Tesco opened its new Aylsham store this morning, and someone from The Publicity Works was on hand to witness the first few frenzied customers.
Unlike some local residents, I welcome the store. I’m paticularly grateful for Tesco’s selection of lunchtime sandwiches and salads, streets ahead of anything offered by the local small Budgens, Somerfield and the bakers. Price isn’t the issue, quality is.
But what has surprised me is how many of Aylsham’s small businesses are also welcoming Tesco to Aylsham. One of them is Glen Carr of Jetprint (www.jetprint.co.uk), a small printing industry business that’s been operating for around ten years in Aylsham’s Red Lion Street.
Glen was almost first in the queue, and literally punched the air in delight with both arms as he entered. He told me “Thank heavens that Aylsham’s finally got a national retail ‘name’. Perhaps now people will finally take the town seriously”.
His argument is that small businesses need to offer something different and higher quality than the national chains, not just the same things served in a sleepier way and at higher prices. The presence of a big name like Tesco can draw attention to the difference that a small business is offering, goes this argument.
He was so ecstatic that, entirely off his own bat, he printed off a special t-shirt with the slogan “The best thing to happen to Aylsham in 30 years”. (Now that’s what I call customer evangelism!)
Not everyone was so happy. Overnight someone left a wreath hanging on the supermarket’s front wall saying “RIP Aylsham”. It was gone by morning, so I couldn’t get a photo, sorry.
It occurs to me that Glen of Jetprint is one of the few people in Aylsham whose business is not in direct competition with Tesco. Humm – just a thought!
Why does a town have to have a national retail ‘name’ to be taken seriously? For many of the residents or regular users of the town, its Cittaslow status has far more kudos and relevance than the fact that it sells better sandwiches than Budgens!
I would have thought ‘Cittaslow status’ comes from selling a better sandwich, rather than the other way around.
It’s long amused me that Aylsham managed somehow to get Cittaslow status when all of its ‘tea rooms’ opened AFTER breakfast and closed BEFORE supper, and they weren’t even allowed to put out chairs and tables for diners in the summer.
I’m with Glen on this. Every time I’ve asked an Aylsham shopkeeper for something they didn’t already have, they’ve told me ‘no call for it, sorry’.