nickshanagher

Two pieces of analysis in the Financial Times this week offer food for thought for local retailers in follow up to Tesco boss Philip Clarke's claim that shoppers would order ahead while driving to the store. His vision of drive-thru Tesco stores, captured by Chris Gamm in Retail Newsagent last week, includes the following: "As consumers become increasingly connected to the internet we will probably know your lounge light bulb blew this morning, so we will have already added a new one to your order as well." The first analysis by Jonathan Guthrie concerns the plight of Ocado, the delivery only service that purveys "chard and kumquats to yummy mummies". Its problem is that its supermarket competitors "appear happy to subsidise their own lossmaking online operations indefinitely." There is a persistent question mark over the business model of online grocery sales, which is that the cost of delivery is greater than the margin, which means the bricks ...