Changes are afoot at the large Tesco superstore in Abingdon. Parking will continue to be free for three hours but after that there will be a £70 car park charge. There is also 25% off everything at the Garden Centre.
The Garden Centre is closing down.
It has not appeared a core part of the business for some time and has been allowed to run down.
The garden centre would have been closed anyway as part of an enlargement of the main store – a scheme which did not get planning permission, but now it is closing anyway. Perhaps it will just allow more car parking space. Anybody know?
that garden centre is like a time warp – the greenhouse has logos on it that haven’t been used in 15 years!
i recall when the store first opened it was a rather nice centre
It’s the only Tesco Garden Center left, they should rent the building out to another business, maybe some sort of small service station or something
I heard that they are applying for planning permission – retrospectively of course, to make it into a Tesco Metro.
No…sorry, I mean to turn it into a pub.
No, sorry…I mean Sainsbury’s have asked the council to pay for a private planning consultancy to produce a report to see whether a new supermarket on the garden centre will be of any use to anyone. After all…anyone will tell you, the future is Supermarkets.
No, hold on…I’ve got it now…Tesco has got a planning design document drawn up that is to be paid for by local doorstep collections (as the part of the council that would normally decide to pay for these reports is currently on a training course – in Farringdon), the report outlines how the garden centre can be replaced with “a small parade of shops” called “Tesco Street”. The plans are a little hazy at the moment, but this is because the plans were drawn up behind closed doors and blacked out windows – in the public interest of transparent local government, but someone thought they said Translucent. Anyway, The street, a little like “one big shop” will sell different items in a series of smaller shopping units (or ‘shops’ for short) in order to create an atmosphere of individuality and interest to an otherwise stagnant supermarket shopping experience. The individual shops on the new Tesco Street – but colloquially known as “The High Street” will have book shops, florists, cafes, delis, clothes shops, green grocers, butchers, bakers…even, I heard, a candlestick makers. This will all focus around a central open space. This space is to be sponsored by a large insurance company and will be called “The Meerkat Place”. This space can be used to promote local events – or, when everyone is unavailable to come, may have specialist markets. These events are to harness the produce available locally – you know, selling plastic watches, and stuff like that. Coffee isn’t produced locally…so any of the shops from “Tesco Street” will not be allowed to sell their produce – indeed having a fair and level playing field does not produce a competitive market place – or even Meerkat Place. That would be silly. To make even more money for the new “Tesco Street Franchise” although parking for the supermarket will remain free, any parking supplied for the new “Tesco Street” will have to, unfortunately be paid for by introducing a parking fee. But to compensate for this Tesco will be introducing a one way system within the carpark. Although the one way system will cost a lot of money, they’ll only implement part of it and hope it works anyway. Of course, Tesco, being shroud, realise that they will therefore doom the “High Street” to a desolate future, as everyone will be forced to shop in the supermarket and buy poorer quality stuff – but hey it costs less money and you have parking for free – but it does mean that they can ultimately get rid of the “High Street” pull it down and build some flats. And so create a Tesco Living Experience.
They have already bought the domain name “Welcome to London Abingdon – yesterday’s future today”.
Tesco traffic Wardens?? their own cafe perhaps.
Tesco going into the clamping business?? place to store the 100s of clamps they could use, a new revenue stream perhaps??.
extra car parking I believe
It would have been nice if they had converted it into a Dobbies.
Thank you Doozer for a most entertaining read but it has a ring of truth to it too…..perhaps Abingdon could become a twin town with Tesco corporate offices?
Yeah spoke to someone at Tesco today and apparently it will be flattened and made into extra car parking. Sad as it has been there since 1981, being opened by someone famous (Tony Heart?) and one Christmas (while in toyshop mode) played host to the cast of Red Dwarf. Sadly after being built it has been in almost continuous decline, with parts of the outside area, especially the greenhouse and shed part having fallen into disrepair within a decade of having opened. Now it is on its last legs and I guess they had to make a decision whether to renew it or not and as it has always been an anomaly for Tescos and as there are now two garden centres and a pet-shop (They used to have an impressive range of tropical and cold water fish) over the road there is too much competition to justify keeping it open. Sad if inevitable.
I remember when it opened as well. Was it really 1981? Where has the time gone!!!!
i think you should flatten and re place with KFC