Letters to Retail Week
Recent activity
Comments (7)
-
Comment on: Stress-related illness
This particular article struck a chord with me. I was in the fashion retail industry for 25 years and several years ago enough was enough for me: customers became more abusive and demanding, showing little respect for me as a person. When I first started out in Fosters back in the 1980s, the customer came first. To read this article saying the staff come first and the customer second makes me think that someone out there is taking on board retail staff’s well-being. The stress that I was under should have been recognised by my manager, and perhaps if I had had the support, I still might be working in retail today. On my last day working in-store I did say to my manager we shouldn’t have put up with this and there should be someone within head office we could go and talk to confidentially about the conflicts of the day. Theo Paphitis has definitely got it right – happy staff give great service. Shirley Hilton
-
Comment on: Malcolm Walker hits out at new grocery code of conduct
Supermarkets that have got their product information right have no need to worry about the Grocery Supplier Code of Practice. Those that already maintain their product data in a flexible and agile way should be able to accommodate the new regulations without disruption. Compliance-related data for product ranges shouldn’t pose any further problems. The new legislation demands that retailers make adjustments to data requirements – by linking product ranges to suppliers and to contractual terms in a flexible product master data environment. A retailer should be able to do this easily. Put simply it is not legislation that is called for, it is better processes. Mark Thorpe UK managing director, Stibo Systems
-
Comment on: Asda changes strategy as market share stalls
Sales promotions and money-off schemes are excellent ways to attract customers and Asda is clearly exploiting this, making the most of the current thrifty attitude among consumers. With the recent bad spell of weather costing UK businesses more than £1bn, it is important for retailers to increase footfall and get customers to continue to spend. Asda is missing a trick here and is seemingly focusing on the short-term goal of increasing footfall. For retailers to maximise this opportunity, they must find a way of capturing data during the busy trading periods to thoroughly understand their customers’ purchasing behaviour, and utilise that data to leverage commercial opportunities over the next few months in the run-up to Easter. Asda is infamously against loyalty schemes, but developing longer-term customer relationships does not need to be based on a formalised programme – they can use the data to provide insight and improve the personalisation and targeting of relevant offers. Customers will therefore still be saving money by shopping at the supermarket, but Asda will be going a step further by giving them discounts in the areas they most want to save money in. As individuals become savvier in the digital era, retailers must also place an emphasis on encouraging greater interaction. By establishing an interactive relationship with customers and providing flexible offers retailers can create a robust loyalty proposition. A loyalty strategy is not a short-term fix, but something that must be embedded in the long-term commercial plans of a business. Stuart Evans General manager, ICLP
-
Comment on: The day the zombies took over
In response to Lord Kirkham’s article “The day the zombies took over”, which criticises the use of company voluntary arrangements (CVAs), it is important to highlight to your readership that a number of central tenets of the argument are unsound and indeed misleading. While all insolvency procedures inevitably result in loss to creditors and are therefore unpopular, it is important to point out that the large majority of these procedures save thousands of jobs and rescue the viable part of businesses. JJB would be a useful illustration. The company’s financial strains were well documented in the media but it would be a somewhat mercenary stance to state that the whole store network should have been liquidated and thousands of staff laid off because the business was floundering. Setting JJB on a firmer commercial footing required tough conversations with lenders, the sale of the leisure business and asking the landlords of the loss-making stores to accept six months’ rent in return for the company’s release from their contractual liabilities. The process was long and painful for all concerned, but for the creditor group and the 7,000 staff this was a fight worth agonising over. The suggestion that a CVA in some way gives an underperforming business a competitive advantage is factually incorrect. A CVA gives all stakeholders the opportunity to discuss the best compromise in an open and collaborative manner. By contrast, a company that goes into administration leaves landlords and trade creditors in a worse position, with this group having little say in the process. An insolvency process that involves the wider creditor group in discussing the best way forward for a struggling business is a preferable option, particularly in an economic environment that will undoubtedly inflict more casualties. The last recession showed us just how far reaching the implications of widespread job losses and company failures can be. For this reason, we support the Government reforms to encourage the increased use of CVAs, effectively making administration the option of last resort. Richard Fleming UK head of restructuring, KPMG
-
Comment on: Bogofs could be banned
The release of Government guidelines charging the country with reducing the 1,000 tonnes of food waste we throw out every single day has thrown up an interesting debate about whether the retail industry is doing its fair share in response to this serious issue. Every year in the UK, we throw away £10bn worth of food that could’ve been eaten. Wasted food is not only a drain on resources, but a major contributor to climate change. If we all stopped wasting food it would have the same environmental impact as taking one in five cars off the road. Now, food is obviously packaged for protection during transportation, communication of contents, branding, shelf appeal and storage. But, the question should also be, how could the way it’s designed and packaged help to cut down on the amount of food we throw away? Recently, retail packaging has received a bad press. Attempts have been made to cut back on excessive use of materials, but as an industry we must continue to strike a fine balance between respecting the important role packaging has to play in the preservation and safe storage of food – ensuring it remains attractive to consumers, buyers and potential investors from food producers and supermarkets – and accepting the responsibility we have in helping reduce food waste. The time has come for both lateral and literal thinking to produce inspired packaging design with clear communication, shelf appeal and most importantly, the ability to help consumers “love food and hate waste”. Bob Wallace Marketing director Nicepond
