Tesco Town

Adam Hewitt • Published 19 Apr 2010 21:00 0 Comments

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YOU don't have to look far to find a Tesco in our town - and it is about to get even easier.

The chain is looking to open an 11th store here, so The Chronicle decided to visit the 10 we already have. It took just over two hours to get round all of them.

Setting off at 9am from Woodley's branch at the Loddon Vale Centre, Hurricane Way, we roved round them all, from the two hypermarkets where you can pick up everything including the kitchen sink to the smaller convenience stores botched onto petrol stations.

A 14-minute drive into Reading is the Crown Street express branch - the most controversial so far. Neighbours protested against it and are still lodging complaints about noise and deliveries, but plenty of people use it.

Some have also questioned whether Reading needs the planned 11th Tesco at the former Blockbuster site in Oxford Road.

Shoppers and traders have said more diversity in the town centre especially will draw more shoppers in and keep the area vibrant. Retired Jane Barnes said: "It's not good, there are too many Tescos. We need something other than food."

Neil Trinder, 38, a service manager who lives in Oxford Road, said: "There are already loads everywhere, we need more diversity."

But others are happy with the continued expansion, praising the convenience and low prices, and Tesco itself emphasises that it considers carefully whether a store will have enough demand before opening a branch.

Nina Maisuria, 32, said: "I think this is a good thing. It's very convenient when you work in Oxford Road because otherwise you have to walk into town to eat lunch."

Between the railway and the River Thames in Napier Road lies one of Tesco's two behemoths where clothes, a café, a petrol station, a pharmacy, an optician, a bureau de change, homeware aisles and electronics wrestle for space with good old groceries.

A short hop from there is one of the town's three Esso petrol station tie-ups, in Caversham's Church Street, seven minutes from a similar venture at Buckingham Drive in Emmer Green. Reading Borough Council sold the freehold for this site for £1.4m in December.

A quarter-of-an-hour away is Tesco's second Extra store, on the former Battle Hospital site. It will soon become home to state-of-the-art recycling facilities and even has apartments on top of it - but it has proved serious and often fatal competition for smaller shops down Oxford Road which have suffered since it opened in 2008.

The Knowsley Road store, like its Woodley counterpart, is all about convenience and both sit happily at the heart of residential estates, offering just the essentials.

It has another petrol station mini-mart in Bath Road and a small branch in Shinfield Road. The final stop was Market Place, where a branch popped up just months ago, positioned next to some of the town centre's busiest bus stops and biggest offices.

Jake Dean, who works nearby, said: "There's far too many of them already. They have cheaper prices but ultimately it's bad for everyone and there's been a real decline in Oxford Road."

Tesco spokeswoman Melanie Chiswell said: "We would not invest in opening a store unless there was sufficient demand. In an area like Reading, which has a large, dense population, there is demand for convenience shopping.

"If you can make people's lives easier by providing a shop they can walk to and not having to carry heavy shopping bags a long distance then that saves them getting in cars."

- DO we have too many Tescos? Many are just minutes away from each other:

Loddon Vale Centre, Woodley - 9am

Crown Street - 9.14am

Napier Road - 9.31am

Caversham Bridge - 9.38am

Emmer Green - 9.45am

Portman Road - 9.59am

Knowsley Road - 10.10am

Bath Road - 10.31am

Shinfield Road - 10.58am

Market Place - 11.17am

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