I don't live in Birmingham any loinger but visit Yardley regularly as Mother in Law still lives close to the Yew Tree.
Living here in Cambridgeshire we have big problems with "Out of Town" Supermarkets" and have seen the decline of the smaller towns like St. Ives and Huntingdon with independent shops closing. I cannot think of one greengrocer in any of the small towns around where I live. I have a choice of the three big supermarket chains for grocery shopping and now, with the Tesco Extra, I can buy all electrical, furniture, clothes etc etc. in one store. To me our Tesco Extra is a small department store. (It would never compete with Lewis's though!)
Having lived by the Yew Tree and driven many times around the Swan and Church Road, I have to say that, in my opinion, the area definately needed improvement due to the volume of traffic. It is unfortunate that it took Tesco to spend money to make the improvements.