Lidl has overtaken Waitrose as shoppers turn to discounters.

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  • Competition is hotting up. :)

  • It is. But other stories have said that the big supermarkets are cutting jobs, so I'm not sure if they'll actually be more jobs in the end.

    These German stores are giving the Big 4 are run for their money. I wonder if they might try and expand by buying other shops like Iceland and Co-Op to give them even greater scale.

  • These German stores are giving the Big 4 are run for their money.

    Is that something like you are not independent anymore and you should have given even more rights in the EU? :P

    German, with different opinions.

    Please correct my spelling and grammar mistakes ;)

  • Competition is hotting up. :)

    Indeed and the reason for this:

    Merger talks between British supermarket chains Sainsbury's and Asda are at an "advanced" stage, Sainsbury's has confirmed.

    The two brands are expected to be retained should a merger go ahead.

    Sainsbury's and Asda - the UK arm of Walmart - are the second and third largest supermarkets in the UK.

    The combined group would comprise 2,800 stores and would represent around 30% of the UK grocery market - similar to that of market leader Tesco.

    Total shock and yet not entirely unexpected.

    This is about Tesco, Amazon, but also the subject of this thread, the rise of the German discounters.

    It's about survival. See this thread for those that haven't made it: The next store to close is....

    Will this get cleared by the competition authorities?

    With such a large share of the combined group, normally I would have thought that this merger would get rejected, but the merged group will only be as large as Tesco and there's still all the other smaller supermarkets and of course Amazon...

    This may also simply be because Walmart wants to be number one in this country like it is in its home market.

    Financially, this makes sense, but I'm not sure culturally. Sainsbursy's is more upmarket and tends to be more expensive, while ASDA is more downmarket with the stack 'erm high philosophy. Also, at least in my area, Sainsbury's tends to have the traditional supermarket sized stories of the 1980s where as ASDA has much larger stores.

    Will it work?:/

  • I would guess that the stores will keep their respective identities and images. It's about economies of scale to be able to compete. It's noticeable how prices in my local Sainsbury's are steadily coming down, especially on fresh veg and own brand labels. On the other hand their pre-packed deli meats are still far too expensive, two or three times what Lidl knock them out at.

  • The thing is, I don't buy into the higher price means better quality nonsense that some seem to, I have at different times sampled all the main supermarkets own brand stuff and to me it is just the same product with the respective supermarkets name on the only difference being the price, I have noticed even the packaging looks the same apart from the supermarkets name on it, I draw the conclusion that a lot of it will come from the same supplier, the fact some people will insist that it is better quality from one or another supermarket is a sort of placebo effect to some extent, another words they want to believe it's better quality so to them it is, very much in the same manner that some insist that brand name products are better.

  • Sainsbury's now included Argos in most of its stores where I live and work , also they are never close to each other so it could work but only if the competition side remains.

  • I'm not convinced you can lump Lidl and Aldi together even though everyone seems to do it. Lidl has a much better range than Aldi and although meat/veg is fine at Aldi some of their other stuff e.g. yoghurt and jam are awful. I'm happy to shop at Lidl if we don't need much, we're passing, there's no queue for the car park and we've got a pound coin for the sodding shopping trolley but tend to give Aldi a wide berth. The missus does get meat there though if she's in the area but it's not worth a special visit just for that.

    Even so I still tend to stick with Tesco and Sainsbury's due to it being easier to park, they always have everything I need and I don't need to queue at the checkout. Quality is similar to Lidl and prices not so much higher as they used to be.

  • The thing is, I don't buy into the higher price means better quality nonsense that some seem to, I have at different times sampled all the main supermarkets own brand stuff and to me it is just the same product with the respective supermarkets name on the only difference being the price, I have noticed even the packaging looks the same apart from the supermarkets name on it, I draw the conclusion that a lot of it will come from the same supplier, the fact some people will insist that it is better quality from one or another supermarket is a sort of placebo effect to some extent, another words they want to believe it's better quality so to them it is, very much in the same manner that some insist that brand name products are better.

