Tesco in £155.6 million takeover of Dobbies Garden Centres

[cambourne7]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article1904092.ece

Not to be confused with dobies seeds!!

[cambourne7]

[flowerlady]

Dove past one of these today ... en route for Lilleshall.  It's smack next to a pick you own fruit farm.  Strawbs at the moment

It has a massive indoor section, with an upstairs given over to factory clothes. 

It is  full of all  those things that Grannies always buys your kids when you go to a nursery  ::) :D ;D  But this one had a very interesting fruit and nut section ... we make our own bread at home and some of the seeds were great!

Needless to say OH always makes a bee line for the Fudge !!!  :P

Last visit I managed to buy some brilliant strawb plants ... they were 35p cheaper than the 'cheap' nursery at home ... good deal I thought.

Wonder what Tesco's will do to them !! ??

[Melbourne12]

I can see how this might work.  The only one that I know is the one near Reading, which lists:
"What you’ll find

    * Quality Plants, flowers and gardening equipment
    * Furniture for your garden and home
    * Homeware, bathshop and accessories.
    * Food and cookshop
    * Gifts, cards and stationery
    * Outdoor toys, games, stationery and books 
    * Arts and crafts

Restaurant

Farm foodhall with delicatessen
World of Water Aquatics
The Flowerstalk "

Sounds pretty much like sections of Tesco already!

I seem to remember that Dobbies are fiendishly expensive, from the couple of visits that I made.  But most of the stores are in Scotland or northern England, so the Reading one may not be typical.

[Marymary]

Another sign of Tesco's plan for world domination!  :)

[gordonsveg]

MaryMary,
     Wish Tescos would run plymouth, i bet they would do a better job than the council.

[redimp]

MaryMary,
     Wish Tescos would run plymouth, i bet they would do a better job than the council.

D'ya wanna bet.  They would kill off all the neighbouring towns, rip off everybody who provided a service to Plymouth and once they dominated completely, hike up the council tax, not put anything back, and line their own pockets. >:(  Any short term gains you made by their ownership would purely be a PR exercise lulling you into a false sense of security so they could carry out their plans without opposition.

[keef]

Its obvious, lots of prime sites for building new supermarkets...

[Amazin]

Wish Tescos would run plymouth

No you don't. Why not? Two words:

Shirley Porter

[Oldmanofthewoods]

Dobbies

Dobbies is more of a Middle Class "lifestyle" place than a garden centre - should fit it with tesco perfectly.  However another entrepreneur is trying to take it over.  No matter who gets it, it is not a place for either allotment peeps, nor serious gardeners.  Check out their car park when you go past there is more room for cars than there is for plants.

Don't go there.

Jack

[grawrc]

Well I know what you mean Oldman and to some extent what you say is true, however in all fairness I have to stand up for Dobbies in Edinburgh. Any time I have a gardening question they have been able to supply the answer. The gardening team aren't just punters who happen to work in a garden centre/lifestyle store they really do know their stuff.

As to Tesco's bid, I was absolutely horrified when I heard about it. Tesco is already too big for comfort and knows far too much about the people who shop there. This move would give them an even wider spectrum and is decidedly scarey.

Having said that, of all the companies I had to contact following my husband's death, Tesco was the most helpful, most courteous and speediest in responding.

[Susiebelle]

Tesco taking over Dobbies bad bad new >:( have you ever seen a happy member of staff at Tesco? miserable as sin the lot of 'em, (at least at our local branch) we  shop with them as little as possible, On one occasion I had need to complain to the duty manager whose attitude was they were a "product of their own success" oh so that makes it all right does it >:( >:(
They cherry pick with the products they choose to sell, they managed to polish off our independent health food store, which I sadly miss and have to use mail order for the less popular food stuffs now and as Mary Mary said they then hiked up the prices of the more popular lines that were the bread & butter of the independent store.
I could go on and on and on but I am getting tired standing on this soap box  I had better stop before getting meself into trouble!

[asbean]

This is just an example. What's the point of public meetings discussing possible sites when they ignore the results:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/6230818.stm