Waitrose emerged as the winner in a poll by BBC consumer programme Watchdog to find the UK’s favourite supermarket. Twenty One percent of voters in an online poll cited the upmarket retailer – or online partner Ocado – as the supermarket where they would prefer to do most of their shopping. Sainsbury’s was next with 19% of the vote, ahead of Tesco (15%), Asda (14%) and Morrisons (10%). Marks & Spencer claimed just 9% of the vote, although 35% of voters said it offered the best quality food, ahead of Waitrose on 29%. Meanwhile, Waitrose also scored highest for shopper satisfaction, with 85% saying they were ‘very satisfied’ with the shopping experience. However, voters named Asda as the best-value supermarket (24% of the vote) ahead of arch rival Tesco (16%), although Tesco had more shoppers in the poll than any other supermarket. Just 1% of voters thought Somerfield offered the best value. Notably, voters placed equal importance on price, quality and convenience, with all three cited by 26% of participants as the single most important factor in determining where to shop. More than 36,300 consumers took part in the online poll, run on the Watchdog website.
Sainsbury's has created the first supermarket polyclinic by opening a dental surgery at a store that already boasts several other health services. The dental surgery adds a new arm to the GP surgery, pharmacy and podiatrist at Sainsbury's Heaton Park store in Manchester.A variety of treatments will be available, competitively priced against NHS and private surgeries, according to the retailer. The dental surgery, which opened on Monday, will be open seven days a week, meaning that it will offer longer opening hours than private surgeries.Sainsbury's expects the dental clinic to serve around 12,000 patients a year.
Dansk Supermarked, owner of the Bilka, Fotex and Netto chain in Denmark, has said that it plans to open a new format named Føtex Food in March. The new concept will be smaller in size compared to traditional Føtex supermarket, and will focus more strongly on upmarket, more premium goods. The first stores are expected to open in Århus and Aalborg, with long-term plans to open 50 Føtex Food stores in the years ahead.
Tim Mason, head of Tesco's US operations, has admitted that it made mistakes with its early market research and may have to make big changes in its Fresh & Easy stores."we may have assumed that certain elements of the Fresh & Easy brand would do the work for us and we would not have to go down and dirty on price. That may have been a mistake,” said Tim Mason, head of Tesco’s US business.
Ambitious plans by the major supermarkets to expand into mortgages are likely to be axed because they are struggling to source the capital needed from financial-services operators. Asda and Tesco announced plans to enter the mortgage market last year. The former said it was in talks with three financial-services providers to launch a range of white-label mortgages by the end of 2008.
Mills Group has started trading from the first of six stores on its acquisition hit list for this year. The 75-strong chain, which operates c-stores and CTNs in the north of England, the Midlands and South Wales, bought the 2,500 sq ft store in Armley, Leeds, from an independent retailer. The store has sales of around £31,000 a week.
All 15 staff have been kept on and trained on the retailer's Challenge 30 policy on age-restricted products, said MD Nigel Mills. A temporary sign is in place at the store and a full refurbishment is planned in the next three months to increase the store's fresh and chilled offering.
Asda is removing up to 30% of branded items from certain categories in a cost-cutting campaign.In the coming weeks, 10 grocery categories will be put under the microscope to see which products can be taken out. Asda had adopted a "less-is-more approach to ranging" that would enable the company to cut prices, said chief merchandising officer Darren Blackhurst.
Tesco has secured a deal to take over six stores from Somerfield. The deal covers stores in Middlewich, Peebles, Hungerford, Newcastle Heaton, Bath Weston and Liverpool Lord Street. Tesco confirmed that staff currently working at the outlets would transfer to Tesco, with the stores set to reopen later this year after extensive refurbishment. The news comes in the wake of Somerfield’s £1.6bn takeover by the Co-operative Group last year, when a deal was struck between competition authorities and the Co-op to divest dozens of Somerfield outlets.
Earlier this week the Co-op confirmed plans to close Somerfield’s former head offices in Bristol in a move that puts at risk hundreds of jobs.
Waitrose plans to add 12% more space to its portfolio over 2009 and plans further investment in price and promotions. Managing Director Mark Price stated that he believes this will be sufficient to enable Waitrose to overtake M&S's food business in terms of sales and commented: "In the TNS figures we are already bigger by volume but by adding 12% extra space this year, we will take over in sales terms."
