Competition

So recently, as mentioned in my post on democracy, a Tesco has set up next to a "Nisa", a small corner shop near where I live. There has been public outcry about this, including a 2000 name long petition to stop it happening. I have heard numerous arguments against the new Tesco's, only one of which comes even close to legitimate.
The first is, "But the Nisa will not be able to compete, and will have to close down, meaning that the people who work in Nisa will lose their jobs!". This is most likely true. Tesco is bigger, is cheaper, offers a better variety of products and most likely a better quality of products. As a result, people will choose to shop at Tesco's - losing custom for Nisa. People seem to think this is unfair, because this means that the two people who run Nisa (and perhaps others) will lose their jobs. Firstly, what they don't mention is the fact that 20 new jobs will be created at the new Tesco's. Secondly, I fail to see why the owners of a particular shop should have their jobs protected indefinately. Almost no jobs at all have complete security in their jobs, although you could probably see extremely high levels of security in many public jobs. It is undoubtedly a shame for the man and woman who run the shop that they will most likely have to start looking elsewhere for jobs. But we must not let this blind us from the greater good. The greater good, basically, is that a better shop will open up. The fact that two people made what might have been a poor investment in opening up Nisa should not give them indefinite job security, just as me deciding to invest in Lehman Brothers before the brown stuff hit the fan for them should not give me security to get my money back. Sometimes we make decisions which turn out to be the wrong ones because of things we could not possibly have forcasted nor influenced. That, is the way of the world. We must not let it stop us from progress. People lose their jobs all the time. There is no reason to protect the who own Nisa.

The second complaint against Nisa is that "Most of the people don't want a new supermarket!". This infact, is the argument heralded by both the MP and the local Conservative candidate. This is the single most ridiculous argument I have ever heard. Plus, I suspect that it's highly selfish on the part of those who promote it. In an article in the Gloucesterhire Echo about the subject, the man who runs Nisa said, "We probably won't be able to compete", and then later in the same article, "Almost all of my customers don't want the Tesco's to set up". This is self-contradicting. When people decide where they want to shop, they are making a choice. They are voting with their money, perhaps the most tell-tale of all surveys. If it is true that "Almost all of [his] customers don't want the Tesco's to set up", then he need not fear. Because everyone will vote for - that is, shop at - Nisa, right?
Except that blatently won't happen, because the majority of the populus prefer Tesco, as it offers a vast range of advantages over Nisa, including choice, price, quality and maybe even speed at the tills. When we decide where we want to shop, we are making a choice based on many different factors, and we balance them all against each other and the one which comes out on top we go to. That is voting with our money. The fact is, most people are going to vote for Tesco. That is why Nisa will shut down. Because they lost the competition.

Thirdly, people argue that Tesco has something approaching a monpoly power. This may well be true, I couldn't say for sure, although they do have a ridiculously large market share seen in all shops in the UK. But this is beside the point. If Tesco does have too much power, then they should be cut down by the Competition Commission. That doesn't have anything to do with the individual deal with Nisa. Truth be told, I imagine people only use this argument because they realise how foolish the other two are.

So in conclusion, the new Tesco setting up can only be a good thing, provided that they don't have monopoly power. They provide choice. And when choice is provided, only good can come of it, because people vote with their wallets and the best firm wins. If the best firm is Nisa, then good for them, they deserve to stay. If the best firm is Tesco, then sorry Mr. and Mrs. Nisa, but you'll have to pack your bags and look for jobs like the rest of us.