The old-fashioned big trolley shop is resurging back in popularity as Brits return back to office, resuming their pre-Covid lifestyle.
Speaking with Sunday Times, Simon Roberts, the chief executive of the supermarket Sainsbury's, stated, "People are back in the office much more, so people are short of time again … and that’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing this resurgence [in] the big weekly trolley shop."
“If you can go to one store and be certain you can get Monday night’s tea for the family for under £5 and something [nicer] for the weekend … more and more customers are making a decision to do that.”
Under Roberts, who is closing in on five years in the top job, Sainsbury’s has refocused on food and, he argues, is now reaping the benefits. Since he took over, Sainsbury’s has increased its market share from 14.9 to 15.7 per cent.
“Five years ago, we couldn’t fill up our supermarkets, our costs were high, volumes were going backwards and we were losing market share.
"Now we are gaining share and putting more volume through our supermarkets because customers are doing more of their big trolley shop here,” he said.
Roberts also stressed on the importance of value deals, saying that customers make decisions every day based on the price on the shelf and that’s never changed.
"If you’re not super sharp on price customers will go somewhere else”, he said.
In the coming years, Sainsbury's plans to refurbish 180 supermarkets, which will see less floor space for clothing and non-food items, an
Sainsbury's plans to open 40 stores in the coming year — 20 supermarkets and 20 convenience stores.
Roberts also criticised government for burdening the businesses with increased costs at multiple fronts, including hikes to employers’ national insurance announced in the budget.
“It is a major challenge. It was unexpected and … there was very little time to plan for it. Everyone recognises that the government had difficult choices to make, but my very strong position has consistently been that we should have phased this over a period of time,” he said.
“What’s significant [about these costs] is that it’s coming in supply and retail at the same time. If you add up the national insurance impact, the wage impact, the regulatory impact, then it’s not going to be a very low level of inflation [for shoppers],” Roberts warned.
Giving an insight on how Sainsbury's is cutting its costs, Roberts revealed how the supermarket has begun using artificial intelligence to automate demand forecasting, a task that was performed by a team of people a few years ago.
“It might be 5C in the north today but 11C here,” Roberts explained. “That makes a difference to what kind of food people are going to want to buy.
“We can now more and more accurately predict that … availability has got better, waste has gone down and customers are getting more of what they want.”
