Every little helps...

Well, it's started already. The Tesco-bashing, that is. All over the Sunday Times, the shock horror figure that Tesco snapped up half of all new retail space in 2006.

Straight away, out come the claims that Tesco is taking over the world, leaving shoppers with no other choice about where to go, and what to buy.

You'd think Tesco was so powerful it was ordering the Government to issue Tesco tokens instead of child benefits so those relying on the state had nowhere else to go.

But when you see Asda leading the charge of those complaining that Tesco is too dominant, you have to laugh. Why are they grumbling? Possibly because they aren't the ones taking over the world? A bit rich from a chain owned by Walmart, the company Asda was supposed to copy but which Tesco has aped more successfully.

After all, where do you prefer to shop? For me, it's Tesco every time. I particularly like going into my local branch on my way home from work, at about 11pm, and being confused by the night shift staff for management simply because I am wearing and shirt and tie. If you want good customer service, that's how to get it.

Unlike Asda, where beyond the usually inane greeter at the front door, all you get are the most miserable people on earth, who treat serving you as a favour to you as a customer and whose priority is to get to the bargain aisle ahead of the shoppers when the cheap bread comes out.

And ask yourself, why is Tesco so successful? Why will people travel miles to go to their nearest megastore? And why are their local stores in town, city and suburb centres so popular?

Could it, just possibly be, that they provide what people want, at a price they can afford, in surroundings which don't make you wish you had a machine gun?

Not to mention some canny business deals. In the Lancashire town of Rawtenstall, there used to be just one supermarket: Asda. It decided it needed a bigger store, obviously purely for the good of the shopping communinty rather than its profits. So it spends several millions building a new double-decker store.

And what happens to the old store? Asda sells it off to a property agent ... who sells it to Tescos. Bingo. One-store town becomes a two-store town. The shops on the little high street haven't suddenly closed. The fruit shop is still there, as is the bakery (several of) and the market, twice a week, seems as busy as ever.

Tesco isn't going to kill off the world with its clout. It won't kill off the little store if the little store realises that it has to raise its game and make personal service count over discount prices. And if it makes life harder for Asda, then good, perhaps they'll raise their game too. But I doubt it. Still, when it comes to improving a trip to Asda, any little bit would help!