ASDA, for example, do this tickled pink thing, and try to enroll their staff in charidee things. Am I just being really cynical in thinking it’s just a marketing ploy, to make the company look nice and caring? Therefore selling more stuff?

The way I look at it they can either:

a) Be corporate arseholes

b) Be corporate arseholes who occasionally do nice things

Having b) is the lesser of 2 evils.

They could sell just as much without doing the good stuff.

is there some sort of government legislation that they must follow?

Can’t say I’ve ever felt dominated by a supermarket

Another way to look at it is

a) Be corporate arseholes, and it’s clear what they are doing.

b) Be corporate arseholes who occasionally do nice things, which are actually very trivial then massively over report it to make the gesture seem bigger than it really is so that next time xxx want to do something there are far few objection as jo blogs is sucked into the market bull shit.

Research shows that employees who ‘fulfilled’ through wholesome activities such as community involvement programmes are more productive, so this is the other motive that will have inspired ASDA to be so generous.

got a link Ian?

Shocking news – just because you work for a big company doesn’t stop you being a nice person and doing good things.

@Kevevs

http://www.bitc.org.uk/document.rm?id=11888

for starters.

Also it’s obviously a facet of employee engagement, so the benefits are a contributor to the benefits outlined here: http://ffbsccn.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/the-roi-of-employee-engagement/

Kevevs – can’t you just run around town shouting, telling everyone how bad they are?

that’ll learn ’em

cheers Ian, that’s interesting.

Can’t say I’ve ever felt dominated by a supermarket

I take it you’re not a farmer or town centre retailer then.

Just corporate gimmick as they are feeling a bit “guilty” of dominating your life.

😈

They don’t give a **** what you think. They can get get tax breaks for investment in charitable projects. They then add a warm and fuzzy vibe to their brand by marketing their tax breaks as community-spirited endeavours.

They pay millions to celebs for the human faces they bring to the presentation of these corporations.

Let’s not kid ourselves that they’re nice or kind.

It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop.

It’s just business IMO.

Or you could look at it as charities getting something out of big business.

SKY have put a lot of cash and resource into the cycling team, and also the sky rides, around the country, but while i say well done, still want get sky on principle.

Then we have tesco giving stuff to schools , and Morisons doing likewise, all very public spirited.

But what really winds me up is the Royal Mail, who sometimes deliver mail, are supporting Barnados, with bits of sticker stuck on their vans, now what benefit do we as service users get from this, sod all, its not as if theyre giving Barnados kids jobs.

so cyclng teams and schools are ok but not kids charities? I despair.

Project – you won’t have to be too upset about RM for much longer once they’ve rebranded as Deutsche Post (what’s left anyway) and tripled the cost of posting letters.

Sky – thats purely advertising in another form

Tedsco – its a way of finding good publicity.

Tescos at al are a scourge on society. They cause serious harm to society in the chase for profits.

I choose not to shop at walmart or “the shop formerly owned by Dame Shirley Porter” because I don’t like the way they conduct business.

cynic-al – Member
so cyclng teams and schools are ok but not kids charities? I despair.

Posted 5 minutes ago # Report-Post

We pay them to deliver mail and parcels not to subsidise some charity, for kids, they are not yet a private company, but a tax payer owned one.

I don’t know all these big business creating hundreds of thousands of jobs wanting to make a profit. How dare they, they should all just pack up and go or do your own mini crusade and boycott them all 😉

I think it’s quite reassuring that there’s someone here that knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

Kuco

Having been on Holiday in the Netherlands recvently it was very interesting to see that the town centres were still vibrant places with independent shops. Why? No tescos. You cannot get planning permission to build a food store outside the town centre or over a certain size.

Teh main reason why our town centres are such dismal place with no variation in the shopping is the dominace of the huge supermarket chains – and they reduce emplacement as they kkill jobs in small independent shops

Some of the marketing and lobbying practices are appalling.

They act as a monopoly / cartel and also drive down eh cost of food to the point at which farming in the UKis no longer profitable while exporting profits themselves.

It wasn’t the supermarkets that killed my local town centre it was the greedy bastards of the council who put rates up so high a lot just jacked in and moved out of town.

Kuco – rubbish.

Yea right thats why I know of two people directly that shut up shop in the town centre because of the rates. But what the f*ck do I know.

The governmnet set the buisness rates, the council only collect them.
Agrees with TJ for once,

Kuco – if the custom was there then shops would be viable. its that the customers are not there because of the huge food malls out of the town centre.

Absolutely terrible – these big chains coming along and giving people a choice of where to shop. It’s a lack of customers which causes city centre shops to close. That’ll be the customers that decided they wanted to shop at the big supermarket.

I do find this whole discussion terribly middle class.

Corporate has NO feelings for the customer until he/sheps buying from them, even then its likely to be contempt because he/she did’nt spend Enough! Lol but True…
and Who pays into the Charities??? yup, Us.

It’s further neo-liberalisation of the economy. Not content with controlling workers while working, Asda appears to trying to control part of their workers’ labour power while not at work.

It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop.

😕 You make it sound as if monopoly capitalism is a bad thing.

druidh – its only when you go to places where this has not happened that you see what we have lost. Netherlands made a policy of no supermarkets and the rexult is more choice as the independent shops have survived

Supermarkests end up with less choice in a locality.

TJ – I say “let the consumer decide”. I know that goes against your Socialist principles, but most of us don’t have the time to be running around a selection of wee shops looking for the latest fancy health fad food.

Well i can walk down the poorly maintained pavement to the rubbish infested town, and look in second grade shops, avoiding the drunks and druggies, shoplifters and idiots,

or drive to the out of town shoping centre wher i have free parking, clean smooth pavements, security staff trained by the SAS,or they think so, non of the above social inadequetes, and large bright shops.Working clean toilets and no pervading smell of burnt chip fat or curry.

Strangely our glorious leaders have decided to knock half the town down and build a huge ASDA, with an undergroud car park on the site of the existing car park, so that means limited parking for the ones who actually drive to shop there.

TandemJeremy – Member

Having been on Holiday in the Netherlands recvently it was very interesting to see that the town centres were still vibrant places with independent shops. Why? No tescos. You cannot get planning permission to build a food store outside the town centre or over a certain size.

Teh main reason why our town centres are such dismal place with no variation in the shopping is the dominace of the huge supermarket chains – and they reduce emplacement as they kkill jobs in small independent shops

TJ – back to your nonsensical rambling top form there. Tesco hasn’t killed the town centre. Many other things have – including rates, lack of investment, poor town planning etc. You cannot simplify something so complex into a single retailer. The Netherlands also has a far better infrastructure given much of it was re-built after 1945! They have less of the historical legacy (roads too small for trucks to deliver etc) than we do. AS usual, you oversimplify to make your own point against something you don’t like.

http://www.tescofarming.com/v2/tsdp.asp
http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2010/03/30/120577/Tesco-unveils-new-farmgate-milk-price.htm

Links seem pretty reasonable practice to me.

A bit of a conflict between the supermarket supporters here……..druidh says town centre shopping is for “terribly middle-class” shoppers, and project says that supermarket shopping is for posh people.

So which one is it then ?