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I take it that ernie doesn't do much in the way of unsocial hours at work; having a Tesco open 24hrs can be useful when your local hospital doesn't have any kind of canteen overnight...
Or perhaps he goes to bed early.
So crikey, you eat more, use more bog paper, buy more pet food, etc, just because Tesco is open 24 hours ? How bizarre. And it certainly shoots my argument to pieces.
Having 4 kids at home between the ages of 19 and 24, I can assure you that 24hr supermarkets sell lots of food in the middle of the night that wouldn't have been bought otherwise - 🙂
Particularly pizzas, burgers and curry, I often get to clean up the fallout before their mother surfaces and we're all in trouble for the rest of the weekend 🙂
I'm not arguing the jobs creation line.
That was the only point I was making. Someone offered supermarkets being opened 24 hours as an example of how they "create" jobs.
Personally I like supermarkets, I particularly like Tesco, including the fact that mine is open 24 hours. But I am not going to pretend that supermarkets "create" jobs, they don't. In fact supermarkets do the opposite - they destroy jobs. Of course whether that's good or bad is another issue.
[i]So crikey, you eat more, use more bog paper, buy more pet food, etc, just because Tesco is open 24 hours ? How bizarre. And it certainly shoots my argument to pieces[/i]
I can't help but think you are being obtuse.
No, I don't use more, or buy more just because they are open 24 hours...
...but what I do use or buy, I buy from the place that is open when I need it to be...
If, for the sake of argument, we accept that there is a finite amount of money available to be spent on such things, what becomes important is where that money is spent; open for 24 hours and you become the most obvious place to have said money spent within.
See?
Convenience and cost wins the argument for me. Ofc we'll all be in trouble if the supermarket chains stop competing against each other and drive up prices but can't see that happening any time soon in a big way (yeah I know the recently got caught at it :p ). If there was a local butcher close to me I'd still choose to buy meat there but there isn't which is a shame but I can live with that for the added convenience that having a large supermarket brings.
As for jobs, I'd expect them to be fairly neutral vs local shops. As for pay, you can't tell me local shops pay staff much more than minimum wage (assuming it's not family run and any profits are put into wages).
The Internet is killing the high street anyway and will continue to do so, local artisan shops will survive but random greengrocers won't and why should they? They're offering something that not many people want or are prepared to pay for, that's not a good business model.