I fear for shopping when it’s Goop for glitz – and Jack’s for austerity

I fear for shopping when it’s Goop for glitz – and Jack’s for austerity | Barbara Ellen

Tesco wants its new brand to be cheap and cheerful – but is there a whiff of segregation in its choice of name?

Something has been niggling me about Tesco’s new discount supermarket chain, Jack’s. Obviously, Tesco is entitled to take on the likes of Aldi and Lidl and, in this era of food banks, it’s difficult to argue against cheap produce. If the reports from the first Jack’s store, in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire (“80% British”; “Cheap alcohol”; “Like shopping 30 years ago”) make the general ambience sound a bit like a low-cost grocery emporium that you might find in a third-wave-austerity theme park, then that’s just a sign of the times.

What I’m concerned about is what Jack’s (named after Tesco’s founder, Jacob “Jack” Cohen) might be saying about an evolution in retail segregation. While different supermarket chains are obviously aimed at different people, on varying incomes, there’s something about Jack’s that whiffs a little too strongly of poorer customers being rather unsubtly “zoned”, and in a way that steers them well clear of the core Tesco brand. Basically, I’m concerned about why Jack’s is called Jack’s.

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