nickshanagher

In today's FT John Gapper reviews the setbacks to David Cameron's attempts to curb binge drinking and Michael Bloomberg's attempts to curb obesity, with his ban on large servings of soft drinks being overturned by the courts. Mr Gapper argues that governments should adopt the lightest measures possible to address such social ills and draws the comparison with tobacco, where rumours are swirling that Mr Cameron may be planning to introduce plain packaging. Convenience stores are in the uncomfortable position of selling all three products, mostly responsibly. They account for a big proportion of sales and are important profit centres. Society (and politicians) also fail to see the great benefit of a responsible local supply chain. For c-stores in poorer communities the threat of political action is much greater and Mr Gapper addresses this. What he does not address is where poor shoppers will go to buy their alcohol, sugary drinks and tobacco when the politicians impos...

Making shoppers feel special requires some careful calculation by local retailers as to the value that offers provide to their customers. In a recent Retail Newsagent magazine it suggested that local retailers think about providing loyalty cards to encourage regular coffee purchases, for example a "buy 10 cups and get one free" offer. Is this generous enough for most shoppers to appreciate the value that you are offering them enough so that they change their behaviour? Doing the maths, if the cost of each hot coffee to go is 50p and you sell them for £1, then on a deal where someone buys 10 to get the 11th cup free, the discount is worth 10% to the shopper and it costs you 50p to give this value to him or her (the sales tax does not apply). The impact on your cash profit is that it falls by 14.2% from £3.50 to £3. If you do the offer at "buy six cups and get the seventh free", then the potential cost to you is 23.7% from £2.11 to £1.61. However, you also need to f...

It says here in an advertisement by Nescafé that shoppers who buy a hot beverage in store are more likely to buy into other categories and spend more than other shoppers. The figures Nestlé quotes are that they will buy 4.8 items per trip (versus 2.8) and spend £10.47 versus £5.10. Surely it must be worth taking five minutes out and doing the sums for your shop. (Pity the Nescafé ad is silent on the margin potential!)

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."