Social, Cultural and Ethical Issues Relevant to Tesco Plc’s Operation There are many different factors which affect the way companies operate and the policies they adopt. This essay will investigate and outline some of the different social, cultural and ethical issues which are relevant to Tesco Plc’s operation. This essay will begin by investigating into social attitudes of the customers and also the social trends of customers which affect the company’s social policies. It will explain why there was or is a problem, how it could be solved by adopting a particular policy.
It will then investigate into cultural tastes and preferences of the customers, as well as the low unemployment of UK culture which affect the company’s cultural policies. It will explain why these cause cultural issues and suggest polices which provide a solution. Finally it will analyse the waste creation and disposal of the company and also their farming supplies which are two ethical problems the company has faced and explain the policies that were used to solve the problems. Social attitudes of today’s society have changed the way people live, people now are working longer hours to sustain the financial demand that is needed in-order to keep up a higher standard of living, “One quarter of working men and 11% of working women in the UK now work more than 50 hours per week” .
This is a social problem because it encourages people to eat ‘fast food’ type products such as pasties, sausage rolls, pre-packaged sandwiches and microwavable take-away items such as burgers & hot dogs etc, which all have high percentages of saturated fats, sugars and salts. These ‘fast foods’ are eaten because of their convenience and due to time shortages from working longer hours these food are the easy option. This implicates less healthy diets and obesity in the UK population. Tesco’s have and still currently sell these items but to combat this problem in 2000 Tesco launched their ‘Healthy Living’ brand of foods which are lower in fat, no added sugar and low in sodium, and in 2004 launched their ‘Healthy Living Club’, which has over 350, 000 members and offer over 500 ‘Healthy Living’ Products. The club offers customers information on diets, weight loss and other health issues.
