With the rather surprising news that former UK retail veteran Stuart Machin has returned to UK Food retailing after a period in Australia with Coles and Target and also with Steinhoff (UK). Here are the 5 that matter for M&S Food as he looks to get started in April.
Week 34. The week is slightly delayed thanks to the bank holiday and this being written on a different continent. Next week – week 35 is a card carrying, United States retail special. Excited? Good! This week we have Tesco doing their bit for the nation’s mathematicians, some armageddon in retail (US) discounting in review and a […]
Week 33. The week saw more terrible weather harming both BBQ and B&Q sales. Featured this week are Christmas 2016 and 2017 alongside shrinkflation, skilled work in Frozen Foods, B&Q garden inspiration and yet more fake news on pricing.
Week 32. As a youngster, I always enjoyed fantasy football with Baddiel and Skinner and in particular their feature at the start of each show where they highlighted things they’d seen whilst watching football that week. In a pre internet world, it was far harder than it sounded.
With the trends for 2017 out from most of the more professional outfits, it’s time for me to bring my predictions and thoughts to the fore. Of course, there will be no mention of #millennials #tech and #wearables and it’ll be a steely focus on the reality facing people this year.
This post originally appeared in the subscription-only Grocery Insight newsletter, and has been republished here in full. Happy new year! I noted with interest that the analysts post Christmas were lauding a great sales performance from the ‘big four’, highlighting that the sales had returned and good times were here again. Of course, this wasn’t fuelled […]
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn, and has been republished here in full. So Brexit, who expected that? I think the closeness literally could see it go either way but the margin of victory was surprising, as were some of the areas that ended up voting leave. Notable mention goes to Cornwall who voted leave, […]
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn, and has been republished here in full. Hero lines are quite the Christmas tradition in retail, with Morrisons pushing a marvellous looking £12 gateau with enough Chocolate to sink a battleship… As the calendar turns towards the 19th / 20th December – we can get excited at the final […]
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn, and has been republished here in full. The Government’s laudable bandwagon jump of the minimum wage rise towards a ‘living wage’ was welcomed in by (not least) the ever lovable Iain Duncan Smith. Who was delighted no doubt that he can seemingly reduce his welfare bill further, without the […]
This post originally appeared on LinkedIn, and has been republished here in full. A recent visit to Belgium and Holland yielded some clues about how to combat discount in the UK, but to be honest – their formulaic approach was more evident here than what we experience in the UK. Aldi Nord for example were […]
