The no-frills, discount, cut-price grocers are stealing the customers from under the nose of mainstream grocers, especially Tesco's. The discounters are only following the advice of Tesco's founder, Jack Cohen: PILE IT HIGH AND SELL IT CHEAP. Hard discounters differ from standard supermarket in several important ways. They typically stock fewer than 2,000 products rather than 40,000 or so in a conventional supermarket. Most are own label rather than the manufacture's heavily advertised brands. They arrive at the shops in "shelf-ready" packaging, which avoids laborious stacking. Discounters shun the special offers that supermarkets and their suppliers use to boost sales. Instead, they sell at consistently low prices.Simplicity begets efficiency. They sell one or two types of a product, which helps with easier handling at warehouses and less risk of stock running out or hitting the sell-by date. The low prices make shoppers less fussy about customer service. So discounters need less staff. The strategy is working. The recession encouraged shoppers to give the discounters a try. The range of products have grown enough that discounters can now serve as one-stop shops for some people.
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21620228-even-if-british-grocers-accounting-scandal-soon-forgotten-its-failure-protect-itself
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21620228-even-if-british-grocers-accounting-scandal-soon-forgotten-its-failure-protect-itself
