Supermarket expansionism
Since the 1950s food retailing in the UK has undergone a radical shift from high street and district centres comprised of specialist food shops; grocers, greengrocers, bakers and butchers to the dominance of food retailing by the 'big four' supermarkets: Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Safeway.

This long term restructuring has accelerated with the huge increase in out of town superstores. The number of superstores increased from 457 to 1,102 between 1986 and 1997, whilst eight independent shops have closed every day during the same period. The number of convenience stores has declined by almost 40% in the eleven years from 1986 to 1997.1

Whilst all the supermarket multiples threaten local communities and the local economy, different supermarkets seem to be pursuing different expansion strategies. Somerfield has the largest total number of stores, but these are mainly smaller stores in town centres. They have been selling off their larger stores in order to concentrate on their small neighbourhood stores.

In response to planning controls Tesco and Sainsbury have shifted their expansion programmes to focus on smaller format inner city stores such as Tesco 'Metro' and Sainsbury's 'Central'. Asda, on the other hand, whilst refurbishing and extending many of its stores, is planning to build 20 new out of town Asda/Wal-Mart supercentres of around 90,000 ft. Wal-Mart, which acquired Asda in 1999 for 6.7 billion pounds, is the world's largest retailer and is well known for its strategy of destroying the economic and social fabric of small towns all across America by building giant out of town superstores and selling goods at rock bottom prices.3

Consolidation in food retailing
We can expect to see further consolidation in food retailing over the next few years as the supermarket giants continue to battle for domination of the global market.4 Expansion across Europe and the US is the way supermarkets believe they will keep profitable and stay competitive, either through acquiring foreign chains, or by moving in. In the UK, along with Wal-Mart, the giant German discounters, Aldi and Lidl, have already moved in, as has the Danish chain Netto. Carrefour, the French multinational and the largest grocery retailer in Europe, and Dutch multinational Royal Ahold have stated that they would like to enter (in Carrefour's case, return to) the UK grocery sector.

Supermarkets are increasingly focusing on non-grocery goods, which will impact on the size, and siting of supermarket developments. Tesco is already the largest petrol retailer in the country, and all the supermarkets are eagerly becoming chemists, newsagents, DIY and garden suppliers, travel agents, banks…in fact taking over the entire high street. The success, or otherwise, of Internet shopping could affect supermarket expansion plans. Internet shopping may mean fewer people buying directly from supermarkets, but would also mean more lorries on the road delivering from dedicated distribution centres or from the stores themselves.

Glossary

References
1 Social Exclusion Unit, 'Improving access to shopping for people living in deprived neighbourhoods' 1999 www.doh.gov.uk/shoppingaccess.htm
2 Keynote, 'Supermarkets and Superstores' 2001
3 Bill Quinn, 'How Walmart is destroying America and what you can do about it' Ten Speed Press, 1998
4 Competition Commission 'Supermarkets' 2000 www.competition-commission.org.uk/reports/446super. htm#full