Bond vs Leahy

The top boys of Tesco and Asda have gone head to head to go green. Sir Terry Leahy in one corner the chief exec. of the biggest supermarket in the UK said a brining a; "revolution in green consumption; "would hit his customers pockets.

Andy Bond in the other corner stating that Asda's prices will fall as the company goes green. "The environment is absolutely fundamental, but we think it will actually save money. "

Deathofthehighstreet forecasted a price war just days ago and this new green war is developing as Asda have lowered around 10,000 prices since the turn of the year to spark a price war with Tesco.

In the Bond vs Leahy Deathofthehighstreet Bond's views are a just to gain points against Leahy will it work? Will he get his customers? Not likely.

Sainsbury could be the winners of this handbags row as Justin King - the other boss - sits and watches as his company actually seem to be doing the most. Deathofthehighstreet took a look around one Sainsbury's store to find;

- 33% recycled carrier bags

- Make a difference days - free reusable bags, replaced for free. (when the bags are sold all money gets to charity)
- Deathofthehighstreet sees the most locally produced products.

A fair effort form the company now will Asda and Tesco come through on their promises.

The green WAR will continue but the price war is just about here as well.

Price WAR

A supermarket price war may be on its way. A supplier from Asda reported earlier this week that they have negotiated a 10% to 12% price rise for its produces but Asda are not increasing the prices of this product, hitting there profits hard.

The company plans to absorb the heavy increase in food costs, estimated suggest cost could rise a huge 30%. This is all good news for our suppliers but the consumer could see a massive increase in prices after a price war if Tesco and Sainsbury’s enter this arena.

Deathofthehighstreet sees that suppliers and producer are getting a fair deal which is very pleasing but if smaller stores have to pay increased prices for their goods then prices will rise if supermarket ensue a price war this could be the next phase in the decline of our high streets. Deathofthehighstreet will watch this develop over the coming days and weeks.

A fair deal?

Sainsbury’s is to give its milk farmers their fourth pay increase of the year. The company is acknowledging that the farmers have received a bad deal in the past. They will receive an extra 1.5p a litre.

The move was in response to Tesco’s move to pay producers an extra 5.5p a litre two days ago.

Deathofthehighstreet is pleased that the two big supermarket chains are now giving some of the hardest hit produccers a fairer deal.

ASDA sell you out of date food

Asda have been fines £80,000 after two outlets in south Wales were found to be selling out-of-date food. Magistrates in Abergavenny fined Asda £78,750 and ordered it to pay £10,000 costs after it admitted 59 offences. Asda said staff have since been disciplined and teams retrained.

Trading standards officers found a pack of lamb chops that was 31 days past its use-by date, being sold in its Cwmbran store.

They also found food past its use-by-date on sale at the Duffryn store near Newport.

Torfaen Council said that of the other 58 items of food that should not have been on sale:
- 38 were one day past their use-by date
- 17 were two to five days past their use-by date
- 3 items were seven days past.

Asda said, "We're obviously disappointed that at a local level two stores did not properly implement our very thorough date code checking system. Although the products highlighted only represent 0.1% of all the products on sale in those stores, they should have been spotted and taken off sale".

Sainsburys want to deliver until 1am!

A SUPERMARKET'S proposal to extend its delivery times until 1am were opposed last night by councillors.
Sainsbury's in Bath Road, Melksham had argued that the move was necessary to ensure it had fresh food on the shelves when it opened at 7am.

But Melksham town councillors rejected the application which would have allowed deliveries until 1am between Monday and Saturday for a six-month trial period.
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Cllr Vic Oakman said: "The condition was put there in the first place to avoid movement of lorries after 11pm at night time to give peace and quiet to the people who live there."

An opening of a new Sainsbury’s in Dursley will mean motorist will have to queue for 20 minutes as traffic congestion will increae hugely. Local residents are angered.

Vicky Hancock, town centre manager said: "The original plans for the supermarket car park kept the access as it is now - which we knew local people wouldn't like.”

"We were concerned that it would put customers off using the store if they were worried about having difficulties getting out of the car park. Some people felt very strongly about this issue, after having to wait in the car park for up to 20 minutes at peak times."

ASDA haulted

Resident won a battle to spot ASDA becoming the third supermarket in the small town of Chippenham. The town centre has already seen loss of trade with from the existing Sainsbury’s and Morrison’s that are located in the town.

ASDA planned to build a massive 52,000sq ft store residents strongly opposed because the high street would again suffer a further loss of trade and traffic congestion would increase. The town councillors rejected the plans last night.

President of Chippenham Chamber of Commerce, Gareth Jones, said: "Last month, Chippenham Chamber of Commerce received outline details of the revised planning application.

"We hold reservations over the need for a supermarket of this size on the site, and remain concerned about the potential negative impact on the independent traders in the town."

