The redoubtable Director General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, two years ago accused “Big Food, Big Soda and Big Alcohol” of being as evil as “Big Tobacco”. Why so? Well, for “Big Soda” her criticism focused on high sugar content…
UK supermarket chains continue to knock seven bells out of each other as they struggle to come to terms with hard discounter level prices. Even upmarket Waitrose is not immune and its “Pick Your Own Offers” gives loyal shoppers 20%…
The health & well-being trend in food is well-documented but, as we’ve noted previously, eating 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day seems unattainable for most families across Europe. In the UK, consumption statistics are based on actual fresh…
What’s the mindset of shoppers when they are in the store? Of course, it will depend on the shopping mission – the big stock-up shop; topping up; dinner for tonight; dire emergency; special occasion, etc.? For routine purchases, shoppers may…
Do you eat your “5-a-Day”? If you do, you’re in a small minority – the shocking truth is that less than 10% of UK pre-teens and 35% of adults do so! Most of us crave guiltily for salty chips yet…
As consumers emerge shell-shocked from their bunkers and household incomes tick up, grocery purchasing behaviour is still in recessionary defensive mode – savvy shoppers rule and price-matching programmes and promotions reduce the effectiveness of differentiation solely on price. Aldi and…
Quite a lot, really! But, first, we’ll front up – we’re both immigrants (British-born Hughes managed to slip into Canada back in the 1970’s and Spaniard Flavian legged it to London in 2012). As we all know from reading the…
We keep banging on about the havoc caused by the hard discounters in the UK grocery market. Well, that’s because they are very disruptive and will continue to be so and so will others! Back in 2011, Sainsbury’s launched its…
Two weeks ago (May 6th), David Tyler Chairman of Sainsbury’s making the best of a bad job opined “our profitability and sales have shown good resilience relative to our listed peers”! In short, JS had lost less ground in sales…
We note from the Spanish trade press that DIA, a discounter with 7,000 stores in Spain, Portugal, Brazil and Argentina, is yet another major grocery retailer that is embracing the fashion to excel in fresh foods. In the Spanish market,…
Supermarkets in your pocket. 