nickshanagher

Most people I met this week said that things were going to get worse before they got better. Knowing this, some were optimistic about the prospects for their businesses. This is because they had cut costs where possible and put up prices where possible. Miles and miles away in Cincinatti, headquarters of Procter & Gamble, which makes everything from Pampers nappies to Pringles crisps and from Duracell batteries to Gillette shaving foam, the strategy of cutting costs and pushing up prices had helped it report better than expected sales. However, its chief financial officer, Jon Moeller, says that the big question is whether the market will grow or not - "And you can take both sides of the argument." His concern is that unemployment is still going up. For local shops in the UK, local employment is a key driver of how optimistic you can be. Howard Davies, writing in Management Today, complains that he cannot find a builder to refurbish his east wing. "I thought builders...

The Financial Times this week contrasted the success of Costa Coffee in opening its 1,000th UK coffee shop and the failure of Starbucks, which is due to shut 30 outlets, and quotes analysts who say that the secret was in getting the marketing message correct. While Starbucks were telling shoppers that "summer's back", Costa was saying "Try our great value lunch, £4.95 for a sandwich and any drink"! However, the report goes on to say that all the chains may face a threat from "edgier" independent operators in the UK market as shoppers look for something new. This suggests that many coffee shop regulars are making a statement about themselves in choosing what they drink and where they are seen to drink it. (If fashion is so important it may also explain why 54% of shoppers think coffee is overpriced.) For the local shop, the continued strength of these chains with their "overpriced" coffee, must mean an opportunity to offer good drinks at a...

Local retailers may have some sympathy with independent operators of tied pubs, where the publican has to buy beer at prices set by the company from whom they have leased their business, after government regulators decided not to change their industry. CAMRA, a consumer group with more than 100,000 beer drinking members, had complained to the Office of Fair Trading that the market was rigged against their interests, pointing at the way that tied pubs were controlled. The OFT, in finding against CAMRA's complaint, in part used the Alan Greenspan defence that it thought pub-owning companies would not operate strategies that would compromise its commercial position. If it was not true for Wall Street banks, must it be true for pubcos? At the same time, in the USA, the American Booksellers Association has written to the government asking for it to investigate predatory pricing by Walmart, Target and Amazon. New hardback best sellers listed at $25 to $35 are being sold at $8.98 to $9...

Sales of sandwiches and coffee continue to rise and news this week that Greggs, the bakery chain, plans to open 600 new stores at the rate of more than one a week from next year demonstrates confidence in consumer demand. Interestingly, the stock exchange listed company says it will fund the £300m it expects to spend on expansion out of its cashflow! It is a useful reminder to c-store and newsagent operators to check that they are not neglecting local demand. Coffee sales, in particular, offer attractive margins and are easy to provide.

Warm weather in September and promotions by high street retailers slowed the growth of on line sales to a record low of 1.4% in that month, says IMRG, the body that represents on line retailers. On-line retailers are also braced for problems because of strike action by postal workers and six out of 10 say that shoppers have already called them to ask if deliveries would be affected. However, experts are confident that the pressure will only be temporary and that on-line sales will start to rise again. Local retailers should keep tabs on what is going on in the e-tail world and use this information to keep their local chamber of trade an politicians on their toes. It used to be said that retailers were poorly served by their politicians because you could not expert their jobs out of the local area. With the internet, that no longer holds true. Around 65% of UK households have access to the internet and the Royal Mail (yes, it's them) say that 62% of the population shop from home...

This week's news that Tesco has opened its first store with no checkout staff might be the start of a revolution - or it might not. Budget airlines get passengers to do much of the work by moving ticketing on line and making the traveller upload his or her passport details and so on into the system. For the customer, there are benefits to knowing that you are checked in and have a seat before you travel to the airport. My experience of using staff-free tills is that the shopper has to make the effort to line up the barcodes (or find them in some cases) and the shopper has to resolve the issues when the machine beeps and does nothing. In return there does not seem to be much benefit to the shopper and lots for the shop owner. While some locations may suit this depersonalisation of the shopping experience, independent retailers would probably welcome its widespread deployment as a chance to differentiate the local shop and its high service ethic.

Earlier this week I suggested that badges with positive messages could help local retailers to build relationships with shoppers in store. Today, I came face to face with a badge that out of context might hurt a brand. At a London bus stop an employee of the Pret-A-Manger sandwich chain was waiting, carrying a bag full of sandwiches and wearing a smart jacket with a slogan saying that his firm Delivers. On his cap, he wore a huge badge with the single word trainee on the top. Two ideas crept into my mind. First, if you had paid for some top quality sandwiches to be delivered, surely you were not expecting them to be delivered by bus. Secondly, what was he training in? Catching a bus? Making a delivery? Your marketing needs to be thought through. If you are going to get your staff to wear a trainee badge, then you need to ensure that they appear to be training in a skill that will be of value to the consumer. A trainee behind the delicatessan counter makes sense. A trainee sand...