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.