    Do you remember the Watchdog investigation into M&S and their piss taking of their Christmas ads highlight their so called luxurious food? All made in factories by Eastern Europeans who didn't even wash their hands after going to the toilet and then handling food... So high price doesn't necessarily mean high quality, too true.

    And you're right about the own brands too. Obviously the supermarkets make their own bakery items as an example, but things like packet biscuits are made by the biscuit manufactures not the supermarkets and all their packaging is very similar just with a different supermarket name on them. Sometimes there are differences in products and the best way to check is look at the ingredients lists and compare that way.

    Sainsbury's now included Argos in most of its stores where I live and work , also they are never close to each other so it could work but only if the competition side remains.

    I think Walmart is trying to emulate what they did in the States and having Argos is a important part of that in their fight against Amazon. I've been in some huge Walmart stores in the States and you can literally buy everything in some of them, including cars. I'm not sure we'll ever get to that stage, but our shops are going in either of two ways:

    1. Either they sell everything under one roof, or

    2. Whatever niche product they sell, they do it better than anyone else.

    Walmart is going for option 1 here and I wouldn't be surprised if Homebase come back into the fold at some point.

  • All the labels on that stuff usually say "fresh".

    To be fair it usually says "Freshly baked (in store)";)

    Lables can be very misleading, for instance "fresh" Alaskan Salmon could be up to a year old and been in frozen storage as the actual fishing season is only a month or two. Actually if you're going to use it for sushi that's actually a good thing as the freezing kills the parasitic worms that sometimes infect salmon.

    And having a red tractor sign, or even a Union Jack, doesn't mean the product is UK sourced, only that the last significant operation was in the UK. Fortunately the supermarkets own branded meats have both country of origin, slaughtered and packed countries.

  • Sainsbury's has confirmed plans to merge with Asda, which is currently owned by US supermarket giant Walmart.

    The supermarkets said that grocery prices would fall in both chains as a result of the merger.

    Sainsbury's chief executive Mike Coupe also said the deal would not lead to store closures or job losses in stores.

    So, the formal announcement of the merger was this morning and the Sainsbury's boss is stating there will be no job losses, do we believe him? I suspect there will have to be cost cutting, if prices are to come down.

  • So, the formal announcement of the merger was this morning and the Sainsbury's boss is stating there will be no job losses, do we believe him? I suspect there will have to be cost cutting, if prices are to come down.

    Eventually there will probably be job losses but more than likely there would be some anyway, even without a merger, as supermarkets adjust to the cheapies and to the change in shopping habits.

  • I think the big changes to come will eventually be with the food producers and product suppliers to the supermarkets, rather than in the supermarkets themselves. When/if The Big 4 are reduced to the Big 3, there isn't many efficiencies left to squeeze out.

    A bit like the vertical integration discussed in the media mergers thread, I reckon supermarkets will start to buy up the food companies. The supermarkets already own many farms, so eventually everything along the food chain from the potatoes out of the ground to the tins of baked beans, will be fully controlled by the supermarkets.

  • At least 73 supermarkets will have to be sold in order for Sainsbury's proposed merger with Asda to be given the go-ahead, according to new research.

    And it's in the south-east and the north-west of England where stores are most under threat.

    The new supermarket group would become the largest in the UK by market share.

    As the article goes on to say, there are no other bigger supermarkets apart from Morrisons who could take on the large stores, if the merged group had to get rid of some of them. I just don't see this merger working if it were to get the go ahead. Bit like sugar and salt, the two don't go together.

    Lots of commentary in the media has been about Walmart and essentially this deal is a way for them to exit the UK market as they would take a minority share in the merged group. In other words, all the commentary about Walmart taking on Tesco and winning which the media endlessly spoke about years ago, was all a load of rubbish. Tesco has won the supermarket wars, or has it? Amazon??

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