nickshanagher

What sort of word is this? According to Wikipedia, beverage is used to describe a drink that has been prepared for human consumption. Perhaps a bottle of Evian is in and a sup from the tap is out! According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary, beverage comes from the Latin, bibere, by way of the Old French beuvrage. In the COD it is listed next to bevy (plural bevies) but my edition only allows that to mean a flock of quails or larks; or a company of group of women; and not a few beers! My only problem with the word beverage is that it just does not sound great, it does not sound liquid, and it does not sound refreshing. The beauty of the word- for local retailers - is beverage mostly comes with high margin potential. As Mark Sterratt of gsk recently told Retail Newsagent , "You'd need to sell three packets of crisps to get the same profit as one soft drink."

Having bought a caffe latte from McDonald's for £1.35 and finding its packaging was really neat and it tasted good, I have suggested that this sets a new benchmark for UK local retailers in terms of price and quality. This morning, fresh 'n' fine, a local shop that I pass by had a sign out front saying coffee and a croissant for £1.45. That's a good deal, I said, trying to work out how much the McDonalds' latte was if I bought six and got the seventh free (if they allow me a latte?) (it's £1.16). The croissant was excellent. The coffee unremarkable, perhaps even a little watery. The important thing is what sort of profit you can deliver at £1.45, and how much footfall you win. On balance, almost good enough!

The coffee! Food-to-go is seen as one of the drivers of local store success for the next five years but McDonald's is now delivering a great product at a low price. While the City may be assessing the challenge that McCafés will deliver to Starbucks, for the local retailer the competition for footfall will be a challenge too! Footfall is the oxygen of retail and if your shoppers are chasing someone else's coffee, then you need to rethink your business plan.

Just as a written commitment means that you are more likely to deliver on your promises, so too for independent shopkeepers joining a symbol group means that you are more likely to work in a disciplined way with your wholesale supplier. In the past three years the symbol group independent has performed better and the idea of affiliation has become more appealing as the spread of the excellent Tesco Express format has changed the competitive position in the battle for local shoppers. In a perverse way, the spread of Express has helped define what a good symbol group shop should look like, how it should work and has motivated the owners of local shops to aim higher and demand more of themselves and their staff.

For suppliers, Tesco creates a cheap route to market and in return for accessing it the supplier gives up his control over his brand. The independent channel, in contrast, is hard work and more expensive but he retains control. The integrated wholesale/retail model of the large supermarkets has been winning for 40 years. But if social networks are allowing consumers (shoppers) to undermine the rise of the big brand, how could this be exploited by smaller nimble businesses? An opportunity for the wholesaler in the new century.