The People's Supermarket

[Chapworthy 10]

Having watched the Channel 4 program last night on the 'People's supermarket', it struck me that Sheffield would be a perfect place to set up a similar initiative. The premise is that this supermarket can compete with Tesco/ASDA etc on price by using local community cooperation, with members of the supermarket paying an initial set sum (say £25), and then offering a few hours of their time to work in the shop per month for free. Members then get a discount (say 10%) off their shopping bills, which bring the prices down to tesco levels. The set up would of course need an initial cash injection. This in response to the unfair prices paid by large supermarkets to producers, money earned by top execs, and levels of waste produced which is all part of the business plan. Social networking etc would be a good way to spread the word, so that this idea would be feasible in today's climate. Who's up for it? search for people's supermarket on facebook or the channel 4 website for more details.

[indizine 10]

Tesco has something like 45-50% of the supermarket share, the others are behind them (sainsburys and asda) followed by Morrisons, etc.

 

Their buying power for all the UK stores will enable them to buy produce in at much lower costs.

 

Whilt it's a nice idea in theory theory, I don't see how it can begin to compete. And for a few hours work, 10% of my shopping bil is worth what? £10? Not worth getting out of bed for. Id rather do voluntary work for a good cause for 3 hrs than do it to get £10 off my shopping bill that still, somewher down the line, will be making someone a lot richer than it will me. Only the top dog who came up with the idea will be quids in (as is usual) not the 'volunteers' that essentially, would make this idea work.

[DavidRa 10]

Tesco has something like 45-50% of the supermarket share, the others are behind them (sainsburys and asda) followed by Morrisons, etc.

 

Their buying power for all the UK stores will enable them to buy produce in at much lower costs.

 

Whilt it's a nice idea in theory theory, I don't see how it can begin to compete. And for a few hours work, 10% of my shopping bil is worth what? £10? Not worth getting out of bed for. Id rather do voluntary work for a good cause for 3 hrs than do it to get £10 off my shopping bill that still, somewher down the line, will be making someone a lot richer than it will me. Only the top dog who came up with the idea will be quids in (as is usual) not the 'volunteers' that essentially, would make this idea work.

 

Hi Sandra,

I think you will find Tesco share is around the 30% mark.

[indizine 10]

Sorry, yes you're correct. No idea why I wrote that as I was reading this article! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12336559 which does say 30%! Must have been thinking of something else when I worte that. It doesnt affect the point though, that they are nearly double their nearest rivals so it would take some beating.

[watchcoll 10]

i can understand the concept of it in a utopian world - but we don't live in a utopian world. it would not only have to compete with large supermarkets in terms of price but also in convenience, quality, availability, customer satisfaction etc etc as at the end of the day it would still just be a shop that people would be choosing to spend their money in and they would have the same expectations as they do in any other food shop.

 

i can't see how a shop can be managed without any kind of hierarchical management structure either. where would they stand on issues of misconduct with their 'staff'? someone has to lay down the law! could they provide consistant availability of a core range of products if sales were slow one week? or would it end up being a shop like netto where they stocked what is cheapest to buy in at the time so the customer wouldnt know if they had in the stock what they needed to buy day in day out? a customer will only endure going to a shop to find they cannot buy basic store cupboard items for so long before they give up and shop somewhere else that meets their needs.

 

similar issue with wastage - it's all very well slagging off the supermarkets (who generally have budgets of between 2-2.5% of weekly sales for wastage) but what would they do with fresh products that went out of date because they didnt sell? try and sell them after their display until/best before/use by date? from experience, customers believe that products that are past their display until dates are no longer fit to eat and will not buy them in favour of products that are a lot newer in date. when in fact the display until date is just for store reference, and it's there to ensure the product also has a few days 'cupboard life' for the customer as well as a shelf life for the shop. it's only the use by instruction that has any legal standing and must be adhered to.

we all hear people complaining that fruit and veg doesnt last long enough, after all, no one buys battered and bruised fruit and veg, which is why it ends up in the reduced to clear section, and then in the bin. it's sad is does get binned, but it gets binned cos people dont want to buy it

 

also in regards to the case of wine that they took out of the bins where one of the bottles had been smashed. the whole case gets thrown away firstly cos the shop cannot guarantee that there are no shards of glass left on the intact bottles (where there's blame, there's a claim!) and secondly cos customers will not buy bottles that are dirty or have damaged labels, even if they are reduced to clear and it's the last bottle of wine left in the shop. people expect a perfect product - the fact that they are going to discard the stained bottle/battered cereal box/dented tin once they've emptied it is irrelevant. also it wouldnt provide a very good image of the shop to be selling 'damages' or 'substandard' products on normal shelves at normal prices regularly.

 

the availability of products that a customer wants and the quality of the products on sale are as relevant or at times more relevant than the price of those products when the difference is only a few pence (10%).

 

im watching this programme with interest and if they can find out a way of keeping the shelves full of decent quality produce so the customers still have something to buy, even at the end of the day, and keep a zero waste bill then they would have worked a miracle that even the giants like tesco and sainsburies have spent millions on trying to perfect and still not succeeded.....