Town clerk Laurie Brown said:"We are worried about the amount of traffic that will be created in an area where there is already congestion.

"The store would have a big car park but there would be a lot of cars trying to get to it along roads that already have too much traffic."

"We already have Sainsbury's and Morrisons, which attract people out of the town. What we want to do is draw people into the High Street or traders there could start to feel the pinch."

Tesco take over the world

Tesco plan to open 35 Tesco express, mini-supermarkets in Japan this year, with the first coming this week.

Tesco currently have 106 stores in Japan under the 'Tsurukame' brand.

'The new stores represent the most compact version of the 'Tsurukame Land' food supermarkets we have been running,' said Tesco spokeswoman Shizuko Ota.

Tesco have hit trouble with the entry in the US market with the set up cost tripling from 20 million to 65 million for there 'fresh and easy' American branded stores.

Below inflation wage rise

Sainsburys staff are set to get a 5.6% pay rise, but over the comming next two year in stages. The rise of only 5.6% is below inflation which curently is 3%. The deal which seems attractive at first glance has left some staff angered at the decision.

Harry Rowson said: "i feel this is unfair they have tried to dress it up as a good deal and they are gettin away without paying the premiums to new staff so over the comming years they [sainsurys] will save money from this deal."

New staff will not get sunday, unsociable hours and overtime premiums which are currently payed to staff.

The comany which had a pre tax profit of £194 million last year, way behind its main rival Tesco but still staff feel they are 'making sainsurys great again.' Justin King, Cheif exc., set a three year target of an additional 2.5billion sales since he took over. At the half way stage last Novemeber the company was on track achieveing and addiotnal 1.3 billion in the first 18 months.

* Plans for another ASDA superstore have been given the go ahead in Tain, Easter Ross.

* Only a £20 gift voucher for the parents of a tot who was given wrong advice in an ASDA pharmacy. Alan and Emma Clarke, frantically dialled 999 when there 1yr old took both Medised and Calpol.

* See your GP at ASDA. ASDA's chief pharmacist John Evans said: "We have 150 stores open 24 hours, which are easy to get to with loads of parking."

* Tesco plan to invade Dumfries with another superstore. Calmac Developments, which operates small shops in the town, has warned the development will have an “adverse impact” on neighbourhood shops in the area.

* Tesco have been denied planning permission for there fourth store in Inverness and people seem happy about it.

latest news

Tesco are planning to tear down a leisure centre in Burton. Meadowside leisure centre will be destroyed if an alternative sight is not found. Tesco claim the sight is not fit for purpose swalling up £1.4 million in subsidies in the last four years.

Asda have been fined £18,000 for letting mice run riot in there Clapham store. The mice were eating chocolate and many customers complained. Other products were covered in mice droppings and urine. The store was fined £5,000 in 2001 when mouse droppings were found in doughnut boxes.

Again Asda have been selling out of date products to its customers and they can stop it according to a spokesperson. Asda trading law manager Margaret Ryan said, "It is impossible to guarantee there will be no out-of-code [date] products on the shop floor at any given time.

Milk producers 'promised' better deal

Sainsburys have promised that they will pay milk producers higher prices if they can deliver a better service to the customer. Dairy Development Group have welcomed the announcement.

Sainsburys Chief Justin king said "We expect to pay more for milk, but we will only pay a premium for what will add value for our consumers.”

“These benefits have to be tangible – we will not prop up inefficient businesses or buck the market.

“Things like environmental issues and animal husbandry are things customers will value and will allow us to pay a premium for. We expect this premium to be real and substantial.”

10k rip off

Tesco are making suppliers pay £10k a year for shelf space. For suppliers who are forced to produce almost at the cost production this just adds insult to injury. Tesco will not even guarantee shelf space for this non-refundable, non-negotiable fee. The supplier has to pay £10k to just be considered by Tesco.

“We’ve been asked for marketing costs before, but this is the first instance I know of where we’ve been asked to pay to have access to a retailer,” one publisher said.

Highstreet of the future

So this what we see at the moment and get used to it because its only going to get worse with more super stores and less smaller ratailers. If you liked the traditional high street then forget it.

A house of commons all party parliamentary report said 2,000 independent convenience stores closed last year (2005), since 2000 there 5,000 independent retailers have been lost or 11% of independent retailers!

The report also said convenience is growing at a rate of 5% a year but during the same period independent retailers lost 5% of sales in the convenience sector to larger companies.

Operationally the smaller businesses cannot sustain competition on price as they cannot achieve economic benefits such as economies of scale. They cannot compete promotionally and they have a less flexible supply chain. It will be harder for small business to obtain finance from banks in comparison to the larger retailers who have large profits to rely on and will find it easier to obtain finance due to the amounts of capital they own.

