Retail Day
Retail Week, today
Supermarket sweep
I try to avoid the walk up Camden High Street as much as possible, but I had to at lunchtime and was amused to see the former Woolies still has a hoarding up saying ‘Sports Direct: Opening soon’ as it has for the past two months or so. How can it take so long to fit out a Sports Direct, if indeed the use of the words ‘fit out’ and ‘Sports Direct’ in the same sentence isn’t a contradiction in terms?
The TNS grocery market share data came out today and Tesco’s share continues to be nibbled away at by Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. No wonder Tesco has doubled the points on the Clubcard this week - the card is an amazingly powerful tool to have in the armoury and with its rivals having Tesco on the back foot for a change, it seems a very good time to deploy it to try to stop shoppers defecting.
Also interesting to see the hard discounters’ momentum really coming off. Although they’re remarkable businesses, I never bought into the ridiculous hype about them over the past two years, partly because the UK grocers do a very good job of offering value anyway. While there was a novelty factor about visiting Aldi or Lidl when the recession was at its depths, shopping with them is not an experience to warm the heart if you don’t have to.
It seems poor old Aldi boss Paul Foley paid the price for this slowing in growth, which is a shame because despite appearing to be something of an automaton on the surface, he was actually a very decent guy and really seized the opportunity for his employer to make the most of the downturn. With the economy improving and the PR benefits been and gone, his replacement Armin Burger will have a big job on his hands.
on Aug 21st, 2009 at 11:39 am
Tim
If you had to choose between Camden High Street and Barrow-in-Furness to be put into Room 101, which would it be?
on Aug 24th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I think your comments must have made it as far as the Ashley camp, Tim. They’ve now taken down the boarding outside the store! But it still bears the faded remnants of the Woolies sign. Wonder how long it will take them to remove that.