Aspies For Freedom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IevLaMPaxM

apparently Tesco chairman President Dratsab was very pleased with the results ;p

heh nice trick i did with the name...

Yeah, effectively its a satire from this british comedy series, its showing how Tesco is getting really powerful..shortly afterwards i found the full sequence, lemme get it..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfSi0D7KESk

Tesco's five hour war with Denmark

Ian

The UK-equivalent of Wal-Mart is Asda.

They're better than Tesco.

Mate of mine who worked at asda once likened the cheery announcements to the UAC mars facility in Doom 3 :p

and apparently wal mart buys out weyland yutani in the alien universe ;p lol

Ian

Poor Denmark it never had a chance.

They haven't invaded Australia yet.

And now Tesco has invaded the US.

Activists to picket Tesco's first US store
By Andrew Gumbel
in Los Angeles
Published: 04 November 2007

Tesco expands its empire into the United States this week. But the British supermarket chain will not be welcomed with open arms.

The opening of the first of its medium-sized markets, to be called Fresh & Easy, is to be picketed by a fearsome coalition of community activists, church leaders and union organisers in LA whose exploits include preventing Wal-Mart from gaining a toe-hold in a black-majority inner-city area.

The Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores has no objection to Tesco's stated goals – to serve impoverished areas, provide well-paying jobs with health benefits and advocate corporate environmental protection.

But the activists are not sure yet whether to take Tesco at its word.

Independent on Sunday

Excellent tubetube clips ian lol
And image of the future.

Its only a matter of time...Ha Ha Ha!!! *diabolic laugh*
______________________________________________
Tesco view on invasion…Ooo sorry, I mean expansion.

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Tesco's true motivation.

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A Tesco battle droid.

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HANDS UP!!
We surrender....we surrender.…!!! Tesco is victorious.

Tesco community volunteers logo

Not according to Asda!

Very clever!   Actually, if Tesco came here, it would provide some much-needed competition to the other big grocery chain stores.

The anti-Tesco activists in LA have kindred spirits on the East Coast. From The Indy again...

Aeolienne, resident of Exeter (officially the worst example of a clone town in the UK, according to the New Economics Foundation's 2005 survey).

Mind the Gap? US resort bans nation's favourite retailers
By David Usborne
in New York
Published: 08 April 2006

The quaint summer idyll of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts, has joined a growing list of American communities taking steps to outlaw chain stores. The likes of Starbucks and Gap are being kindly invited to stay on the mainland.

Proposed by a bookshop owner, Wendy Hudson, an ordinance banning the chains was approved by a unanimous vote of 480 locals at a town meeting last week. It still has to be approved by the Massachusetts Attorney General, however.

"I'm extremely gratified," said Ms Hudson, who no longer need fear the arrival of the book mega-chain, Barnes and Noble. "People saw the balance and need to protect our character rather than this amendment just being another new regulation," she said. "As the country starts to look like everywhere else, this was about protecting our uniqueness."

Beth Simonsis, another year-rounder, concurred, celebrating saving Nantucket's town centre from becoming another carbon copy of Everywhereelse, USA. "Part of the reason people live here is that it's a tight-knit community and we can support our friends' businesses," she said.

The alarm bells began sounding last year when the clothing retailer Ralph Lauren paid $6.5m (£3.7m) for a building on Nantucket's Main Street. Up went the chain's signage and the boutique was declared open. Once inside, of course, its customers could just as easily have been in a Ralph Lauren in Memphis, Tennessee, or Minneapolis.

Happily for Ralph Lauren, the new measure will not be retroactive and the shop will be allowed to stay. But any other shop of its ilk will be turned away. This will mean any shop with 14 or more other branches elsewhere in the United States boasting homogenised decors or standardised menus, uniforms or trademarks. Red Lobster will be kept at bay. But so will Ben and Jerry's.

The stand being taken by the folks of Nantucket is only the latest skirmish in a widening war being waged by communities across America against so-called cloned retailers. Other towns to have passed similar regulations in recent years include Carmel-by-the-Sea in California, as well as Bristol, Rhode Island, and Ogunquit, Maine.

