Chris Bennett: Tesco Opticians part of a far reaching vision

Offload was the word du jour for hacks turning in their copy covering the sale of Tesco Opticians to Vision Express last week.

The propensity for parochialism when it comes to Tesco was simply too great for reporters to ignore. Tesco, which once accounted for one in every seven pounds spent in UK shops, was front and centre of the story. Like a slightly leaky hot air balloon the supermarket has been jettisoning restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, garden centres and all other manner of businesses. This has been in an effort to both shore up its finances in the wake of accounting difficulties and to concentrate on its knitting ahead of its proposed merger with cash and carry colossus Booker.