October 22, 2007
Tesco made its maiden shipment of goods by canal last week, shipping 20ft containers of wine from Liverpool's Royal Seaforth dock to a bottling plant 32 miles away on the banks of the Manchester ship canal.
This was great news for the company’s carbon footprint, for users of the M62 and for wino barge owners in the Lancashire area.
Guru is glad to see the supermarket giant using the great waterways of our green and pleasant land – and wonders if it could take the idea a step further.
With Tesco employing around 250,000 people, imagine if all its staff were shipped to work as well.
This would truly relieve congestion on the roads as each person tends to take up a whole car, whereas thousands of bottles of wine tend to cuddle up together on the back of a lorry.
Guru suggests that if all the supermarkets in the UK sent their staff to work by canal, the roads would be more pleasant for the rest of us.
And a bit of nice scenery on the way to work might cheer up the miserable checkout staff that serve Yours Truly with a scowl, a vacant look and an ironic ‘happy to help’ badge on their chest.
Barges could be chartered to transfer supermarket staff from housing estates to out-of-town supermarkets. Employees might be able to rescue a few discarded shopping trolleys from the canal banks on their way.
