Introduction

Tesco are a huge UK based multi-national corporation, the British equivalent of Wal-Mart.

Castle Douglas is a very small rural market town (population 4000) in the bottom left hand corner/ far south west of Scotland. Since 2000, Castle Douglas has promoted itself as a 'Food Town' with a focus on supporting, via the many independent retailers and businesses in the town, local food growers and producers. More details can be found at www.cd-foodtown.org

In February 2004, Tesco announced that they wanted to build a supermarket in Castle Douglas.

In April 2005, Tesco were given planning permission to build their supermarket.

At present (June 2005) work has yet to start on building the supermarket.

Castle Douglas is in the process of becoming a 'Fairtrade' town.

The purpose of this blog site is to act as a last line of defence against Tesco.

From discussions with Tesco, it is clear that they are worried that any negative impact they will have on Castle Douglas ' would be bad for our corporate image'. Tesco also claim that they respect the 'heritage values' of Castle Douglas as a Food Town and those of the surrounding area - the 'Stewartry of Kirkcudbright', a district name which dates back to the Middle Ages when the semi-independent Lords of Galloway ruled the area through a 'steward'.

Although Tesco claim [ from lengthy telephone converation November 2004 with a Tesco PR person] that Castle Douglas has a national reputation as a 'Food Town' and so would be an equal partner in any marketing attempts by Tesco to use the Food Town theme as a form of 'greenwash', we doubt this.

Our intention is to use this blog to highlight what is at risk here and the damage supermarket giants like Tesco have already caused in other communities.

As part of our year long campaign against Tesco, we have a list of every business currently trading in Castle Douglas town centre. There are 132 businesses on the list. The impact of Tesco on this town will be fully documented.

Furthermore, thanks to Friends of the Earth, Corporate Watch, the New Economics Foundation and the Scotttish Green Party plus much hard work done by the 'Save Our Stewarty Shops ' campaign over the past year, the Castle Douglas Tesco issue has already achieved a strong local, Scottish and UK level media profile - from BBC Radio 4's Today and You and Yours programmes through to an almost weekly presence in the local press (Galloway News and Galloway Gazette).

So far, so good. But despite the best efforts of Save Our Stewarty Shops, Tesco still managed to get planning permission. The task now is to use the resources of the internet and world wide web to encourage Tesco to 'think again'.

To conclude: in the words of the late William Burroughs;

"LISTEN TO MY LAST WORDS anywhere. Listen to my last words any world. Listen all you boards syndicates and governments of the earth. And you powers behind what filth consummated in what lavatory to take what is not yours. To sell the ground from unborn feet forever -

"Don't let them see us. Don't tell them what we are doing."

Are these the words of the all-powerful boards and syndicates of the earth?

"For God's sake don't let that Coca-Cola thing out - "

For Coca Cola, read Tesco. Tesco depend on the fact that we cannot see what they are doing to towns like Castle Douglas and to communities around the world. That no-one has, yet, fully documented their destructive impact.

Well now someone is. So think about it Tesco. Is the tiny contribution your Castle Douglas store can make to your £2 billion/ year profits really worth it?