Archive for 1st February 2010

CEN article: Anger as ‘dry’ Tesco puts up adverts for half-price wine

We cannot help point out that if the manager, Mr Capone, and his staff cannot get a simple thing like this right, what hope is there for the more sensitive task of ensuring that alcohol is only sold in a legal manner, a matter which is subject to examination in the Magistrates’ Court shortly…

raymond.brown@cambridge-news.co.uk

Posters in the window

TESCO has been ordered to remove adverts for cheap wine from its shop in Cambridge’s Mill Road – because it has no alcohol licence.

Trading Standards officers launched an investigation after the adverts were displayed at the controversial Express store.

Campaigners accused Tesco chiefs of “contempt for the community” for plugging half-price Dino Sangiovese and Pinot Grigio wines, in an area where new alcohol licences are routinely opposed.

Trading Standards officers visited the store and spoke to manager Luke Capone, who agreed to take down the posters – which advertised deals available in other Tesco branches.

The Mill Road shop, which opened last August, was refused an alcohol licence after police objected because it falls within a ‘cumulative impact zone’ – which creates a presumption against giving out new licences.

Beverley Carpenter, co-ordinator of the No Mill Road Tesco campaign, said: “We are dismayed that Tesco has once again demonstrated complete insensitivity and lack of respect for the local community in posting advertisements for cheap alcohol in Mill Road.

“Their half-price offer on bottles of wine as seen in the window of their Express store on Mill Road is not only within a ‘cumulative impact zone’ but in a store that has been expressly refused permission to sell alcohol amid a huge public outcry and unprecedented publicity for any alcohol licence application in Cambridge.”

Supermarket bosses are appealing against the Cambridge City Council decision.

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Trading Standards said: “I can confirm that we have received an inquiry from a member of the public, and we investigated the advertising used by Tesco in their Mill Road store.

“One of our officers visited the store and spoke to the manager who took down the adverts.”

Tesco’s appeal against the licence decision will be heard at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court later this month.

Cambridge Evening News, 1st February 2010