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Mark Bittman writes an excellent article in Time on How to Eat Now encouraging people to eat at home because it’s good for you, for your family and it’s far easier than you think. He challenges why so many people are eating “hyperprocessed food, the stuff that is correctly called junk and should really carry warning labels.” He believes preparing food should be a source of comfort, pride, health, well-being, relaxation and sociability for people. Something that connects us to other humans. The solution to the obesity epidemic he says is to do it yourself, eat meals and stop gaining 25% of our daily calories from snacks. Helpfully, Time prints a list of store cupboard basics so that you know what to stock for local shoppers who subscribe to the above ideas. Here are Mark’s pantry basics. How many do you stock? Spices and herbs ·         Salt and black pepper ·         Ground cumin ·  ...

As you can see from this photograph of PR girl Suzi Price standing in front of the doors, the new fridge freezer (the rooms behind her) at Palmer and Harvey's new Hemel Hempstead distribution depot is very large. Along with a team of trade journalists, I visited the newly refurbished depot last week after a £6.5 million fit out. Julian Streeter, managing director of operations for P&H, explained that this depot was an investment in capacity for growth. Its two depots serving London and the south east of England were reaching capacity. The Hemel Hempstead location to the north west of London was a great fit with his existing network of 14 sites around the UK. Between them they make 48,000 deliveries a week to everyone from Tesco to the local independent c-store. What may concern independent operators in the south east is that Mr Streeter, pictured here in front of the ambient storage in the 168,000 sq ft depot, says that growth in the south east is being led by the multi...

Analysis of the UK's £32 billion and fast growing convenience market by Ed Garner of KantarWorldpanel shows that fresh and chilled is where Tesco Express is putting its emphasis. Speaking just after him at Sweet Charity's Independent Retailer Conference, Chris Etherington, chief executive of wholesaler Palmer and Harvey, said that fresh was nowhere near as high as it should be on the agenda of the independent trade. A reason for this is that the wholesale industry is not as good at delivering this as it should be. The major multiples are very good at it. We need to get better, Mr Etherington said. In a speech that was otherwise optimistic about the growth prospects for local shops, this was an important caveat. Mr Etherington, who heads the UK's largest wholesaler by sales, says that the market will grow. "It is a great, great opportunity and it's the shoppers that are doing it," he said. But how soon can the wholesalers get it right? This week's n...

It was the stream of shoppers visiting Steve Archer’s new convenience store in Newcastle-under-Lyme last week that really underlined his point that sometimes local shopkeepers cannot see the opportunity under their noses. He had persuaded the landlord of two small closed shops to let him lease them, knock them together and provide a full convenience offering including off licence. Nearby retailers led a petition of their customers to oppose the off licence and lost. “Local people really like the idea of being able to walk to their shop, rather than travel to the supermarket,” Steve told me. I could see this was true with my eyes. Mr Archer’s message is pretty much the same as the one Justin King, the boss of Sainsbury, told the national media at a City dinner around the same time. Shoppers are going “back to the future”, Mr King said, making more frequent trips and putting fewer items in their baskets. There is a big opportunity, Ed Garner, communications director of Kantar Worldpanel,...

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...

Speaking to a company representative of Bernard Matthews last week, I sense a new optimism from the company that was hit by negative publicity a few years back. The health benefits of turkey are well rehearsed by the company in its marketing and on its web site so I will not repeat them here. More interesting was our discussion of how effective independent shops are at providing a fresh and chilled offer to their shoppers. Many do not get the balance between soft drinks and fresh and chilled food right, with strong branding of the former and a weak offer of the latter. If you are going to have one Bernard Matthews SKU, the chunks pictured are the ones to choose. The £1 offer mimics the red spots used by multiples and complements the green grass imagery of the packs, which also have clear nutritional information. In a big display of Bernard Matthews products it looks great. But how would it stack up in your chilled offer? On its own, would the authority of the healthy message be lost? W...

Always fresh is the motto of Canadian food-to-go outlet Tim Hortons. This means it changes its coffee every 20 minutes, even if the pot is full. But it also means, says chief executive Dan Schroder, that: "You're changing all the time...always fresh washrooms, parking lots and products." I visited one of his outlets outside Toronto, where we discovered Timbits, its mini donut balls, and where the counter was pristine clean glass and steel and the staff were crisply attired. The Timbits stand out in my mind as the remarkable part. Mr Schroder is building his business on freshness. To be better than other outlets at delivering freshness he needs to get his staff to buy in to keeping things 100% and to get his business processes right. But perhaps the magic of his business is elsewhere. As the chain seeks to expand it sponsors local childrens sports events, using the Timbits brand. The freshness may get you noticed but the fun may be what is needed to get you coming ba...