Recently Waitrose announced it was planning to open 300 convenience stores in the UK. At the same time the new John Lewis store has opened in Cardiff and there are rumours that further site developments and supermarket acquisitions by JLP will be taking place in the short term.
Is this a reaction to Tesco’s opening up its first upmarket ‘non-Tesco’ branded retail outlet in direct competition to John Lewis? Asda are focusing on the value end of the shoppers’ pound along with Morrisons and the Co-op. And there isn’t much room for Sainsburys, unless they start to pull back their old market share that Tesco won from them back in the 80s and 90s.
So it’s all to play for, as Netto and Aldi redefine their proposition and new entrants such as ASCO launch in Warrington. It seems there is plenty of shoppers’ turf to fight for.
Potentially this gives the consumer greater choice and better value as we also fight the threat of redundancy, debt and increasing monthly household bills. So where does this put the corner shop and should we really care?
In many towns and villages the Post Office and corner shop are appropriate bedfellows, but with the Post Office closing branches and shoppers buying more from the supermarket chains, what is there left for the corner shop?
And what of those industries that supply them? Will they be able to adapt to the changing needs of shoppers and the supermarkets? Recessions create opportunity and we have seen some very famous industries close in previous recessions. But if we keep popping to the supermarket for a pint of milk or a loaf of bread, rather than the local shop, we may wake up one day and ask “where has the local shop gone?” Like the village pub or Post Office we will ask “when did it close?”
Maybe that’s what the consumer wants and maybe that is a good thing. But should we change our shopper behaviour knowingly rather than, as feels like at the moment, walking into this new age of consumerism with our eyes firmly closed?
Equally the corner shop needs to compete more aggressively, but then we often forget that the largest global supermarket is SPAR and they are always my corner shop.
Yup, that’ll do it. You have my aprpecitaion.
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