Tesco out of Poland? Żabka and Biedronka opportunity.

Another day, another ethnic slur from Polonius (Portugal and Germany are Polish allies within the EU and NATO). Why are trying to convince them that Polish people view fellow EU citizens (and NATO allies) as enemies?


This is a "hapless Polish shopping public"



Is that really what you want again?

Charity begisn at home. Is it in the interests of the Polish nation to first and foremost multiply the prosperity of other countries, esp. far more affleunt ones, at the expense of one's one? Unlike theBalcerowicz sell-out heresy, already in 1990 all efforts should have been directed at creating a viable. competitive, inidgenous Polish capitalist class. Since that was not the priority of the Soros-directed stooges of the KOR/PZPR roundtable clique, there is not a minute to lose to launch such a cmapaign at present.

Charity has nothing to do with business, nor should it. And business has nothing to do with charity, nor should it.

Indeed. Both are decent shops and a heck of a lot better than the Polish-run ones a few years ago.

Portugal is hardly "far more affluent" than Poland.


What do think shock therapy was all about? And there is an indigenous Polish capitalist class ... but they vote for PO and you and PiS hate, hate, HATE them!

That was Soros' plan to divest Poland of her industrial assets and make her a neoi-colonial victim of foreign interest groups. What ex-PZPR member Balzerman should have done was create a Polish Capital Consortium -- a state and private capital group encompassing petrochemicals, copper conglomerate, shipyards, collieries, steelworks, Cegielski, distilleries, breweries and all other major viable, nearly viable and salvageable industrial assets which could be listed on the bourse and turn Poland into an economic powerhouse. That would have spared Poland unemplyoment of up to 30%-40% in some areas, depressed regions and many other hardships. When Daewoo ran into trouble the PCC could have bought out their Polish operation and used it to create an indigenous automotive sector. By now maybe only LeClerc and Carrefour would be on the Polish market alongside 10 major wholly Polish-owned retail chains which would also have outlets in Denmark, Slovakia, Hungary, Belgium, Lithuania, France and Britian.

Sent you a memo did he?


You can take the guy out of the PRL but you can't take the PRL out of the guy. that is just the type of solution they were trying to get away from.


Why should people in those countries not patriotically buy in their own stores?

Who is the 'Balzerman' you mention?

That's what Polish hacks call Balcerowicz.

Most call him Balcerowicz. Why would you call him 'Balzerman'?

He had some good ideas, certainly about retail. I remember the Polish-run shops a few years ago. Running out of products, old ladies following the customers, staff who never apologised if a product was sub-standard, price labels being lower than the actual price at the check-out.

Biedronka is a great store - and it's irrelevant who the owners are.

It's irrelevant to culturally and spiritually alien expats who can be likened to a foreign toxic and parasitic growth on the healthy body of the Polish nation.


I agree. The Soros-inspired roundtable clique did everything possible to prevent Poland becoming an eoxnoimic powerhouse and succeeded in making it a neo-colonial entity exploited by outside forces. PiS are the only chance of that ever changing.

Don't be silly Po. The part of Europe a company is based in is irrelevant. If you don't like something about a particular supermarket, don't shop there.

You mean they wanted to continue PRL style policies?

When did we do away with the rule about not changing the names of public figures?


The ironic thing is that Polly himself shops at Biedronka instead of sticking to Polish-owned shops, we know that because his favourite 'beer' is sold only at a Portuguese-owned chain.


Not this yet again. As was pointed out to you the last time you brought up this PRL-era idea, a Polish company wouldn't have been able to sell in formerly Daewoo car the west, because they wouldn't have been able to afford the licences to those markets. And but the prices would have been too high for the developing world, due to the costs of Polish labour being higher than, for example, Chinese labour and due to the product being more complex (due to things such as airbags and other modern technology), plus the factory still would have been inefficient.

The mistake of building a product which couldn't be sold in the west and was too expensive for the east and was made at a terrible factory is precisely the same mistake that was made in the 1970s with the Ursus tractor factory. Billions of dollars were poured down the drain there on a brand new factory which is now derelict.

Why are you so obsessed with Poland making the same mistakes now as were made the last time Poland was ruled by a Party which had 15% active support?

Maybach and Pislamic anyone?


Strange question from someone who thinks it normal for Poles to unpatriotically support foreign interest groups!

