Britons Love Convenience

In the United Kingdom, the switch to local shops has spelled trouble for larger supermarkets.

January 14, 2016

LONDON – U.K. households have embraced convenience stores, stopping by these smaller, neighborhood stores more frequently rather than shopping at the bigger grocery stores, The Daily Mail reports. This change has the United Kingdom’s large supermarket chains rethinking their business model.

To capitalize on the trend, Sainsbury’s in particular has moved toward more trips to smaller stores by almost doubling its number of Netto stores to 25, up from 15. The chain is also on track to purchase Argos, with its 840 stores and delivery system, which Sainsbury’s also sees as a vital part of its future.

Sainsbury’s has been considering such changes for two years as part of its strategy to cope with new shopping trends, especially quick delivery of online grocery orders. One insider source told the newspaper that “the consumer is changing and pretty fast. Once they have the experience of getting deliveries to their homes quickly and efficiently, they gradually get to a state of mind where they expect everything to arrive now or in a few hours.”

The supermarket industry in Great Britain has been rather rocky lately. Morrions reported a 2% drop in sales around the holidays compared to a year ago, while Tesco will likely register similar declines. Even Sainsbury’s had a slight drop in sales—probably 0.7%—during the 14 weeks surrounding Christmas.

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