Tesco helps out a small indy bookseller. The manager of a small bookstore across from a Tesco (you can almost see it quivering in the looming, ominous shadow) emailed the Tesco CEO after learning that his tiny blackened heart had one squelchy, Grinch-like pump of love left in it. Turns out he instructed his servants to feed the dripping trenchers to the poor. This is kind of like giving someone a kiss on the cheek while you twist the stilleto in their gullet, but… No, wait. I will not be cranky about this. Thank you, Mr. Tesco. Can you please go talk to the Amawaltarget people when you next see them at the Bilderberg meeting?

She found Leahy’s email address after a quick internet search, and dropped him a line that day, laying out how her shop was struggling faced with Tesco’s huge discounts on new titles. “I thought, there’s nothing to be lost by trying,” she said. “I pointed out that although our interests cross in many ways, we are far more specialist, and will track down difficult-to-find books for our customers. And our staff are really well-trained in books, so we are offering different things. Although we can’t stop people buying books from Tesco, I said he could suggest that if they can’t find what they want there, they could come to us.”

The very next day, she heard back from a regional manager who thought it was a “great idea”, and the Heswall branch of Tesco now has three signs in its books section advising customers that a wider range of titles are available across the road in Linghams, where specialist booksellers are also on hand to advise.