You may or May not Have heard of the Tesco Brand Name But They have Landed on US shores with an adaption of their Tesco Local Mini Mart format

Which Could spell trouble for small storekeepers and strip malls... in a year or 2

I digress slightly and tell you what the current state of Play is over this side of the Pond

Walmart trades as both Walmart and Asda in the Uk they Open stores almost every other few weeks sometimes almost overlapping big towns
and they are discounting items like mad and Local shops are going out of Business and they are Buying Up main Post offices and transferring Business to Their "Shed" or the Lacal sub post offices as the case may be Our local shopping center Looks like a mouth with lots of Missing teeth Boarded up Shop Fronts and People opening for a few months them Moving on (the overheads are expensive) and top male up for the Loss the ripped up a lot of the car parking area and Invite MaCYuk and its KFC to open opposite each other PS They Don't get much trade ! Tee Hee
And Now Tesco, They opened the first ever supermarket I visited in our town in about 1962-3? ever body went there because it was a new thing and food (note!) prices were affordable
Edit...
And They were the First to give out Trading stamps ...Green Shield! This lasted till the 1977 when The owners of Green Shield s started Building Up the Argos Chain of stores and You could "buy" things with the stamps and top up with cash Later on they dropped the stamps and went to all cash sales Had a rival called Index (run By Littlewoods Mail order) but this Folded in the 1990s in reorganisation(end of Edit)

www.argos.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Shield_Stamps

This was acceptable up to the early 1970s when Other Supermarket chain set up around the Country and sold the same Food stuff (at roughly the same Price) to compete with their competitors in the Town

Then Tesco stated selling non food Items in the early 70s ... Bad Mistake a lot of the stores closed down people wanted food not furniture and they concentrated keeping Keeping a few Big Stores open where it was profitable

And In the Meantime Asda Was starting to expand slowly (founded in about 1968)...was popular because they Dotted little "shops" within the store selling Books and household goods

And somewhere after 1980 They decided to expand these "shops" Bringing in cheap clothing (imported of course) which was a big Hit but thet where selling close to cost price that Some people in the Bulk clothing supply trade coudn't compete and closed up
Meanwhile...In Tescoland they observed this Happening and they too Trialled a branch selling discounted clothing alongside the Food also Advertising Posh foods...Ok for the Southerners and They brought back the furniture (More basic than before) and sold it Asda style and It was delivered For free locally and trade picked up sharply
And within a few years they had to expand and the Only way was to open their own "shed"
I don't know where?... and the location chosen was a site with No Asda in the locality
And that started the Tit for tat Expansion across the UK eventually building within sight of each other in the same town
And Asda/Walmart Open subshops wthin its stores Many times larger than the original concept

And Tesco's answer (America you aren't going to like this)to this. Open a Bank, Sell Own Brand Car insurance ,Broadband Provider all with the Tesco Branding...
Changes almost weekly Their Profits are massive Hence they can expand ever outward

They opened up recently in Poland also China
sell the local produce (live turtles or Borscht anyone? )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borscht
Unknown if Walmart intends opening Branches outside of its Heartland?

And where Tesco couldn't get its grips on the Asda empire It came up with The Tesco Express shop which is a cut down Version of a supermarket and it sellls wines /spirits Newspapers even Flowers and running it with a small staff like the German Aldi/Netto/Lidl Groups(who are also expanding westwards) well worth checking out for bargains (Sale days are Thursdays and Sundays)
And Not to be out dne
Many other British supermarket chains have launched this format too closing Unprofitable brances getting the biulders in and reopening as a "Local store" Sainsburys, The Co-op which is a faint shadow of it original Idea...Makes Money out of Insurance and Banking HQ is Just over a mile away from where I live
Sainsburys Also has a Bank too!

PS I don't Bank with any of them

www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,57161.shtml

What happens in another few years in this shopping "war" Who'll be the first to sell cars or Houses? Think I saw Tesco piloting a scheme last year
Friends in the US you Watch what happens and Stores being Brought out or converted to counter this imminent Monopoly threat
Read this search about Tesco some better worded articles this thnd this Posting

Same about Walmart

And now Asda UK

Sample all 3 searches and they say the same thing Yes?

www.asda.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASDA

www.tesco.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco


Ps I Just noticed this Both their Google entries are near identical too
Tesco says

quote:

Also selling books, DVDs, CDs, wine, electrical goods, flowers and much more

and Asda says

quote:

, DVDs, CDs, Games, Mobile Phones, Electricals, Flowers, Photo, Contact Lenses, Travel

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mike,

WalMart's biggest competitor in the US is definitely Target.

Funny story on that, actually. For the last year or so, many people have been talking about the new group of stores trying to purchase land and build here. WalMart tried to put in store #2, but was flat turned down because not even its associates wanted it located next to an elementary school. Target and others, however, has had far more success because they're planting themselves next to the current WalMart. Now this year at many of our "meetings" at WM, we've been discussing this. People asked what all is going in the new shopping center where TG will be. My store manager replied, "well TG, of course, but also a Home Depot (bad news for Lowe's across the street lol), an Olive Garden (a fantastic chain restauraunt), and a Pet Co." To this, everyone replied, "ooo we're getting a PetCo.! Titusville's going 'upscale!' oooooo..."

I dont like Target stores i dont know why but, we don't shop there we always go to walmart..