Delivering the keynote address at the 2004 IGD Convention, Sir Terry claimed supermarkets, like Tesco, have been successful because they are good at finding out what customers want and giving it to them.
“We reflect what people want and have become very good at picking up how that changes,” he said.
“To that extent, we hold up a mirror up to society, rather than shaping it. Of course, our actions have consequences, but we are not politicians, or bishops or philosophers. We are shopkeepers.
“I know some people don’t like late-night or Sunday opening,” he continued. “We might wish families would still all sit down together on Sunday and have roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Or that children would take more exercise and eat only the right foods.
“But the causes of this lie more in changing lifestyles than in supermarkets.”
Sir Terry went on to tell delegates how shoppers, the local economy, the nation’s health, staff and suppliers benefited from successful supermarkets.
Consumers have benefited from an 11% cut in prices in real terms in recent years, he said.
“It means that more people can afford to buy decent, fresh food. Similar benefits were now spreading to non-food, he added.
Sir Terry claimed supermarkets act as engine for local economic growth, rather than sucking the life out of an area; and revealed how, through Tesco’s regeneration partnerships, it has created new jobs and helped the long-term unemployed back to work.
Sir Terry rejected the proposition supermarkets encouraged people to eat unhealthily; claiming Tesco helped people on fixed budgets buy better and fresh food. And, he revealed the results of a study carried out by the University of Southampton following the opening of Tesco in Seacroft, Leeds, which showed people classified as having poor diets before Tesco arrived, ate one third more fruit and veg once it had opened.
Sir Terry said staff benefited from one of Tesco’s core values — treating people how we like to be treated — and said 8,000 people were currently being trained for promotion.
On suppliers, Sir Terry revealed Tesco’s Viewpoint scheme, which asks staff to say how they feel about their job, was being extended with an anonymous system for suppliers, as a way of building trust and better working relationships. And, he highlighted a number of case studies where Tesco has worked with suppliers — largely UK produce firms — to extend the growing season and, as a result, sales.
“Competitive success is what makes all these things possible,” concluded Sir Terry. “It is competition which has taken Tesco from being number three in Britain to be number three in the world in 10 years. Having winners is good.”
But winning comes with responsibilities, he added. These include building genuine partnerships that are two-way, not one-way, and striking the right note in those relationships.
“The key is balance, and we have as much interest in getting that balance right as anyone else.”
