Tesco Customers May Soon Find Chickens at the Checkout Counter†

British Retailer Joins 'Grow Your Own' Movement by Renting Out Allotments, Selling Live Birds

Advertising Age, July 28, 2009 — Tesco, the world's third-largest retailer, is embracing the recession-inspired trend to "grow your own" produce by offering allotment spaces to rent in the U.K and selling live chickens.

In a bid to mark out its green credentials, Tesco has applied for planning permission to create an initial batch of 30 allotments near one of its Dobbies Garden Centre stores near Southport in the north of England. Dobbies, a 24-store chain acquired by Tesco a year ago, has seen a boom in sales of vegetable seeds over the past year, and will also sell an allotment "starter kit" to provide customers with everything they need to get growing and help novices keep soil fertile and sustain the patch of ground