Warning: This could be too convenient

2 May 2007 17:37

POWERFUL supermarkets are on the verge of becoming Britain’s “one-stop shop” by selling everything from football tickets to four-bedroom homes, experts have warned.

With bigger stores already having as many as 100,000 different product lines, it is only a matter of time before there is nothing “the silent, slightly guilty majority” of shoppers will not be able to get from the major chains, according to the trade magazine the Grocer.

And this is a bad thing?

Golf-driving nets, airline tickets, pet insurance and electricity supplies are among the unconventional items available in supermarkets such as Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrisons. Some offer discounts on Open University courses and children’s nurseries and are planning to have GP surgeries and community police services on sites.

It’s terrible, just terrible. I can’t possibly think why they haven’t banned supermarkets yet.

FFS.

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asda / convenience / morrisons / retail / sainsbury / supermarktes / tesco

4 comments »

#1 akatsuki
2 May 2007 19:51

I guess it has an effect on the mom and pop shops and other small businesses if all of us lazy folk do just one big shop a week at the mega-mart.

#2 MatGB
2 May 2007 23:31

@akatsuki. Yes, it does. They get out competed. This is mostly because rents in the old one-stop locations (ie, High Streets) is still ludicrously high making smaller shops uncompeteive.

But if we’re getting everything we need, in one location, at a reasonable price, then we’re better off, giving us more time and money to do other things, hence service sector and leisure jobs are creted instead.

A traditional shop needs to compete on more than just price/availability thse days, I have no real problem with that.

#3 doctorvee
2 May 2007 23:46

Yeah, with supermarkets you can get all of this done much more efficiently than you used to. It’s usually cheaper (because of economies of scale), and in my experience the products you get from smaller independent shops are pretty poor quality. And it saves a lot of time as well. In short, society as a whole is better off.

And of course, if people really didn’t like Tesco et al, and if they really liked small independent shops — then they wouldn’t shop at Tesco. But they do.

#4 duncan2
3 May 2007 08:05

Sometimes they shop at Tesco because they don’t have the choice of shopping at their local small independent shops. How many such shops are there on Kirkcaldy High Street? How many independent butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers? I can think of 1 fishmonger and 2 greengrocers. There’s a couple butchers outwith the town centre, but it’s impossible for one to exist in the centre due to Tesco’s stranglehold on consumer spending.
http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/

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#1 akatsuki
2 May 2007 19:51

I guess it has an effect on the mom and pop shops and other small businesses if all of us lazy folk do just one big shop a week at the mega-mart.
#2 MatGB
2 May 2007 23:31

@akatsuki. Yes, it does. They get out competed. This is mostly because rents in the old one-stop locations (ie, High Streets) is still ludicrously high making smaller shops uncompeteive.

But if we’re getting everything we need, in one location, at a reasonable price, then we’re better off, giving us more time and money to do other things, hence service sector and leisure jobs are creted instead.

A traditional shop needs to compete on more than just price/availability thse days, I have no real problem with that.
#3 doctorvee
2 May 2007 23:46

Yeah, with supermarkets you can get all of this done much more efficiently than you used to. It’s usually cheaper (because of economies of scale), and in my experience the products you get from smaller independent shops are pretty poor quality. And it saves a lot of time as well. In short, society as a whole is better off.

And of course, if people really didn’t like Tesco et al, and if they really liked small independent shops — then they wouldn’t shop at Tesco. But they do.
#4 duncan2
3 May 2007 08:05

Sometimes they shop at Tesco because they don’t have the choice of shopping at their local small independent shops. How many such shops are there on Kirkcaldy High Street? How many independent butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers? I can think of 1 fishmonger and 2 greengrocers. There’s a couple butchers outwith the town centre, but it’s impossible for one to exist in the centre due to Tesco’s stranglehold on consumer spending.
http://www.neweconomics.org/gen/