British retailer helps small shop owner

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British-based super retailer, Tesco’s, has extended a helping hand to a local bookstore after the store’s manager emailed Tesco’s chief executive about concerns that the superstore would put her small shop out of business. Anchor Jeb Sharp has details.

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JEB SHARP: Remember the Meg Ryan romantic movie, “You’ve Got Mail?”

["You've got mail" sound bite]

SHARP: In a nutshell, girl bookseller falls in love with boy bookseller despite crushing differences over retail styles.  Here’s a real-life version, sort of.  The chief executive of Britain’s biggest retailer, Tesco, recently expressed guilt over forcing small shops out of business.  That prompted an email exchange between Sir Terry Leahy, or at least a female staffer writing on his behalf– we’ve used an actress for that voice– and Eleanor Davies, the owner of Linghams, a small local bookstore in the north of England.  Here’s Eleanor with her first email.

["You've got mail" sound bite]

ELEANOR DAVIES:  Dear Sir Terry, I was very interested to read that you feel a certain amount of guilt at putting small shops out of business, and thought I would drop you a line.  I am the manager of a beautiful and well-established independent book shop in Heswall on the Wirral, situated right opposite the Heswall branch of Tesco.  In Tesco, over the road, a lot of the books we sell are going for substantially less than half the recommended retail price.  We cannot begin to compete with this and we find ourselves struggling to stay alive.  There are plenty of books we stock which you would never have on your shelves.  So why don’t you allow us to advertise above the books you are selling?  Something along the lines of “For less popular titles and book buying advice, why not cross the road to Linghams where the knowledgeable staff would love to help you?”  We would all be winners.  Think how good you would look in the press.  What do you think?  Kind regards, Eleanor Davies.

["You've got mail" sound bite]

READER:  Dear Ms. Davies, thank you for your interesting email to Sir Terry, which he asked me to look into as regional corporate affairs manager.  I’ve spoken to our store manager, Matt Tomlinson, who would be happy to install some signage to direct people to less popular titles.  I wish you all the best with your business.  Kind regards, Deborah Haynes, regional corporate affairs, Tesco.

["You've got mail" sound bite]

DAVIES:  Many thanks indeed for your prompt reply. I greatly look forward to meeting with Matt Tomlinson. Kind regards, Eleanor.

SHARP: So the signs went up!  Sales are up too, although Davies thinks it might be thanks to all the publicity.  This story isn’t over.

DAVIS:  Well, I don’t really know what the ending’s going to be, but I’m certainly not going to hook up with Sir Terry, so… <laughs> which is what Meg Ryan did with– was it Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise?  I can’t remember.

SHARP:  This is PRI.

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