Ursus is doing OK at their new Lublin location. Recently a big contract with Africa was signed.

You are so communist.

Nothing to do with marxism (mainly groucho in Poland's case!) Regardless of ownership form, if it's Polish it creates Polish jobs, provides manufacturing and marketing experience and promotes a Polish brand.

One can see that as usual you are blowing off stema with no knpowll3gde ont he usbejct. Daewoo had a very modern operaiton going at Żerań. They did not statr produciton in an ramshackle and otudated Polish factorsy but compeltely mdoern9ised nad adapted it to their production requirements. Just the one Lublin van line had tremendous potential for the 1990s. Even if only state vehicles were provided that would be a huge volume consideirng vans and light lorries for the police, fire service, army, forestry, post office. ambulances and myraid other uses not to mention commercial sales as delivery vans, hearses, taxis and many more.

Remember the Polish Capital Consortiumn would be an extremely wealthy entity. They could enlist the aid of foreign automotive firmrs and advisers. Renault for years was a state company. What was missing in psot-commie Poland was imagination and determination. Soros brought in Balzerman and ignorant Poles were told that's how it had to be.

Not a good thing to say, Po. But at least you've once again let the world know your views.

And what are yours? Some PC-filtered, sugar-coated PR version one presumes.

As if tesco has a future in any European country after brexit. No way. Just a long list of british business that will cop it in the neck.

I've been boycotting Tesco since I moved. Don't see the point in moving out of England and buying English goods and supporting the country I left behind.

Not to mention they're too market hungry for my tastes. I'm glad they're not able to dominate the market here as opposed to other countries, and I hope any dismissals result in

You are not the only one. Tesco needs to fark off back to its island with the rest of business from there too. Here where i am there is nothing to boycott as they send almost nothing here because they can't compete with asia.

The only connection between Ursus then and now is the name, nothing else. One big difference is that Ursus now is managed by people best able to do the job, rather than the PiSlamic State way of appointing the most loyal people to try to do jobs they clearly are not able to do. No doubt if there was a state-owned chain of hypermarkets in Poland now, PIS's appointees as the members of the management board would have no knowledge at all of the retail trade but would all be unquestioningly loyal to The Dear Leader Chairman Kaczynski.


I actually have decades of experience working in the automotive industry, but one doesn't need any specialist knowledge of that to see that what you say is completely wrong. If Daewoo had had such a good operation going in Zeran, somebody would have bought it. But instead nobody was interested. That's how capitalism works and shows what is economically viable and what isn't.


If you're insisting on using made up names for political figures despite the rule against it, would you be OK with people talking about 'Duckboy the traitor and son of a traitor'?

You may or may not know that journalists are a joking lot and amongst themselves have used such tags as Gen. Jabberwocky, Walrus (Wałęsa) and Balzerman in reference to familair public figures.


Why the obsession with state-owned retailers? Public ownership is advisable mainly in the case of strategic industrial sectors and retail business is not normally one of them.

A metaphorical paraphrase of a well-known saying here intended to mean that one should first concern oneself with one's own family and nation.

Personal liking or disliking, private convenience or inconvenience, one's own subjective comfort or discomfort are the categories only selfish egoists think in -- a very low-minded and mean-spirited preoccupation when the fate of the nation is concerned. A but more idealism and a bit less creature-comfort egoism would do you good!

Balls to that. One's personal comfort and convenience is the normal way of thinking Saint Pollyanna as you well know. My own philosophy is to buy Polish goods if I have the opportunity and if it's what I want and the quality is good. If it ticks those boxes I don't mind paying a bit more. I accept that home produced products everywhere have to compete with imports and can't always be priced as competitively. I would be more concerned about the fact that small local businesses are being forced out of the market by being charged exorbitant rents in newly constructed shopping centres and mixed used blocks. I've seen many small shops disappear as places are 'renovated'. I believe Hall Mirowska is next. I suppose the exterior 19th century facade will remain and the quaintness of the interior will fall victim to the usual plate glass and metal and we'll have yet another Rossmann etc.

What about levelling the playing field and creating business equality for all? A small shopkeeper cannot possibly compete pricewise with the biggies who buy goods at knock-down prices by the trainload and can afford to sell some of it at cost just to drive family-owned shops out of busiess. What if there was an equal-price law? I know the hypercapitalists will gripe nad grumble, but what other way is there to provide equal chances all round?