My Tesco shares are up 80% so I implore you all to shop there and eschew Thai wet markets....

Tesco In Thai Expansion

Updated: 06:59, Wednesday April 11, 2007

Tesco is to spend £110m on a major expansion of its business in Thailand, it has anounced.

It aims to add about 60 convenience stores to the 260 it already has in the country.

However, it is not saying how many of its larger hypermarkets are in its plans.

This is a controversial subject in Thailand, where smaller shopkeepers are calling for the spread of larger stores to be curbed.

Tesco currently runs some 56 hypermarkets in Thailand - it is in competition with Carrefour, which has 24, and Big C Supercenter, which runs 49 now and plans to open another four this year.

In the convenience sector, Tesco is dwarfed by 7-Eleven, which currently has 4,000 shops and plans another 450 this year. The Thai government is working on changes to the law surrounding the retail sector because of the spread of supermarkets.

Public hearings are scheduled before they go before the country's ministers.

I'm all for them, can't wait for our new store to open in June, which is rather on the big side for a small town like ours, saves me the 150km drive down to the city to do my shopping which to be honest we don't do very often, so normally use our local market etc, but there are times when that certain thing can not be purchased at the market.... good cheese for example, or a decent cut of fillet (can get, but have to get there very early, and I'm not one for early mornings).

Looking forward to the others moving in to town also, have already heard that Big C are looking at possible sites....