[scargill 10]

"also in regards to the case of wine that they took out of the bins where one of the bottles had been smashed. the whole case gets thrown away firstly cos the shop cannot guarantee that there are no shards of glass left on the intact bottles (where there's blame, there's a claim!) and secondly cos customers will not buy bottles that are dirty or have damaged labels, even if they are reduced to clear and it's the last bottle of wine left in the shop. people expect a perfect product - the fact that they are going to discard the stained bottle/battered cereal box/dented tin once they've emptied it is irrelevant. also it wouldnt provide a very good image of the shop to be selling 'damages' or 'substandard' products on normal shelves at normal prices regularly."

 

The wine should have been poured away first, and the bottles disposed of in the bin. what if this had got into the hands of children

[watchcoll 10]

"also in regards to the case of wine that they took out of the bins where one of the bottles had been smashed. the whole case gets thrown away firstly cos the shop cannot guarantee that there are no shards of glass left on the intact bottles (where there's blame, there's a claim!) and secondly cos customers will not buy bottles that are dirty or have damaged labels, even if they are reduced to clear and it's the last bottle of wine left in the shop. people expect a perfect product - the fact that they are going to discard the stained bottle/battered cereal box/dented tin once they've emptied it is irrelevant. also it wouldnt provide a very good image of the shop to be selling 'damages' or 'substandard' products on normal shelves at normal prices regularly."

 

The wine should have been poured away first, and the bottles disposed of in the bin. what if this had got into the hands of children

 

first thing i thought was that the bins are supposed to have been closed and locked so no one could get into them, never mind children! but you are correct, the stuff is supposed to be poured away first.

[watchcoll 10]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-12387233

 

example here of a community store that seems to be succeeding.

[go4it 10]

Having watched the Channel 4 program last night on the 'People's supermarket', it struck me that Sheffield would be a perfect place to set up a similar initiative. The premise is that this supermarket can compete with Tesco/ASDA etc on price by using local community cooperation, with members of the supermarket paying an initial set sum (say £25), and then offering a few hours of their time to work in the shop per month for free. Members then get a discount (say 10%) off their shopping bills, which bring the prices down to tesco levels. The set up would of course need an initial cash injection. This in response to the unfair prices paid by large supermarkets to producers, money earned by top execs, and levels of waste produced which is all part of the business plan. Social networking etc would be a good way to spread the word, so that this idea would be feasible in today's climate. Who's up for it? search for people's supermarket on facebook or the channel 4 website for more details.

 

Right as a former supermarket worker (in my youth) I learnt a lot about how they work.

 

Basically it boils down to three products - produce (fruit/veg), general household and luxury items (TVs etc).

 

The big supermarkets bulk buy and get massive deals. The producers may only make 10p on each item but if Mr T is ordering 1,000,000 a time then that's a lot of money.

 

With luxury items the supermarkets sometimes get deals on branded goods. More often though they can't - hence why they seek their own brands. Technika started off as a rip off of Technics, a reputable brand. Now Tesco stock Technika products so they can offer flat screen TVs for a fraction of the cost.

 

Household items costs very little to produce. These products are mass produced in factories. Lynx Shower Gel costs 10p to make, they will wholesale it for £1 to Mr T and co. You see various offers on these items (buy 1 get 2 free) as they are cheap to produce. My view is to let the big companies who make these products (Unilever, Proctor and Gamble etc) battle it out with the supermarkets to lower the price - they will always make money from it.

 

But the fine line is produce - this is where people are suffering. The large cost of producing it, the fluctuations in weather, the threat of cheap imports. This is where the supermarkets are killling an industry.

 

In terms of a people's supermarket - haven't we got these with farms shops (just minus the cooperative side?). Why don't people set up something local for produce - let people go to Tescos for household items but enocurage them to shop local for produce?

 

I don't think people would work for a 10% discount, too much goes into running a supermarket.

[steveroberts 10]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-12387233

 

example here of a community store that seems to be succeeding.

 

I did not see the program but, this, for me is key to such a venture; location, location, location.

 

I cannot see a venture such as this working in Sheffield. You set up a co-operative, you pay towards it, you work in it for free and, in return, you get to buy goods at the same price as Tesco etc...am I missing something?

 

Where it will work is where access to a Tesco is expensive (i.e. the cost of getting to Tesco outweighs the savings). In such a scenario there is a reason to do the above.

[Chapworthy 10]

You all make valid points - the current marketplace for food and household goods is extremely competitive. However, this idea isn't about competing directly with the supermarket giants, it's about creating a place for likeminded people within the local community to do their shopping at a shop which shares their principles in terms of ethics and responsibilities. No-one would be getting rich - any profits not invested back into the business could be shared equally among members.

[indizine 10]

Why would we want to spend more though? Thats a point you do not address if it not about competing. You are suggesting we work a few hours for free so we can spend more on our own shopping bill. A bizarre concept to me.