Sucking Satan's c*ck

Tuesday 12^th September

Lying a couple of inches above this keyboard are £11.50 worth of Tesco vouchers and 14 more offering extra points when I buy a certain something or spend more than a specific amount by a particular date. Tomorrow, on the way back from work, I will drop in at the local branch that conveniently opened a few minutes’ walk from us about eighteen months ago to the delight of some of the people who share our block. I wasn’t that excited by the prospect but have been as loyal a customer as anyone else in this area, I am sure.

I am a hypocrite. I know that the domination of Tesco is bad for the consumer in the long-run and for smaller retailers right now. I have railed against the concept of “convenience” over principles in the past but now I am spending more in Tesco every month than I spend in total on any other retail goods. The supermarket giant now takes more than 30p in every retail pound but probably more like 60p of mine. With the Chapel Market selling fresh veg just a six minute cycle away, how can I justify this? I can’t. I am a hypocrite.

Tim the Hammer - a fan of Bill Hicks’ - calls it “Sucking Satan’s C*ck” and at the Demo that kicked off this diary/blog, he stood outside while a few of us went into a Tesco Metro on Regent Street to buy sarnies and beer (which Tim had a can or two of – does that mean he swallows too?) In contrast, he still spends at Marks and Spencers, which is avowedly pro-Zionist (and so middle-class). I’ve never been keen on the place: right back when I was growing up, the slightly elder brother of a friend of mine phoned in a bomb-threat to the Watford branch, but then got arrested when he couldn’t help but go and observe the consequences of his hoax call. Returning to the scene of the crime: the mark of the amateur (and the thirteen year-old). Anyway, the point is that from an early age we were aware of Israel’s crimes in occupied Palestine and of Marks’ connection with the country.

The consumer boycott, however, is not really that powerful a tool not only because of the “clear information asymmetry…between corporation and consumer” (Hertz – The Silent Takeover), but also the very nature of the market. Producers still don’t come to consumers in the same way that the reverse is true. We all have our chosen dislikes: I don’t go to Starbucks, buy Coca-Cola or Nike if I can help it but I have no delusions that this will make a difference to anything. Do these companies know I am applying (admittedly limited) principles to the way I allocate my meagre retail budget? I may just as well not be buying something because I don’t like the look or taste.

I am a hypocrite, but a little is better than nothing. Do you suck Satan’s c*ck too? 



I appreciate the irony of - on 31st December 2011 - inserting asterisks into two words in this post in order that I can have the big corporation Google insert ads on my blog which will earn me a few pennies. Weirdly, this post itself is one of the most seen on my blog. I do not think people who googled the terms in the title were looking for an anti-corporate whinge, though.