When I moved to Penzance in 1988 we had a small town centre Tesco and small Co-Op, though it wasn't branded as such. The nearest medium size supermarket was Safeway's, located at Pool. midway between Redruth and Camborne, a 45 minute round trip. In 1989 a medium size Safeways opened just outside Penzance on land sold by British Rail as surplus to requirements. It was an immediate success, such that a year or two later it became common knowledge that it was Safeway's second best performing in the whole of the U.K. based on square footage. At the same time trade in Penzance town centre on a Saturday deteriorated markedly, and not just for food shops, as the lure of free parking drew people out there to shop. A few years later Tesco secured a greenfield site slightly nearer to Penzance, again on the east side, to develop another medium size supermarket: in order to retain their town centre staff, who were not going to transfer to the new store, they were assured verbally that the store would remain open. A week after the new store opened, all town centre staff were given four weeks notice, at which time the store would close. There are still some locally who won't shop at Tesco in consequence. Then, a few years ago, the operators of the Isles of Scilly helicopter link announced they wished to sell the airfield site to Sainsbury's, with the millions of profit thereby achieved 'helping to secure the helicopter business for the future', with no indication of how this would be achieved without somewhere to fly from! I'll skate over what happened next, as I became quite 'outspoken' on local media as to the only possible outcome of all this, and, lo and behold, Cornwall Council gave planning permission, the store was built and the helicopter co. b*ggered off, never to return. Oh, by the way, the Sainsbury's is located midway between Tesco and what has become an unloved Morrison's (unloved by its operator as much as most of the public, who've deserted in droves). So, with no great increase in population and a depressed and depressing town centre, a lot of trade has moved out of town.