The Ghost of Christmas to come...
Smaller multiples must find it hard to cope with the rise of the department store - which is what the major groups have now become. And also, with the fact that Christmas comes later every year in terms of the sales peak - except of course for the internet, where it comes a week or so before the normal retail trade.
Could smaller footage retailers emulate their larger rivals by acting as Argos does - as a collecting point for pre-ordered goods? With a local collecting point, people can feel secure that there is someone to look to if they don't get what they wanted.
Then again, the fact that people are prepared to "book early" for Christmas means there is time to organise a supply chain, and the chance to bring people into a store to collect, and introduce the Christmas food range at the same time.
Many years ago we looked at the doorstep delivery service. The ones that remained profitable were delivering toys at Christmas, as well as papers and the normal food you would expect. All it requires is having enough local visitors to make a local catalogue worthwhile - perhaps in conjunction with a website.
What Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda show is that a customer for one thing is a customer for many. They're trading in loyalty for one type of purchase against the opportunity for many more sales.
Colin Harper is MD at Storecheck Marketing
Has the number of customer complaints about the price of goods increased recently?
