>>the compelling offer that retailers must deliver
In today’s highly deflationary grocery market, where the pricing agenda for the whole industry is increasingly being set by one EDLP retailer, it is all too easy to forget about some of the other tangible and intangible factors that consumers take into account when deciding where to do their weekly shop.
That’s why The Grocer 33 shopping survey places such emphasis on the sort of experiences - good and bad - recorded by our mystery shoppers each week as they go about the country buying our basket of goods.
It’s those retailers which can combine a compelling retail offer, great service, outstanding availability and competitive pricing who will win over consumers. Based on those criteria, it is Asda, Morrisons and Tesco which emerge as the top chains in our quarterly review of The Grocer 33.
But, as you can read on page 27, the best all round performer is Morrisons. It is strong on price, has done well on service, and has been simply outstanding on availability. We visited 14 Morrisons stores in the period under review and had a full basket on 12 occasions. That is a phenomenal performance - all the more so given that we failed to buy just two products in all that time. It is an almost perfect record. If we are to believe that tackling availability issues is now a priority for the industry, then Morrisons has set a standard to which other retailers must now aspire.
Clearly price cannot be ignored in the current trading climate. And as our quarterly review shows only too clearly, Asda is determined to maintain leadership in this area despite the fact that Tesco and Morrisons are pretty close to matching it.
Now, it must be pretty galling for Tesco to see Asda acting like a market leader on price. So it was not too surprising to see Tesco hit back this week with a £60m programme of cuts.
And as you will read on page 36, the multiple’s marketing director Tim Mason is adamant that price will be a key driver of trade for grocery retailers in the coming 12 months. Nevertheless, Mason identifies a raft of other factors that he thinks will shape the market, and believes retailers will need to give more to customers - and be better and quicker at delivering it too.
In other words: price is important, but it is not everything.
Price isn’t everything
In today’s highly deflationary grocery market, where the pricing agenda for the whole industry is increasingly being set by one EDLP retailer, it is all too easy to forget about some of the other tangible and intangible factors that consumers take into account when deciding where to do their weekly shop.
That’s why The Grocer 33 shopping survey places such emphasis on the sort of experiences - good and bad - recorded by our mystery shoppers each week as they go about the country buying our basket of goods.
It’s those retailers which can combine a compelling retail offer, great service, outstanding availability and competitive pricing who will win over consumers. Based on those criteria, it is Asda, Morrisons and Tesco which emerge as the top chains in our quarterly review of The Grocer 33.
But, as you can read on page 27, the best all round performer is Morrisons. It is strong on price, has done well on service, and has been simply outstanding on availability. We visited 14 Morrisons stores in the period under review and had a full basket on 12 occasions. That is a phenomenal performance - all the more so given that we failed to buy just two products in all that time. It is an almost perfect record. If we are to believe that tackling availability issues is now a priority for the industry, then Morrisons has set a standard to which other retailers must now aspire.
Clearly price cannot be ignored in the current trading climate. And as our quarterly review shows only too clearly, Asda is determined to maintain leadership in this area despite the fact that Tesco and Morrisons are pretty close to matching it.
Now, it must be pretty galling for Tesco to see Asda acting like a market leader on price. So it was not too surprising to see Tesco hit back this week with a £60m programme of cuts.
And as you will read on page 36, the multiple’s marketing director Tim Mason is adamant that price will be a key driver of trade for grocery retailers in the coming 12 months. Nevertheless, Mason identifies a raft of other factors that he thinks will shape the market, and believes retailers will need to give more to customers - and be better and quicker at delivering it too.
In other words: price is important, but it is not everything.
Price isn’t everything
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