Would you like local people to have decent jobs?
Would you like them to be able to afford homes?
Why? One key reason is the relentless rise of the superstore.
How do superstores damage small towns?
Superstores look like local shops, but they're NOT. They are branches of an organisation which is based somewhere else - usually a very long way from your community, sometimes even in France, or Germany, or America.
When you spend money in a LOCAL shop, most of that money STAYS in your community. The shop owner will use it to buy things she or he needs from other businesses - 'the pound goes round', you might say.
When you spend money in a shop which is a branch of a company from some far-off city, or even another country, that money gets taken out of your community.
[Local businesses typically spend 50-60% of their income locally. Superstores typically spend 10-15%.]
How does that affect local jobs?
Superstore jobs are low-wage. Often, they are part-time - superstores like being able to get rid of their staff in a hurry if they need to, which is harder to do with full-time staff.
Think of it like this - your community only eats a certain amount of food. When a superstore moves in, you don't suddenly start eating more. For the superstore to make a profit (which is by law the only thing they care about), the shops you USED to buy your food from have to make a loss.
In many towns, when the local butcher goes out of business, he or she ends up working in the meat section of the new superstore - on a much lower salary. This is the general effect a new superstore has - it destroys local businesses, and in return offers much lower paid work.
That is how it makes its enormous PROFITS.
Who wins when a new superstore comes to town?
Please, don't fall for the usual lies that get bandied around. Two things all superstores say when they're trying to bribe your local councillors into giving them the keys are:
The first claim is NONSENSE. While they create as few and as low paid jobs as possible, they will destroy local businesses and axe already existing jobs. Independent studies commissioned by organisations like the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and even the National Retail Planning Forum (funded by the superstores!) have shown over and over again that new superstores can often lead to a net LOSS of local jobs. In 1998, the National Retail Planning Forum produced a report that showed that 276 jobs are LOST on average every time a superstore opens.
The second point is true in a very limited way - some shoppers choose the nearest superstore, but very few of them then go on to other town shops, partly because superstores like to limit their parking time to 2 hours (which means shoppers don't have much time to go to other places). Compared with the damage done by the destruction of local businesses, this is NOT a net gain for your community.
So who wins?
You've probably already got the answer - yes, the superstore wins.
They would ONLY come to your community if they thought they could make MONEY out of you.
If your money goes to them, it DOESN'T go to local businesses.
The unpleasant, inconvenient truth is that every time you shop in a superstore, you do a bit more damage to your own community.
We MUST put a stop to this
Cymuned is a housing and communities pressure group which also supports the Welsh language.
We are calling on your Council to refuse planning permission to grocery and retail developments that are not owned by someone who lives in your county.
It's time to ditch the idea that 'pile them high and sell them cheap' is more important than decent quality jobs for local people.
It's time to call a halt to putting the superstore's hunger for money ahead of the needs of local people.
It's time to stop our towns and villages being bled dry.
No More Chain Stores!
If you'd like to see another idea for campaigning on the same subject, have a quick look at SaveOurTowns.org...:-)