This is likely welcome news for the large grocers, who have been requesting a review of this decision for quite some time. As the discounters’ assortment, store size, and network has evolved significantly over the last 16 years, the decision to even the playing field is sensible. Aldi and Lidl have both stated this will not impact their ambitious expansion plans, with both looking to open several new stores per year over the next few years.  

B&M announced plans to trial new store formats in its latest annual results, looking to combat the difficulties it has seen in like-for-like sales growth over the last few years. In addition to segmenting its stores by location and customer base, it is testing relaying (6 stores) and refitting (10 stores), alongside the B&M 2.0 format launched in Wigan. With in-store execution identified as a key driver of sluggish growth, the new store format will likely yield positive results and be replicated further across new and existing stores. Suppliers will need to be aware of what this will mean for the assortment, especially for FMCG SKUs; read all about the UK’s variety discount landscape in our report The new era of variety discount, launching on Retail Analysis tomorrow. 

by shining a light on the benefits missed by Clubcard users, Tesco aims to draw shoppers into its loyalty app and create a positive outcome for those who are sitting on a large amount of Clubcard points. This realisation will engage shoppers to use the loyalty mechanic more often and associate tangible benefits with using their Clubcard. The campaign will also alert non-users to the broader benefits of shopping at Tesco with a Clubcard, drawing more people towards the retailer, providing a hat-trick of benefits for shoppers, getting rewards for shopping with Clubcard, for Tesco, gathering valuable shopper data, and for suppliers, getting insight of shoppers needs and demands from the data gathered.  

in May we saw Tesco trial a hot food to go addition to its meal deal in 39 stores for a limited time, now we see Asda has made a permanent change to its range by offering a hot food meal deal for cheaper than the one Tesco trialled. The addition of this hot food to go meal deal differentiates Asda from rivals offering only chilled and ambient products, while directly competing with food to go specialists hot meal deals such as Greggs’ Big Deal. Our shopper data shows that only 19% of supermarket food to go consumers are satisfied with the hot food on offer in supermarkets. A hot meal deal fills a gap in the food to go offer that many retailers have, while simultaneously providing shoppers with a convenient and affordable new solution, with hot food also feeling more premium than chilled, making it very likely to gain spend from food to go mission shoppers and impulse purchases. 

the timing of this loyalty scheme expansion is tactical, a mixture of families looking after kids who are on summer holiday and people spending differently over summer means that lowering the price on summer and family items will tempt shoppers to engage with the retailer’s loyalty scheme. The large number of products announced to be on promotion will also cover a broad range of shoppers’ typical baskets and impulse purchases during this summer season, with the likely outcome of driving volumes, loyalty engagement, and value perception for Sainsbury’s.