nickshanagher

'We don't have it in stock but I can order it for you!' The words that are the death knell for small bookshops, according to Harry Mount, writing in the FT. He points out that thanks to Amazon he can order it himself and the book will be delivered straight to his door. Mr Mount's article is entitled: Shed no tears for the death of the old bookshop. He is confident that book shops may survive but only if they get the emotional pitch correct. They need to provide a quiet yet communal atmosphere in which shoppers can sift through ideas. It all sounds a bit fancy but the magazine retailer has something to learn. What Mr Mount describes is the commoditisation of buying books. In my local bookshop, when I ask for a book that they don't have, they suggest that they can order it for me. That means I must remember to come back. It also means if their wholesaler is out-of-stock then there will be more delays. I have never said yes. But what might make me say yes? This w...

I was sent this photograph of a display at Caltex, an Australian c-store chain, by him!, the UK shopping insights company. What him! wanted to draw to people's attention was the idea of including a healthier option in food-to-go. What I think UK retailers will like is the way the meal occasion is presented - grouping products together to meet a shoppers need state. I know many retailers think they have this cracked but once you see it done really well - and many UK shopkeepers are doing it better than as shown here - you realise most people are just playing lip service to the concept. More importantly, the same applies to presenting food for later - quick meal solutions next to drinks and desserts.

The Sun's execellent City page, otherwise known as the "page you can trust", unveiled the High Noon headline this week after some stinking results posted by the Co-op. It quoted Peter Marks, its chief executive, as having said that people were cutting back on food for the first time in his working life. "Co-op profits dive triggers panic," suggested the Sun. But so too did the resignation of Steve Jobs, Heineken's announcement of sales falls in the first half of its current financial year, and any number of other corporate events. In a sense the Co-op's pain should be welcome as it confirms the story that the Kantar Worldpanel sales estimates have been telling us every month - the Co-op is losing market share. Local shopkeepers collectively are doing better than the Co-op, which means its 3.6 per cent like-for-like fall in sales (at a time when grocery inflation is nearly 5 per cent) should be your bottom end benchmark. Our village is served by a Co-...

There is a well known rule of retailing that the longer you get people to spend in your shop the more they will buy. One of the reasons that supermarkets put fruit and vegetables up front is because it slows people down, ensuring that they reach the more profitable central aisles packed with processed foods in a better state of mind to browse and buy more. Tesco's announcement that it was testing free wi-fi in store was being trumpted by its marketing machine as a way to help shoppers price compare using the phones. However, it might also help fill their shops with students and school children who cannot afford to surf the internet on their pay-as-you-go mobile phones. As many local retailers know, there is a fine line to keeping shoppers in store longer so that they spend more and in having people killing time blocking your floor space. Magazine browsers in particular get a bad press. However, it is still an area to watch. If it works, you may have to respond in kind.

Analysis of Fresh and Easy - Tesco's loss making foray into the US grocery market - is a great place for local shopkeepers to go in terms of understanding what Tesco believes makes local shops tick. Interviewed this summer, Tim Mason, chief executive of Fresh and Easy, told the FT that shoppers were telling him that you're certainly easy but you don't seem to be that fresh. His response is to rejig how the stock is displayed. Flowers are moving to the entrance. The freed space will be filled with in-store bakery products. Fresh coffee to take away will be added. In areas of strength, such as fruit and vegetables, more needs to be made of the products in store. Health and beauty will get less space and own-label food more. What to learn? First, that despite all its know-how and the research it put into the launch of Fresh & Easy, Tesco made lots of mistakes. In an attempt to keep costs down, it failed to sell its Fresh message. As many independent retailers know, g...

Earlier this month, the FT profiled Moni Varma, founder of Veetee Rice, for its entrepreneur column. As an immigrant from Malawi, Mr Varma's journey to success in the UK will have obvious resonance for many south Asian shop owners. Mr Varma has built a public profile on the back of a successful track record as a supplier to the multiple supermarkets and more recently through developing his own brand Dine In range. Late last year he joined the chairman of Asda in signing a letter to the Daily Telegraph supporting the government's "cuts" to public spending ("cuts" is in inverted commas because total spending is still going up, just more slowly than previously planned). Interviewed by Jon Snow of Channel Four, he said his optimism in creating new jobs and investing in the Dine In range was fuelled by the downturn because people were going to be eating in more frequently. Mr Snow challenged Mr Varma's view that the private sector could kick start the e...

In a business diary column in the FT, Laura Tenison, head of the 40 outlet strong JoJo Mamn Bébé children's and maternity clothing company, offers two thoughts that will be resonant for local store owners. First, on the subject of competing with the supermarkets (niche businesses have to, too!). "Sometimes I get emails asking why we don't put Disney characters on our sleepsuits. Yes, they might sell. But what would be the difference between us and the supermarket? If you are a niche business...you have to think long term." Second, on the subject of bank finance. "In July 2008, the world changed. We had planned to open eight stores that year, but managed only two because the banks refused to extend our working capital facility, even though our gearing was extremely low for a growing retailer." A great many company owners understand this second point. Banks are only really happy to lend you money when you don't need to borrow. The moment you need to ...

