Boycott Tesco, Stround Green Road

nick_m

you can also sign the petition to stop Murdoch taking over BskyB: <http://www.38degrees.org.uk/>;

nick_m

and here's some real Tesco boycotting: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-14048538>;

andy

I think the Avaaz one has the most traction, but it might be the same one: <http://www.avaaz.org/en/murdoch_messages_2/?twi2>;

Eliz

You could go to Budgens in Crouch End instead - according to the Guardian they're starting their own boycott. '11.21am: The owner of a Budgens supermarket in north London has tweeted that he will not be selling the News of the World "for now" and is encouraging other retailers to do the same, my colleague Haroon Siddique points out. It's a franchise so he only speaks for his own branch'

h_phil

I'm not going to act on this impulse for obvious reasons, but is anyone else really curious about what is in The Sun this week and what was in the NOTW at the weekend?

Have they put the story on page 7? Are they sort of covering it and talking about it like it's happening to someone else?

Also (and I feel dirty doing this but thought I'd add a little balance to the debate), I feel that I need to defend Tesco SGR. For a local supermarket it's got a pretty amazing number of lines and has a particularly wide selection of fruit and veg and wines for a shop of its size. I understand the more general objections to Tesco as a company but Tesco SGR seems a particularly well run one. Also boycotting a store because of a rude member of staff in a supermarket is pretty bizarre. One member of staff of the 50 who probably work there can hardly be seen to demonstrate a general policy of rudeness. Those places have very high staff turnovers and if you've ever wanted to avoid speaking to any staff at all, they're the place to do it. Also, if someone is rude to you, tell the manager. If they do it often enough they're unlikely to be working there for long.

I don't think I ever speak to anyone in Tesco (oh how I love those automated checkouts), but can buy pretty much everything I need (unlike many other small supermarkets, including the generally beloved Budgens in CE), whereas in Waitrose I always talk to the staff to exchange recipe ideas and discuss the merits of romanescu cauliflower.

nick_m

@ andy - the avaaz and 38 degrees campaigns are linked. I think avaaz is international, whereas 38 degrees is UK-specific.

Brodiej

This story is annoying me more by the minute. The way things are going i will be boycotting Ford, Halifax, Coop, Mitsubishi, Virgin Holidays just for making it a big deal and pretending to care. Any announcement made by a company that they're taking this stance is purely for opportunistic reasons, nothing else. Even that nobba up in Crouch End Budgens is doing it for the PR. Let the police do their (proper) job, let justice take its course, let people decide on their own to buy the paper of not. And to the advertisers....nobody reads your crappy ads anyway!

andy

*Let the police do their (proper) job* The police have done a great job on this so far.

Emma

Whether or not advertisers are pulling their business for PR reasons or not is moot - obviously it is for PR reasons, as they wouldn't want to be associated with a reviled publication.

But it's not the effect that move has on the public that I care about; print media (and TV for that matter) relies heavily on advertising. If they lose enough big contracts, it would seriously damage them as a business.

How many advertisers have said they are definitely pulling their ads from NI publications by the way? There's a lot of fence-sitting going on.

Ewan

I think Ford, Boots, Sainbusry and British Legion aren't working with NotW for the time being. A legitimate move to distance themselves from the toxic brand.

More important is to halt the BskyB takeover, though I find it hard to believe the NotW were the only ones playing this game.

Brodiej

@ andy. the comment related to some of them flogging the numbers in the first place. Not quite in the officers handbook that one even if it was just a couple of them. @ emma. If its a question of taste and positive association, i think these companies would have pulled their spends a long time ago. The NOTW is unquestionably a paper which clean family brands would not associate with yet they tolerate it because its popular and sells their products. All this is about is cheap publicity and beating up a paper with a lot of haters. To be honest, its a taste of its own medecine for the NOTW. Had to happen sooner or later! My position is that undoubtedly something needs to happen here, they've broken the law and more importantly have overstepped the mark with the public and some of its subjects who thought they had their trust. However.... Every so often this country gets whipped up into a frenzy, we scream for heads to roll, we say its all an outrage, we start a facebook campaign, we send petitions, we boycott companies and their products, our parliament debates it for 3 hours, we spunk £millions on a enquiry to quench the thirst for blood .....and then it goes away and we carry on as normal because eventually the noise quietens, its not in our face every day, and we realise that there are many more important things in the world. .....remember Tony Hayward. Anyone getting upset that he's just about to make a killing on oil again having helped gunge the gulf. Nope, because its not in our face and we haven't got a zillion facebook groups to join. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/17/tony-hayward-vallares-venture-ipo

sincers

"nobody reads your crappy ads anyway!" Having worked in media for nearly 15 years that comment kinda grates a little. Don't get me started on "how advertising does work actually!".

