  3. I forgot to buy milk in the High Street so popped into the new Tesco this morning. It's quite a bit larger than the High Street branch (it felt like it was almost twice as large but I didn't have a tape measure on me)and the selection is accordingly wider.

    I was the only customer in there though, yet this didn't mean that I got served immediately because there really wasn't much of a reason to spend all day in front of a till doing nothing. If anything, the staff seemed quite curious about what a customer might look like - the shelf-stackers stopped stacking to get a look at me.

    They're open from 7am till 10pm, if I remember rightly.

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  4. Did you get a £2 off voucher Marmoset? The map on the back of the voucher leaflet has a map showing the new store as being in Weatherspoons (the Greenwich end of Creek Road, just south of Thames Street...Perhaps the map maker was given the wrong postcode? (Not deliberately trying to wind you up here!)

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  5. No, I only bought a couple of pints of milk, in fact I'm not even certain I had £6 on me at the time. Though I'd love to see a copy of the voucher map...I've got a post on dozy mapping already writing itself.

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  6. went in tonight. very nice branch - much welcome.

    no self-service tills though so had to queue

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  7. you are all so naive and feeders of our stupid corporate generation. This is Tesco's trying to destroy our high street and suffocate local economy and jobs. They are terrible environmentally and sell mostly rubbish. They treat their customers as potential threats with having a security guard whereas the realy community shops are friendly,healthier and cheaper food and the money you put into them goes back into local community and economy unlike Tesco's who will take it out of Deptford.

    If you want Tescoland then continue to be ignorant of this but if you want realy community with diverse local shops then ignore them

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  8. Arrived at the shop over the road last night - couldn't find a place to lock the bike for all the banners they've stuck up. This evening, arrived from the other direction, stopped outside Tesco - they have no place to lock a bike either. I got off the bike, planning to lock my bike to the railings. And as I walked (I hate walking) past the shop window, I saw the queues at the till. They don't want cyclists, I don't want to wait....

    So I cycled off to the High Street and spent my money there. No queue, easier to lock a bike and I get a ''loyalty'' discount - took me years! - at Housewives Cash and Carry. Sorted.

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  9. I agree with the 4th Annoymous more or less. But can you tell me what this has got to do with Manhattan? You've lost me there.

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  10. Glad you asked, and apologies for being obscure. I took it from an anonymous comment on another blog.

    It's from a Leonard Cohen song by the same name. It goes "First we take Manhattan, Then we take Berlin." If you look it up on Google, you may find yourself involved in a Jewish revenge fantasy, not at all relevant, and most of the lyric reference sites have been taken over by some alien pop-up.

    The lyrics are rather ambiguous, of course. No offence or particular meaning was meant by my linking a Jewish songwriter with a Jewish owned global corporation.

    The idea I took is one of ambition...in the case of Tescos it is global. No small space is neglected in their ambition of total takeover, and complete hegemony of our grocery shopping experience.

    However, the song talks of failure. The first verse goes "They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom, for trying to change the system from within."

    Cohen confessed (somewhere) it was, at the time he wrote the song, his 'geographic' plan to find success as a songwriter, either in New York or Germany. "It's just the voice of enlightened bitterness. [it] is a demented, menacing, geopolitical manifesto in which I really do offer to take over the world with any like spirits who want to go on this adventure with me" (LC 1988).

    It's from the album "I'm Your Man" which is full of great songs and should be in everyone's collection. It's old enough for young people to discover.

    I would never have heard it if my (older) downstairs neighbour hadn't played it at full volume for two months so that when he got bored with it I had to go out and buy it (1988). One of the few benefits of noisy neighbours.

    Next up: "I Predict A Riot"

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