It is a modern day phenomenon which has given rise to a new coinage: Tescopoly.

From Paisley to Japan, the seemingly inexorable expansion of Tesco continues apace.

As the UK's largest supermarket chain announced yesterday it will open its first store under its own name in Japan later this month - continuing its push into overseas markets - it also emerged that it has agreed to buy one of Scotland's oldest football grounds in the centre of the country's biggest town.

Groaning under the weight of a multi-million pound debt, St Mirren have long been searching for a buyer for their outdated Love Street stadium in Paisley.

The deal with Tesco will allow the club to wipe their debts and take possession of a brand new stadium in Paisley, built by the supermarket chain.

However, it seems whenever Tesco decides to build a new store controversy is not far behind, and the supermarket chain is becoming used to being cast as the new corporate villain on the block.

A groundswell of opposition greeted its proposal to develop a massive site in Partick in the west end of Glasgow, where it plans to build a 24-hour store, 900 student flats and create 580 parking spaces. More than 1000 letters of objection have been lodged with the city council.

Previous applications to build stores by the chain have been defeated in Inverness and Portobello, as locals organise themselves against what they see as the "Tescopolisation" of their communities.

Environmental campaigners have branded the company as a juggernaut which must be stopped, but not everyone is opposed to its latest plan.

St Mirren have been desperate to vacate Love Street, which has been home to the club since 1895, to allow them to build a Premier League-compliant stadium. The team had to sell to a supermarket chain, as selling the site for housing would only raise half of the estimated £10m a retail sale would realise.

Planning permission for a supermarket was granted by Renfrewshire Council in 2005, on the condition that a new stadium for St Mirren be built in the Ferguslie Park area before Love Street is demolished.The club thought they had reached a deal with Sainsbury's last year, but the company pulled out in August.

Tesco has yet to submit its proposals to council planners, but has agreed in principle the purchase of Love Street.

Reaction in Paisley, whose town centre has become a retail desert since the opening of the nearby Braehead shopping mall, is mixed.

"My gut reaction is that this is a bad thing," said Stewart Farmer, the west of Scotland organiser for the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland.

"Paisley town centre is severely compromised as it is, and a supermarket at Love Street can only add to the problems small businesses there already face. This certainly won't make it any better."

There is a worry that the market is already too crowded. Just three-and-a-half miles from Love Street, in the Renfrewshire town of Linwood, Tesco is planning to take over the entire town centre, which is semi-derelict at the moment.

It promises to build new community facilities such as a library and town hall alongside its supermarket.

Tesco, the world's fifth-largest retailer, posted profits of £2.55bn on Monday. In the time it takes the average person to read this article the chain will have made about £10,000 profit.

Tesco refutes claims that it has a stranglehold on British shoppers and supermarket real estate and claims the existence of so-called "Tesco towns" such as Inverness, where it has three stores and takes 51p of every £1 spent on groceries, is a myth.

Last night Nick Gellatly, Tesco Corporate Affairs Manager, said: "We are committed to investing both in Linwood and more widely in Renfrewshire. However, we do not comment on speculation regarding our wider development programme."