andy

@Brodiej I was being sarcastic. I broadly agree with you, though. It's weird that we're asking people to resign, as if they're accountable to us. Business people only resign if they harm the future prospects of that business. It's not like politics. The way we make people accountable is with law. If anyone has broken the law then they should be punished by it. Good article in the Independent today about how this might all fall under RIPA. This mob justice has left me thinking about a Man for all Seasons. A mob running ahead of the facts, even if it's a well meaning one that you broadly agree with, is still a mob.

Brodiej

@ Sincers. Ha ha. Oooops. Apologies for grating. I just wanted to stick the boot into the firms that are taking this public moral high ground. Start another thread about the advertising thing. That would be a good discussion. I can see both agency and client side perspectives....and of course consumer perspectives too. To work in media for 15 years, i wouldn't expect you to say it didn't work!

R&J

Last ever edition to be sold on sunday, all profits to go to charity

sincers

They think its all over... <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14070733>; Boycott not necessary.

sincers

Ha - no worries Brodiej. I spend my entire life arguing the case, I think I would just end up boring myself if I started a thread on here. I'll sum it up in three words: Cadbury's Wonderbra Meerkats

djmattyoung

goodbye NoW! hello Sunday edition of the Sun! cop out!

dion

when it's gone it's gone <http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/notw/nol_showbiz/1342226/Youre-in-great-Form-Rosie.html>;

Siolae

The domain thesunonsunday.co.uk was registered on the 5th of July. Funny that

miss annie

Yes twitter is going into overdrive about that.

tosscat

*Cadbury's Wonderbra Meerkats* Assuming you mean the gorilla: did that work to sell more chocolate? Really? Our marketing people kept asking our creative agency for a 'Cadbury gorilla' - it was rubbish and it bombed. I think Cadbury's current campaign is shite. Morning all ##:D

sincers

Morning. No, my anecdote about Cadburys is about their strategy for advertising through the war, when in fact, it was extremely difficult to get chocolate because of rationing etc. It was like the ultimate application of Pavlov's theory. Cadburys dominated the market for decades after rationing was lifted. The "buzz" created by the Gorilla, as these campaigns are measured, was enomous. I forget the stats, but I recall an upsurge in sales of their core brand - Dairy Milk - was significant. The successive campaign, with the airport vehicles, not so much. ..V.

Brodiej

BBC News - "Labour leader Ed Miliband said the PCC was "a toothless poodle" Great phrase. I shall use that i a meeting today.

Siolae

Astonished at the stupididty of people who believe the final copy of NOTW will become valuable in 50 years time.

ADGS

I was at the self-service tolls earlier, opposite two guys who, if they weren't already pissed and wired c3pm, were doing a very good impression of it. Now, annoying as the 'unexpected item in nagging area' messages are, I've never thought the voice's gender a factor in that. But these charmers clearly felt their masculinity under threat. "That should be a man's voice!", they began repeating. First in scandalised whispers to each other, then louder in the hope of starting some testosterone uprising, before finally flagging down a member of staff and telling her they wished to make a complaint. Rather than punching or barring them, she told them to go to the website. That is, if anything, insufficient staff rudeness.

abugintheground

I haven't had time to read this whole thread, but...I don't care whether or not tesco is supporting NOTW / The Sun - I'm happy to boycott them no matter what!  Imagine a SGR without tesco..mmmmmmmmmmm<div><br></div><div>(maybe they can just keep their reduced section...)</div>

checkski

<P>Since this thread has been bumped back to life again, I thought I'd just add that criticism of the Tesco enterprise has now reached the Radio 4 News. I didn't catch it all, but the gist was that their stores are a shambles, with special offers and mark-downs all over the place, and in some way just not working. </P> <P>Quite.</P> <P> </P>

ADGS

A couple of weeks back all the manned tills were out of service, so everyone had to use self-service. Initially I wondered if this was some kind of trial for a wholly automated store, but then I realised it was more likely simple incompetence.<br><br>That said, SGR without Tesco? Yeah, great. We can pay more for a worse selection at the street's TWO Sainsbury's instead. Take that, The Man!<br>

chode

How about organising a SG flash mob to go on a looting spree and empty the shelves? Tescos and Sainsburys. Big corporate twats. Always try to support your local shops a bit. I try not to buy everything in the supermarkets.<br>