File:Sainsbury's Superstore Tottenham - Carpark.jpg

English: 24 September 2014. Three hours free carparking in the underground carpark at the new Sainsbury's superstore in Northumberland Park, Tottenham.

Meanwhile Haringey Council's political leadership and senior staff in their profound wisdom, eminent reasonableness and inexhaustible sense of fair play, have made zero parking concessions to assist established small traders in nearby streets.

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§ Sky Sports website 6 November 2013 Sainsbury's store kicks off Tottenham Hotspur stadium scheme.  "Sainsbury’s has opened a new 78,000 square foot store as part of the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium development – employing 280 colleagues from the local area and giving this dynamic and exciting community great new opportunities to Live Well For Less."

What could be more dynamic and exciting than a superrmarket with a carpark? But there was more. The Sky website was crammed full with the usual heady excitement we've grown to expect. Dynamic words and phrases such as:  "Partners"; "kickstart careers"; "start of the regeneration of North Tottenham"; "vibrant part of London"; "greater vibrancy" ; "delivers real employment and socio-economic benefits to our community".

Sudden end to the Supermarket boom?

There is another way of looking at Sainsbury's slogan: "live well for less". For some months, retail industry commentators have suggested there may be fundamental change underway in shopping patterns. Most importantly, a change from steady successful growth of the UK's large supermarket chains.

For example, a Guardian article by Joanna Blytheman on 19 March 2014, was headed: "Britain's big grocers are on the run – and shoppers are hungry for a change".  She began: "Supermarkets are in trouble. The money men are worried. Nine years of growing sales have juddered to a standstill at Sainsbury's. And it's not just a dip in the cycle, or limited to Sainsbury's. According to the retail analyst David McCarthy of HSBC, the sector 'is in structural decline, with no end in sight'. "

On 23 October 2014 Philip Inman reported on data collected by the UK Office for National Statistics. It showed what the ONS described as stagnation in non-specialised for stores - large supermarkets.

None of which automatically prevents the new Sainsbury's Superstore in Lansdowne Road Tottenham from being a success; and a sound business decision. But for Haringey Council it was clearly a poor political and policy decision to pin too many of its regeneration hopes on this initiative.