Each town pointed to their architectural heritage and dependency on tourism to justify the measures. Nantucket, reachable by plane or ferry, is an enclave of cobble streets, graceful mansions, empty beaches and holiday homes rented each summer for sky-high prices.

The island's residents might equally be accused of elitism and snobbery. Truth is, however, doing business is a special challenge on Nantucket, which sees its population dip to about 10,000 people compared to an August high of 50,000. Indeed, anyone thinking of renewing their swimwear wardrobe at Ralph Lauren this weekend will have to wait. The shop is still in winter hibernation. So too is the Nantucket branch of Lilly Pulitzer, a women's wear chain. "Closed from Christmas Stroll to Daffodil Weekend," reads a sign on the door of the Pulitzer outlet.

Other chains have made forays into the upscale climes of Nantucket only to close after only a few years of trying. That was the fate, for instance, of a branch of Crabtree & Evelyn, seller of soaps and potions and also of the clothing giant, Talbots.

The small-town manoeuvre to deny berths to the chains reflect the battles being fought by cities across the country against the mega discount retailers, most notably Wal-Mart. Voters in referendums in several cities have recently blocked the opening of Wal-Marts, citing fears that they will harm local businesses.

It is the ultimate irony. Just as the world's population gains the means and the freedom to travel to anywhere, it becomes pointless; anywhere starts to look like everywhere else.

Legoland Windsor gets more visitors than Windsor Castle. The Danes invade our tourism industry, we invade their grocery market. Tit for tat.

Yurr, I suppose we'll all be living in shanty towns ;p

all metal prefab buildings, gently weathered from the elements.. numbers stencilled on them in yellow ;p 56 etc

No real plantlife, fires in barrels..i'd like it really of course i'd have my modest luxuries, power shower..mansion, large tower headquarters ;p

Everythings coming up Moore.

And now Thailand's been invaded:

The Independent

Tesco sues Thai critics of £100m expansion plan
By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent
Sunday, 13 April 2008

Tesco, the supermarket group increasingly regarded by large parts of Britain as about as benign as an invading army, is finding that the reception in the more far-flung outposts of its empire is less than ecstatic, too.

A small but growing number of voices in Thailand has been speaking out against the ambitious and, they claim, aggressive plans for expansion by Tesco, which already has hundreds of stores in the country. Seemingly stung by the criticism, Tesco has taken the remarkable step of launching legal actions seeking millions of pounds in damages from its critics, one a former MP and the other a newspaper columnist. The actions have been condemned by campaigners for free speech.

"I think they want to intimidate me, to stop me speaking out against them," said the newspaper columnist and academic, Kamol Kamoltrakul, who is being sued for £1.6m.

Tesco took action after Mr Kamol wrote a column against its expansion plans for the supermarket, which operates 370 stores and hypermarkets in Thailand under the name Tesco Lotus. He claimed that Tesco did not invest in the country, minimised the taxes it paid to the authorities and had no "social responsibility".

The other person being sued is former MP Jit Siratranon, secretary general of the Thai Chamber of Commerce. Mr Jit is facing a claim for a staggering £16.4m after giving a speech to a group of activists in which he said: "The large-scale expansion of the big retailers must be exercised with great care – not too aggressively and too rapidly – to reduce the potential tension, which could lead to serious conflict." He also faces two years in jail if the lawsuit is successful.

The controversy over the expansion of foreign retailing chains in Thailand has been such that four years ago the Thai company operating with Tesco sold its stake in the operation.

"I am concerned about the 'mom and pop' stores," explained Mr Kamol, speaking last night from Bangkok. "I am worried about the millions of people who will be affected if they lose their livelihoods. I am not against Tesco but I think it should halt its expansion. I think this country should have more regulation."

Last April, Tesco's Thailand operation said it would be spending more than £100m on expansion.

Asked about the legal actions, a Tesco spokesman said: "This follows a sustained period of attacks over a number of years. It is not something we would enter into lightly." He said the company was responding to "malicious rumours".

"There comes a time when you have to defend not only yourselves but the people who work for you."