It concluded: “if current trends persist, the grocery sector will have dramatically altered. Small shops in the sector cannot compete with larger competitors, in terms of buying power, promotional activity, etc. The limitations offered to them by the supply chain in terms of differentiating their stock means there is likely to be an acceleration of shops going out of business, as reduced market share continues to impact on the price advantages enjoyed by the larger retailers.”

£50 PS2

Today sees Asda launch its £49 Playstation 2, the games console will be sold in 316 Asda stores and will under cut high street shops.

Currys, PC, Argos world curently sells the PS2 for £94.99 in their cheapest package.

Whilst the same used consoles are selling on auction giant eBay for between £30 - £65. The asda price almost undercuts the cheapest internet giants. Where will you shop if you want a PS2 now, Asda i suspect.

No more food

Asda are making big moves away from only selling food with the launch of its first ever ‘Asda living store.’ The 3,810 sq m (41,000 sq ft) store will be launched in Northern Ireland on Friday. The store will only sell household goods; no food will be in sight.

Asda have highlighted ‘Asda living’ as the key growth area for the coming year. Asda’s chief financial officer Judith McKenna said: “This is a major investment that will enable Asda to provide even better service and great value products to more people across the UK that ever before.”

Asda also plan to open 18 more UK stores this year, creating 8,000 more jobs. The new jobs will be spread across Asda's 334 UK stores.

Asda have relaunched its pets, health and beauty and baby ranges to create a more department store-type look.

Power to the people

Tesco’s plans to build a superstore and 662 homes in Kingston have been abandoned as the people beat off the supermarket giant.

There is currently a Tesco less than two miles away in New Maldon and the new store was not necessary.

Tesco said: "Rather than push forward with the original application, we have decided to give local people a greater opportunity to participate in the development of this prominent location. Tesco will remain an important part of these plans, but we would like to redesign our plans with the help of local people."

Tesco was accused of using underhand tactics after it instructed a "nominee company" to apply for planning permission on its behalf. Haven’t we see this from Tesco before?

A local resident said building a Tesco: “will kill Tolworth Broadway."

More on this visit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_%20article_id=437620&in_page_id=1770

More news Tesco has been forced to stop giving customers refunds on 360 consoles as the as the advertised price of £297.81, changed to £299.97 when the customer go to the til. Under the terms of the policy, it meant they got their 360 for free.

More on this http://www.mcvuk.com/Tesco-clamps-down-on-free-360-blaggers

Tesco the neighbourhood market

Tesco is to lauch andother 20 stores in the American city of Phoenix. They are to be called the 'Fresh and Easy Neighbourhood Market' each store will be around 10,000sq ft.

Not the traditional neighbourhood market though!! Tesco are now branding themselves as if they were a local store in an attempt to take America by storm, how we know the opposite. We see the non-caring global suppler bullying multi-national who you only need give your money to and then bugger off.

Tesco's expansion battle

Tesco’s plans to extend its Launceston superstore have come under fierce criticism. Tesco want to extend the store by 1,285 sq. meters. But councillors and members of the public have expressed concern about the increased noise and light pollution that would be caused.

On local trader said the stores integration had been: “miniscule” and tesco continued to alienate the local retailer.

Steve Jones of Launceston Chamber of Commerce said he was concerned that by Tesco increasing the variety of goods on sale it would take more trade away from the town.

Above picture : The Launceston high street as it is today, supermarkets are destroying this image.

Tescoland

Channel 4 dispatches programme focused its attention on 'the supermarket that is eating Britain' last night. Tesco came in for fierce criticism for targeting local councillors and pressurising local communities. The programme uncovered how Tesco employed influential figures in the corridors of number 10 so that activity could almost go undetected.

Andrew Simms, director of the New Economics Foundation said: “They come at it from every angle. They target the councillors, they will target the local community, they are fighting these campaigns all the time, day in, day out.”

“We are going to wake up - in the not too distant future - and we will be living in 'Tescoland'.”

Useful links:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/uk/news/article_1265897.php/UK_becoming_Tescoland

http://www.channel4.com/news/dispatches/article.jsp?id=1266

The big four

Latest figures released on the 8th Feburary show how Tesco and the other big three, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrision’s dominate the grocery market. But with the supermarkets selling almost anything you can think of smaller retailers not just grocers are being threatened with closure. The industry is dominated by the big names and even big retail chains such as Waitrose or Iceland have been pushed onto the margins.

The breakdown shows that Tecso has a 30.6% share of the market far more than its nearest rivals Asda (16.6%) and Sainsbury's (16.3%) they are followed by Morriosn's who have a 11.1% share.

Somefield (5.4%) Waitrose (3.7%) and Iceland (1.8%) are the next biggest three retailers the other 14.5% is made up of smaller retailers.