While there is lots of turmoil in the grocery market, local shopkeepers can be optimistic that the billions spent by the big four on new shops is not taking sales from them. On the other hand, trading remains tough and will continue so for some time. Data collected by industry observers like Kantar Worldpanel and AC Nielsen is released monthly and provides a useful benchmark for local store owners. But you have to keep watching the numbers as they are not as dramatic as you may think. The big message from the Kantar team is that grocery inflation is running at 5.2 per cent but sales are only up by 3.8 per cent. While the big winners in its August analysis are the discounters - Aldi and Lidl - it estimates the sales rise at symbols and independents is 13.4 per cent across the 12 weeks to 7 August. However, if you average the market share positions for 13 Kantar reports to smooth out seasonal fluctuations, you find that Asda has lost 0.3 per cent market share and Sainsbury...

On a visit to the Midlands and mid Wales last week I stopped in on a number of local shops ranging from the very good to the OK. What was interesting was to contrast the expectations that are created by a good high street location. In both towns in Wales the architecture of the shops to the streets was great. The windows of some were great. But the investment stopped at the front door. In one shop, a newsagent, they had a fantastic display at eye level when you walked in and on it was displayed some magazines that I cannot recall. The shop had a really interesting layout that created a lot of shelf space and three aisles at an angle in around 500 square feet of floor space. But there was no spark. The Spar shop around the corner was OK. An alternative shop selling healthy foods looked interesting but very dark. The same three shops also appeared in another town, with similar results. Except in this case, the Spar, run by Tates, had very high spec lighting on its vegetables and goo...

It is shocking to see pictures of retailers being attacked and their staff being barricaded into their shops for their own safety. The only comment I can make is one of sympathy with those who find themselves in the path of these yobs. Rav Garcha tweeted the following comment very late last night; "Please all if u have a business stay away do not get involved. We were hit 4 times while we were in repairing damage." There is not much I can add to that comment at this time. Keep safe. This insane behaviour must end soon.

Like arch-rival Unilever the previous week, Procter & Gamble told investors that consumers had accepted the range of price increases that it had introduced because of the rising costs of raw materials. In summary, its results for the fourth quarter included 8 per cent sales growth of which 3 per cent was from price rises. In a conference call to chief executive Bob McDonald, one analyst asked about how the company might respond to a low single digit growth environment in developed countries [like the UK]. He said they had two strategies. One was to keep on investing in research and development and to develop new categories. The other, if no growth was possible, was to keep its costs under control so that it hit its profit targets. What is clear is only two areas are not under threat of spending cuts - research and development, and advertising. One of Mr McDonald's concerns is if competitors do not raise prices. They were watching markets closely to see if they had to resp...

While hacking may have put Rupert Murdoch into an unpleasant spotlight last month, the analysis of the direction of his business empire offers some uncomfortable truths for independent retailers who sell newspapers - which is most local shop owners in the grocery market. Mr Murdoch has been very successful and retailers need to acknowledge that over the past 40 years he has made them a lot of money, particularly in the UK, through his investment in and vision for national newspapers. A chart in the FT provided an interesting commentary on the development of Mr Murdoch's company. In 1980, newspapers and magazines accounted for 90 per cent of his revenues. In 1990, they accounted for 71 per cent. In 2000, they accounted for 45 per cent. In 2010, 11 per cent. In part, the decline is explained by the expansion of his companies into broadcast TV, cable networks and films. In 1990 they were worth 1 per cent, 0 per cent and 8 per cent of his business respectively. In 2000, they were w...

In February this year two UBS economists argued that food might become a political issue in the first world as commodity prices put pressure on household budgets and the UK at that time seemed to them to be the country most at risk. Shoppers, they argued, based their understanding of inflation on the increases in high frequency purchases and their model suggested that prices of processed foods in the UK were rising 2.5% higher than they should be compared to the US, France and Germany. This might focus the attention of politicians. Six months later, the food industry seems to have been let off by the energy industry - with rises in petrol, gas and electricity prices making the headlines. However, the impact of the squeeze on consumer purchasing power is still being watched carefully. In comments to the FT this summer, Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever, said his company needed to be very close to the consumer and needed to offer them more choice at different price points ...

Last Friday I visited my local Aldi for the first time and it was a dispiriting experience. Wide aisles, half empty shelves, a scattering of customers, few staff, and bizarre space planning. This is not the future of retailing. Most of the shoppers there were seeking to buy as much protein as possible for the smallest possible price. Earlier, I had visited BUYology, which occupied a former DIY shed near the centre of Reading. There were plenty of bargains, including multipacks of Walkers crisps for 35p - all marked OOD or out of date. "Zoom in on microscopic prices," it says. In the City pages of the FT there is much admiration for Poundland, which with 347 UK stores, almost one for every day of the year, is now planning to open six Dealz shops in Ireland - avoiding the Euroland name that the FT had taken a shine to! "But," it warns " the company is also losing its fixed price promise, and with that goes some of the simplicity that helps to bring the punt...