Flop of the shops – This is Money podcast
It’s been a couple of years since Tesco got found out.
The store that thought it could get away with whatever it wanted because customers, it said, ‘wanted its cheap prices’ was embroiled in an accounting scandal in 1994. And the problems continue.
Were Tesco’s prices really cheaper? You can ask the customers it has lost to low-cost rivals Lidl and Aldi about that.
It’s also losing customers to online rivals as the internet provides what the High Street can’t – 24 hour opening, among other things.
Tesco is back in the news:
For a report that showed it deliberately and systematically mis-treated suppliers by delaying payments and manipulating the terms of its deals.
Perhaps bizarrely because it’s going to scrap 24 hour opening in more than 70 of its stores.
It’s also about to slash the pay of staff who work unsociable hours.
It’s not alone. Wilko (aka Wilkinson) is also cutting double time for unsociable hours – effectively a 25% pay cut.
Shops face a tough time. Jobs are at risk across the retails sector.
They are at banks too.
Join This is Money Editor Simon Lambert, Consumer Affairs Editor Rachel Rickard Straus and Share Radio’s Georgie Frost for an enlightening look at the future of shopping and banking.
Also on the show:
Interest rates remain unchanged again – but because of a quirk of the calendar it’s ‘mildly thrilling’ this time even if the policy is ultimately counterproductive
Hacking is now so easy a three-year-old can do it. Is your internet security toddler and mafia proof?
The Royal Mint has royally ripped off customers by refusing to honour ‘legal tender’ – or money to use its common name
It wouldn’t be a This is Money podcast without a controversial buy-to-let story. This one involves lawyer and former ‘first lady’ Cherie Blair and unhappy taxable landlords
In happy news…
Simon has a piece of the Berlin Wall.
But lost it.
#berlinwall