FSP Retail Blog

When Morrisons gobbled up Safeway, many of us southerners were a little concerned that the philosophy might not fit down here. I’m not sure how much the philosophy has changed, and how much we’ve been crunched by the lack of credit and are therefore willing to revise our shopping habits, but Morrisons is one of the few just now who are recording increases in their sales.

Our very own retail talking head, Geoff Nicholson, was invited to discuss this with BBC Radio Wales. As he pointed out, Morrisons, which traditionally focuses on fresh food and low prices, is finding favour with the current back-to-basics, cook at home, watch the pennies spirit.

Geoff however, ever savvy to the shifts in retail demand, questioned the long term viability of food only stores. In Wales, from where those tuned in were listening, there are 20 or so Morrisons stores, very few of which are more than 30,000 sq ft and tend to be located in market towns, not the major centres of population. This limits the opportunity to offer non-food, which has greater potential and offers better margins.

We don’t all want to shop in quasi-aircraft hangars, but we are all getting rather used to having our tea, t-shirts and television all in the same place! It will be interesting to see which way Morrisons progress, in the meantime, you too can seek out Geoff’s view by reading it regularly in SnapShop Monthly, or contacting him here at FSP